The American University of Paris | Alumni Affairs

This award was established by Sin-ming Shaw (a trustee of The American University of Paris, member of AUP’s second entering class, and recipient of the 2002 Distinguished Service Alumni Award) to inspire students across all disciplines to think creatively and rigorously. The award, which carries a monetary prize, is conferred each year on a graduating senior for a significant project.

Julie Leitz

The 2007 Sin-Ming Shaw Award

From among the many significant research projects from a variety of disciplines, one in particular stood out this year. The jury was impressed by the depth and quality of the research, the clarity of expression, and the authoritative use of a disciplinary voice. The research, erudition, and the clear, cogent written expression of "Bilingualism as a Lifestyle Factor: the Protective Effect of Speaking Two Languages", written by Julie Leitz, distinguished this paper above the rest.

2007 marked the tenth anniversary of the Sin-ming Shaw Award. AUP has caught up with some of the previous recipients, who have gone on to build interesting lives...

Caroline D. Laurent – 2004 winner

Impressed by the quality and depth of her remarkable examination of the fragmented Self in an essay entitled "Writing the Holocaust; the Real, the Self and Trauma", the jury was very pleased to award the Sin-Ming Shaw Prize for the class of 2004 to Caroline Laurent. Caroline D. Laurent graduated from AUP in May 2004 with a BA in Comparative Literature and History & Social Sciences. She then took a year to work and travel through Greece, Tunisia, and South Africa before returning to academics. She attended Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge (UK) and obtained her Masters Degree in European Literature and Culture in 2006. After spending a year at OECD Employment, Labor and Social Affairs Directorate in Paris, Caroline decided to pursue at PhD. In the fall of 2007, she began a PhD program in French Literature at Brown University in Providence, RI. She is still interested in the representations of the Holocaust in literature, but has also expanded her research to include other instances of trauma such as the Rwandan genocide.

Karyn K. Heavner – 1999 winner

In 1999 the jury awarded Karyn K. Heavner the Sin-ming Shaw award for “A Comparative Study of Infant Formula Marketing Strategies in the United States and India.” Karyn graduated from AUP with a BA in Corporate Communications in 1999. Since graduating from AUP, she has earned a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of South Carolina in epidemiology and a PhD in infectious disease epidemiology from the University of Albany, specializing in HIV/AIDS epidemiology. Kayrn is currently doing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta in Canada and conducting research in epidemiology methods, tobacco harm reduction, and hepatitis. She is the managing editor for an epidemiology journal, Epidemiology Perspectives and Innovations, and has contributed to many scholarly journal articles in her field.

Monica Heslington – 1997 winner

Monica Heslington was awarded the 1997 Sin-ming Shaw Award for her submission, "Reformation & Counter-Reformation Images: Rembrandt's & Rubens's Depictions of the Descent from the Cross." Monica graduated from AUP in with a BA in Art History, and after graduation she worked as an art dealer for Sotheby's and the Spanierman Gallery in New York City. In 2006, she received her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. While in law school, she interned in the New York State Banking Department's Holocaust Claims Processing Office, where she assisted in the restitution of art looted during World War II. She currently is a tax associate at Berdon LLP, a CPA and business advisory firm in New York City, and is working on her Masters of Law in Taxation at New York University. Monica intends to specialize in international income, trust, and estate planning for high-net-worth individuals.