Marissa DeSiena of Rochester, N.Y., who graduated from Fairfield University on May 20 with a degree in international studies, received the International Studies Award for Academic Excellence, given to the senior International Studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences with the highest grade point average.

DeSiena also received the Kenneth G. Phelan Memorial Book Award for excellence in the study of history. DeSiena, who is in the Honors Program and has double minors in History, Russian and Eastern European Studies, has studied abroad in the United Kingdom and Russia. She received the Phelan Award for her outstanding paper, "The British Role in the Origins of the Cold War, 1944-47."

A finalist for an International Research Exchange Board's Young Leaders Fellowship to study the history of U.S./Russian relations at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, she has also been admitted to the Ph.D., program in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations at UCLA. An active member of the Glee Club, she participated in a variety of campus drama productions and plans to be a college professor of U.S./Russian Relations.

Posted On: 06-01-2001 09:06 AM

Volume: 33 Number: 243