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Junior Christine Bender (Gibsonia, Pa.) has been awarded a $1,500 scholarship from the Pittsburgh Panhellenic Council for her outstanding academic achievements and involvement in campus activities.
She has played an active role in volunteer programs sponsored by the Landis Community Outreach Center.
“I began to volunteer during the pre-orientation camp as a first-year student,” says Bender, a double major in neuroscience and economics & business. “This was great because I got acclimated with the campus earlier than most students and had a great time volunteering.”
Bender’s dedication to the community has only grown stronger during her three years at Lafayette. As a team leader at the Outreach Center, she oversees seven community renewal programs that help combat poverty. She also coordinates the Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter initiative, in which students meet and play games with residents. She is working with Marie Apgar, the shelter’s director, to develop a “life-skill” program for the group.
Bender has managed several other volunteer projects, including Habitat for Humanity and Hunger and Homelessness Week programs. For her service, she was selected as Landis’ OxFam Change Leader delegate. Bender met with more than 90 students from around the country to learn about service projects on other campuses at the conference.
“Community service has taught me so much,” she says. “Every new person you meet presents a learning opportunity, and I have grown from each experience. I am always amazed by the fact that these people have gone through so many horrible experiences. Yet, they feel so blessed with the little they have. They have become my heroes.”
Bender says the highlight of her academic experience at Lafayette has been working with professors.
“All my science labs have been hands-on, and I get a lot of personal attention,” she explains. “The professors have been very accommodating. When I’m interested in material that is not directly related to class, they go out of their way to point me in the right direction.”
“Without the small class setting, I don’t feel I would have had these opportunities.”
Bender selected neuroscience as her major because “it is an exciting field in which scientists are learning new things every day.”
“I am interested in learning why people behave the way they do,” she continues. “My major allows me to accomplish this.”
Bender explains that her second major, economics and business, will be an asset when she begins her job search.
“The professors are the greatest strength of both departments,” says Bender. “They are all very knowledgeable and personable and make class fun. Oechsle Hall is a state-of-the-art facility that provides access to some technology that students at larger universities do not have.”
A Trustee Scholar, Bender traveled to Germany and Czech Republic with 25 other Lafayette students during the January interim session to take a course, The Open Wall and the New Europe: Berlin, Prague, and Munich.
President of Panhellenic Council, Bender is a resident assistant and member of Alpha Phi sorority. She served as co-captain of the Lafayette AIDS Walk team, which raised more than $1,500 for the AIDS Fund. She has participated in rugby, club volleyball, and Alternative School Break.
A National Leader in Undergraduate Research. Pepper Prize recipient Christine Bender ’04 presented research on the homeless with guidance by Susan Averett, professor of economics and business, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.