Women's College Coalition

An aspiring comedian, Ellie McElvain ’14 applied for the 5C improv comedy group Without a Box as first-year – and didn’t make the cut. But don’t worry, this story has a happy (and funny) ending.

“It was fine,” she says. “Nothing could have been better than not getting in, because it forced me to find another avenue to perform comedy.”

VJ Thomas had always been drawn to the Middle East.

So when it came time to choose a junior year internship, she looked towards the United Arab Emirates.

With the help of the Penny Fox Internship Fellowship, Thomas, a fashion major, was able to travel to the city of Sharjah, near Dubai, for the summer and work as an intern for Aiisha Ramadan, a local designer.

On April 10, her dream came true. Mullin, a junior at the College of Saint Benedict, is one of 62 students from 54 U.S. colleges and universities to be named a 2013 Truman Scholar. The list of scholars was announced in Washington, D.C., by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, president of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.