On Feb. 15, Princeton University announced the 2024 recipients of the Sachs scholarship. Alice McGuinness ’24, a senior in the history department, received the David M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship, which enables recipients to study at Worcester College at the University of Oxford for two years. Nathalie Verlinde ’24, a senior in the molecular biology department, was awarded the Sachs Global Scholarship, which allows recipients to study at any foreign university or to pursue an independent program of study.
According to the Princeton Office of International Programs, the Sachs scholarship was created with the intention “to enlarge each recipient’s experience of the world by providing two Princeton seniors with the opportunity to study, work, or travel abroad after graduation.”
McGuinness, who is from Milwaukee, Wis., serves as an RCA at Yeh College and is earning certificates in South Asian studies and gender and sexuality studies at Princeton. At Worcester College in the University of Oxford, she will be pursuing two master’s degrees: South Asian studies and forced migration and refugee studies. McGuinness is also a former co-chair of Peer Representatives, a student organization that aims to guide students accused of honor code violations and disciplinary infractions through the stresses of the investigation process.
Verlinde, of Princeton, N.J., plans to use her Global Scholarship to research Parkinson’s disease at NeuroRestore in Lausanne, Switzerland. At Princeton, she is receiving certificates in neuroscience, applications of computing, and engineering biology, and is on the varsity women’s lightweight rowing team. Verlinde is a former head Copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.
In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Verlinde explained that she was first introduced to neuroscience during her sophomore year at Princeton. “It’s super cool that you can ask questions about how people see the world and how they move. There’s a whole world of things to explore.”
Outside of academics and research, Verlinde works with the Special Olympics program with her rowing team to teach people with neurological disorders how to row. She also tutors low-income students and students with learning disabilities.
Verlinde didn’t see a way to bring her passions for research and service together until she applied for the Sachs scholarship.
She shared that the scholarship is a chance for her to understand “how people act in the world, and how we go from thinking about something we want to do to physically doing it” and to talk to patients with paralysis and Parkinson’s disease to see how she “can support them and hear their stories and connect with them and interact more with the personal side of how research can impact people's lives.”
McGuinness’s senior thesis focuses on women and children in colonial prisons in Bengal, India. She first became interested in the topic in the summer of 2021, when she studied Bangla virtually.
“The next summer I really wanted to have an immersive learning experience. I got funding from the South Asian studies program to study at the same institute in-person, and since I was in Calcutta, I decided to start looking around in the archives, which was a really meaningful experience,” she said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’
“I hope to continue to work on similar topics, but with the degrees I propose to do, I hope to have a more contemporary focus. I also hope to study migration and forced migration in an academic context, which is something that I’ve been committed to outside of the classroom,” she added.
Both McGuinness and Verlinde expressed their gratitude for the support they received from their mentors throughout the selection process.
“I was in total shock to find out. I was really surprised and overjoyed, and I felt, and still feel, a really strong sense of gratitude toward my professors, especially in the history department, my thesis advisor, my zees, and my friends,” McGuinness said.
Verlinde told the ‘Prince,’ “I wouldn’t be able to do this fellowship without their letters of recommendation, their support, and their advice. I have been really lucky to have people across the board be so supportive.”
Olivia Sanchez is an associate News editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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