Sedney named Ruggles Scholar

Gwen Sedney of Falls Church, Va., has been named Bates’ 1999 Ruggles Scholar, a fellowship awarded to a junior for academic excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.

A political science major with a concentration in international studies and a secondary concentration in Russian, Sedney will use the $1,000 fellowship to fund her senior thesis research on the politics of microcredit lending as practiced in Russia and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.

Sedney, who is fluent in Russian after studying the language at Bates for three years, spent her Short Term in Yaroslavl, Russia, at Yaroslavl State University, where she studied language, culture and politics. She also has been an intern with a local non-governmental official at Yaroslavl’s International Investment Center.

A Dana Scholar and dean’s list student, Sedney has been a member of the rugby team and plays violin in the college’s Fighting Bobcat Orchestra. She also volunteers as a Big Sister at Lewiston’s Pettengill Elementary School. The daughter of David and Diana Sedney of Falls Church, Sedney is a 1996 graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.

The Ruggles Scholars Program was established in 1995 through a generous gift from Robert T. and Francine Pare Ruggles, the parents of Anne Ruggles Parisier, M.D., Bates class of 1983. The Ruggles Scholar program recognizes exceptional undergraduate achievement and offers encouragement and incentive to further cultivate this record of merit. The inaugural Ruggles Scholar was Nancy Bullet of Auburn in the fall of 1995.

Located midway between the coast and mountains in south-central Maine, Bates is a 144-year-old undergraduate college of the liberal arts and sciences and is rated among the top 20 national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Bates offers majors in 24 academic departments and eight interdisciplinary programs and encourages independent study, research in collaboration with faculty members and participation in off-campus programs.