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Outstanding Young Alumni 2009

The Outstanding Young Alumni Award is presented to up to two alumni of Stetson University who are 35 years of age or younger. The award recognizes contributions to society, to a profession, or to Stetson University. Recipients must demonstrate significant accomplishment or promise in their fields; leadership; or civic, cultural, or charitable involvement.

Sara E. Dodson '02

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A 2002 Summa Cum Laude graduate in Behavioral Neuroscience, a major she helped design, Sara Dodson earned a doctorate in Neuroscience at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., in 2008. Dodson is now a postdoctoral fellow at the J. David Gladstone Institute for Neurological Disease at the University of California, San Francisco, which is ranked by The Scientist magazine as the best place in the United States for postdoctoral fellows to work.

At Gladstone, she is studying neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Her doctoral research at Emory was described by her dissertation advisor as instrumental in clarifying a critical role for a new molecule in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s.

Dodson obtained independent funding from the National Institutes of Health for her doctoral training, has had five published articles in the most prestigious journals in neuroscience and has made numerous presentations at national conferences. She was one of only 250 researchers invited to present their doctoral research at the annual NIH graduate student research festival.

In addition to excelling in research, she has a number of impressive accomplishments outside the lab, particularly with educational outreach. While at Emory, she was president of the graduate Neuroscience Society, where she was instrumental in organizing student and faculty visits to Atlanta public schools during Brain Awareness Month. Thanks in part to her efforts, the Atlanta chapter of the Society for Neuroscience was recognized for its excellence in Brain Awareness Month participation.

 

Matthew H. Morton '06

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Matthew Morton received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Phi Beta Kappa from Stetson University in 2006. A 2008 graduate of the University of Oxford with a Master of Science in Evidence-Based Social Intervention, with Distinction, he is now a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention and Said Business School.

During his undergraduate years, he was a Bonner Scholar, a member of the Cross Country Team and the founder and director of the Campaign for Adolescent & University Student Empowerment (CAUSE), which places Stetson students in mentoring roles with disadvantaged students. He also served as advocacy coordinator for the Southeastern Network of Youth and Family Services, and was a Congressional Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. He subsequently served as the coordinator of the Bonner Scholars and Community Outreach program at Stetson.

At Oxford, his current research is focused on youth development and nonformal education in the Middle East. In March 2009, he was chosen as a regional finalist in the British Council’s International Student Awards, one of 12 students selected out of more than 1,500 students from 130 countries.

With a special interest in youth development since the age of 15, he has founded and worked with youth empowerment programs in the United States, Latin America, East Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He has served as vice chair of the National Council for Youth Policy and as a policy consultant for the European Union. He currently is working with an international team of youth leaders in launching Youth Factor, a nonprofit that forms strategic partnerships with promising youth empowerment programs around the world. An inspirational speaker, he has delivered more than 50 keynote addresses, including the White House’s first National Youth Summit.