For as long as she can recall, Stephanie Block
'03 has been interested in the intersection of psychology and law.
That interest came into sharper focus last spring, when she did an internship
as a victim's advocate for the Rensselaer County District Attorney's office.
And it helped the psychology major and French minor win a scholarship from
the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support her senior year. The award is based on
overall excellence in academics, leadership, and service. She is one of
seventy-nine students nationwide to receive up to $30,000 annually toward the
remainder of their undergraduate education.
Block, from River Edge, N.J., said she is considering Ph.D. programs in
psychology, and eventually law school.
“Therapy works toward improving the welfare of a single individual,” she
says. “But only through the law can we ultimately change society in ways that
benefit large numbers of our fellow human beings.”
Block was a founder and coordinator of the College's chapter of ROAR (Reach
Out and Read, through the Hillel chapter), a Big Sister since freshman year to a
local nine-year-old girl, and a counselor at a sleep-away camp for children with
AIDS (Camp Compass in Highlands, N.Y.).
She is president of Psi Chi, the psychology honor society; captain of the
Union Dance Team; philanthropy chair for the Delta Delta Delta sorority; student
representative at Union's Leadership Conference; and an Ambassador and former
Gatekeeper with the Admissions Office.
She did a two-term independent study on eating disorders with Prof. Thomas
Rieg, and presented the results at the Steinmetz Symposium and a meeting of the
Eastern Psychological Association in Boston.
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is receiving more than $500 million in assets
from the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, who built a media empire and also owned the
Los Angeles Lakers and Washington Redskins.