Janet Schroeder, MFA, PHD
Program Manager, Competitive Fellowships
Janet Schroeder has been working in higher education for nearly two decades. In previous roles as a faculty member and now as a fellowship advisor, Janet is dedicated to mentoring and motivating students through complex, transformative processes. To do so, she continually coaches students on the importance of creative problem solving, critical thinking, clear and timely communication, and relationship building. To her current role in the Undergraduate Fellowship Office, Janet brings professional performance experience, BFA, MFA, and PhD degrees in the arts and humanities, and many years of experience as a faculty member at institutions such as University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of Maryland, and SUNY Brockport.
Louise Ling Edwards, MFA
Program Specialist, Undergraduate Fellowship Coordinator
Louise Ling Edwards earned her B.A. from Oberlin College as a double major in Creative Writing and Neuroscience. After graduating, she spent two years teaching English in China’s Shanxi Province through an Oberlin Shansi fellowship. She returned to Ohio in 2018 for a year as the Grants and Fellowships Coordinator at Oberlin Shansi at Oberlin College. She now holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing with a concentration in Creative Nonfiction from Ohio State and has taught courses in English as a foreign language, composition, rhetoric, and creative writing. She joined Ohio State’s Undergraduate Fellowship Office in 2022 and is passionate about helping students develop their writing skills, reflect on their experiences, and plan for their futures.
Faculty Mentor
Thomas F. McDow
Associate Professor, Department of History
Professor Thomas F. McDow is a historian of Africa and the Indian Ocean world with a strong interest in the history of global health. He joined the faculty at Ohio State in 2011. He is the author of Buying Time: Debt and Mobility in the Western Indian Ocean (2018), and, with Edward A. Alpers, A Primer for Teaching Indian Ocean History (for a series at Duke University Press; manuscript under review). McDow is currently working on a history of HIV in Tanzania. He has written about the long history of HIV and given public lectures on the global aspects of this history. In addition to his regular classes, McDow has advised undergraduate research, led study abroad trips to Tanzania, overseen a research collaborative on African scientists, and guided summer workshops on applying for Fulbright awards and other fellowships. In recent years McDow has taught graduate courses on African history, Indian Ocean history, the African history of global health, and, with historian Sarah van Beurden, a history of collecting and empire. He has advised dissertations and been on the dissertation committee of students whose projects relate to African, Islamic, South Asian, and/or health history.
Claire Sweigart, JD
Program Director, High Impact Practices
Claire Sweigart has worked in advocacy and education since graduating from The Ohio State University in 2007 with a B.S. in Environmental Education. She completed a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 2010. After a fellowship with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Claire combined her interests in education and policy at the University of Cincinnati where she served as Sustainability Coordinator. In this role, Claire worked closely with students, faculty, staff, and community partners to advance environmental and social sustainability programs and create a campus culture of engagement. Claire returned to Ohio State in 2015 as the Program Manager for the Office of Service-Learning and has served as Program Director since 2019. In 2020, the Program Director role expanded to include Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry, and in 2022, the Undergraduate Fellowship Office joined Claire’s portfolio of high impact practices. Claire’s approach is informed by experiential education and high impact practices literature. She is particularly interested in the ethics of community-engaged work as well as the power of experiential education and reflection practices to help students find purpose and meaning in their academics and life.
Office of Academic Enrichment
The Undergraduate Fellowship Office is a part of the Office of Academic Enrichment. Housed under Student Academic Excellence at The Ohio State University, the Office of Academic Enrichment promotes academic success and community engagement by collaborating with university partners to provide access to high-impact experiential learning opportunities for all Ohio State students.
