As the first recipient of the $1,000 Jane Higdon Scholarship, senior AlexAnn Westlake earned support for her research on birthing choices in Chile.
It’s hard to imagine that the UO Center for the Study of Women in Society could have found a more appropriate recipient of the first Jane Higdon Senior Thesis Scholarship than Alex Ann Westlake.
After Higdon was killed in a bicycle accident on May 31, 2006, at the age of 47, her husband, Dr. Tom Jefferson, and friends established a memorial endowment with The Oregon Community Foundation. One of the purposes of the endowment is to provide “scholarships and grants to encourage and empower girls and young women to pursue healthy and active lifestyles and academic excellence.”
The Higdon scholarship provides $1,000 each year to a UO senior working on a thesis related to women or gender. The scholarship recipients are selected by CSWS.
Westlake, who grew up in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, fulfills both the academic excellence and health and active lifestyle criteria of Higdon’s endowment with flying colors. “I feel honored because the scholarship is in memory of Jane Higdon, who was an academic and a triathlete just like me,” said Westlake.
Westlake shares many of Higdon’s interests. Higdon—who worked as a researcher at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University—had a nursing degree, a master’s degree in exercise physiology, and a doctorate in nutrition. She created the institute’s Micronutrient Information Center, a source for scientifically accurate information regarding the roles of vitamins, minerals, other nutrients, plant chemicals, and foods in preventing disease and promoting health. Westlake, a senior in the UO Robert D. Clark Honors College, plans to obtain a nursing degree and a master’s degree in midwifery after graduation.
An avid bicyclist nicknamed “Queen of the Mountain” because of her tenacity and speed on hills, Higdon was an ardent triathlete. She participated in seven international and two Hawaii Ironman World Championships. Westlake has completed six triathlons and a half-Ironman.
Westlake says the Higdon scholarship will be a great help in completing her thesis comparing birth experiences of women receiving care in private and public health services in Valdivia, Chile. She spent six months in Chile, half of it interviewing midwives and mothers of newborns and observing them during admissions, labor, delivery, and postpartum care.
“In the public hospital, I got to talk to moms a lot and really interact with them during labor and postpartum,” says Westlake, a Spanish major. “I kept them company and just offered a hand to hold if they were in pain.”
Westlake hopes that her research findings will lead to additional studies of birth experiences in Chile.
Westlake says Higdon’s accomplishments in her work and competitive sports were “amazing and inspirational.” She hopes to carry on Higdon’s legacy to make people’s lives better and challenge herself to achieve her goals.
To support the Jane Higdon Memorial Fund, call The Oregon Community Foundation’s Eugene office at 541-431-7099 or e-mail Jennifer Durand. A portion of the proceeds from the pasta feed held during the May 2 Eugene Marathon went to the fund.
Honorable Mention
CSWS awarded honorable mention to Jennifer Bradshaw for her thesis project, “Investigating the Gendered Experiences of Refugees in South Africa.” A sociology student, Jennifer received a $250 award jointly funded by CSWS and the sociology department.
— by Ann Mack, Director, UO Development Communications
Editor’s Note: This story is reprinted from Oregon Outlook, Spring 2010.