Rising seniors Katie Fullerton, Zarin Rizvi, and Isabella Delach, and rising junior Andrew Addo have been named Norton Fellows for 2023. 

The Norton Fellowships offer a select group of Loomis students the opportunity to pursue their interests and become more engaged with their local communities over the summer break. The fellowships are administered by the school’s Norton Family Center for the Common Good. 

Katie will be creating an anthology of stories from women affected by the Vietnam War. She will conduct interviews in her home city of San Francisco and compile the information into a memento for the women. 

“My mom is Vietnamese, and she immigrated to the United States during the Vietnam war,” Katie said. “I don’t know much about my own history in connection with that war, and I think that is a shared experience among my other friends that are Vietnamese. I'd like to bridge that gap, learning more about it by listening to other people.” 

Zarin will be teaching basic coding to young people from Hartford and Windsor, with a goal to help underserved students learn basic programming language. Last year she worked with some students on campus teaching coding. 

“I wanted to do something that reached beyond Loomis and thought the Norton Fellowship would be a great way to extend it to the community,” Zarin said. 

Zarin has taken a computer science class here, and her mother works in the computer science field, all of which sparked her interest. She also said the resources at Loomis have allowed her to learn more about computer science and she wants to give others who lack those resources “the ability to develop an interest and to continue that interest.”  

Isabella will help distribute welcome kits for new immigrants arriving in the city of Chicago. She also will help with English tutoring for young children through the World Relief Organization. 

“I chose my project because I wanted to be able to make a difference, especially in the immigrant community because my mother was an immigrant.,” Isabella said. “I want to interact with people, use my Spanish speaking skills to help, and I think it is important to give back to the community.” 

Andrew will be leading a beach cleanup in his hometown in Ghana, with the goal of building a local recycling program that can live on after he returns to Loomis at the end of the summer. He has spent time at his hometown beaches since he was in grammar school, and as he got older he ran those same beaches while training for soccer.  

“Wait a second,” he thought to himself. “Why are these beaches so filled with trash?” He talked with the local fishing community and heard about the decline in fish. He said he attributed it to the amount of plastic in the water. 

“So there has to be something done,” he said. “Hopefully we can clean the beaches and help the fishing community.” 

The Norton Fellowship application process starts when students return from spring break in March. Students must submit an application, two recommendations, and a project proposal (including budget needs) to the selection committee. Students are selected and awarded up to $1,000 to complete their projects over the summer. All projects connect to themes surrounding the common good.