Asura Louise Osborne, who graduated in May 2018 with a minor in Italian, is a recipient of the Dante Society of America Prize for an undergraduate essay.

She wrote her essay during the 2017-18 academic year for Italian 413, taught by Dr. Corey Flack. 

Osborne is one of only three winners in the competition for the 2018 calendar year. Since 1887 The Dante Society of America has presented annual prizes for the best student essays on a subject related to the life or works of Dante Alighieri.

Elenora Stoppino, Professor of French and Italian, commented, “Congratulations to Asura! We are very proud of the continuing tradition of strong Dante scholarship at Illinois.”

Osborne graduated a year early from the U of I with a degree in clinical psychology and her minor in Italian. She is currently working in Chicago as a Behavioral Health Counselor for adults with severe eating disorders.

“I did a semester of independent research with Professor Stoppino last year on the mental health system in Italy to combine my interests in psychology with those in Italian, and I'm hoping to continue my research work in graduate school next year,” she said.

Osborne explained that the Eating Recovery Center had an outreach program at UIUC last spring and she became interested in working with them, but I didn't have any specific experience working with people with eating disorders.

Quote: “I love my job: I'm really enjoying the experience of so much hands-on clinical work straight out of undergrad, and although it’s technically 'working with eating disorders' its more so working with trauma, which is what I want to do long term.”