Deborah Uller

Deborah Uller

Name: Deborah Uller
Class: senior
Major: art studio
Hometown: Northampton, Massachusetts

Scholarships: 

  • Gaynor W. Richards Frances Perkins Scholarship Fund
  • Frederick H. Cramer Memorial Fund
“I could never have come to this college without funding from the Frances Perkins Program.”

“Mount Holyoke has helped me become even more self-directed. I’ve grown so much intellectually. I’m communicating with my professors, my classmates. I’m exposed to so much — visiting artists, visiting writers. I’m exposed to what’s going on in the world. I’ve become even more curious, even more active.”  

A Frances Perkins Scholar and studio art major, Deborah Uller says Mount Holyoke has changed her life. “I couldn’t have imagined that I would be able to do an internship, fulfill my dream of becoming an art major and finish my bachelor’s degree.” Uller is exploring every aspect of art that she can, from narrative painting to abstraction and surrealism. She loved the class Papermaking with Local Plants. She learned to weld in a sculpture class.

The Frances Perkins Program is open to and designed for candidates 25 years and older who have experienced an interruption in their education. Each year approximately 90 students are enrolled at Mount Holyoke as FP scholars.

After participating in a summer internship where she created art and art therapy activities for developmentally challenged orphans in Chennai, India, she is determined to continue in this field.

She has used her skills on campus as well, offering vision board workshops for students through the Career Development Center. “It fits in with what I like and want to do, and it brings a lot of meaning to my life. I can see how I function in the world and how I can contribute.”