Alumna playwright Gloria Oladipo ’21 has been named the winner of the 2024 Thom Thomas Award from the Dramatists Guild Foundation.

The $10,000 Thom Thomas award is given to an alumnus of the Dramatist Guild’s Fellows program who shows “great artistic skill.”

Oladipo, who grew up in Chicago but now lives in New York City, said she’s been interested in theatre and culture since she was a child. She had the chance to dive deeply into the industry in high school, where she was part of the Steppenwolf Theatre’s Young Adult Council, a program where students gather weekly to learn the inner workings of professional arts organizations.

“We met with artistic directors and playwrights. It was a real education for me,” Oladipo said, adding that she was also chosen to attend a playwriting festival at the Curious Theatre Company in Denver as a high school student.

At Cornell, Oladipo majored in government and had an English minor in the College of Arts & Sciences, but she took plenty of classes in performing and media arts and was very involved at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

Read the full story on The College of Arts & Sciences website.