Dedication, Support Systems & Hard Work Help Students Achieve Academic Success
This year鈥檚 Honors and Awards Ceremony recognized students from all academic departments for their scholarly achievements, character, attitude, extracurricular activities, and potential for professional success.
Perseverance, dedication, classmate and faculty support systems, and lots of hard work provided the academic pathway to success for nearly 100 students recognized at the 2022 Honors and Awards Ceremony for their distinguished academic achievements, extracurricular activities and showing promise in their engineering and science career fields.
Medals were presented to the following students for having the top grade-point averages in their respective graduating classes following the 2020-21 academic year, based upon the highest number of graded course hours on campus: Biochemistry student Colin Beach, the Carl Wischmeyer Award as the top junior; civil engineering student Julia McGuire, the Paul N. Bogart Prize as the top sophomore; and computer science student Adithyra Ramji, the Heminway Bronze Medal as top first-year student.
“Asking and then getting help from chemistry professors when needed was a key factor to my success, because nothing comes easy here. Professors were always helpful and supportive,” said Beach, who is taking his skills to a doctorate degree program in medical research, starting this fall at Indiana University’s School of Medicine in Indianapolis. “Through classroom and research experiences, Rose-Hulman has prepared me well for the next step. I can’t wait to get started.”
Juniors named Carl Wischmeyer Scholars were Abi Clayton, Michael Hall, Thomas Hoevener, Brendan King, Taryn Perry, Cory Snyder, and Danielle Villa.
As members of the women’s cross country and track teams Clayton, Perry and Villa would frequently take runs to get relief from the daily pressures of classes, laboratories and tests.
“All students need a break from the daily grind. Fortunately, we found each other to form a strong support group,” said Clayton, a 2022 biomedical engineering graduate with a minor in data science.
Villa, a 2022 graduate with majors in software engineering, computer science and mathematics (along with a minor in Spanish), added, “If one of us was having a bad day, we’d meet up and say, ‘Let’s go for a run.’ Usually by the end of the run or practice, we had forgotten whatever our troubles had been or worked things out together.”
Clayton is now working at Boston Scientific while Perry, a 2022 graduate in chemical engineering and computational science, is with Epic, and Villa is preparing to start graduate school this fall at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Meanwhile, Hall, a mechanical engineering graduate, will continue his academic horizons at the University of Michigan and Hoevener, a mathematics and software engineering alumnus, is going to University of Illinois, while King, an electrical engineering and mathematics graduate, is working with AMERGINT Technologies. Cory Snyder earned a degree in computer engineering.
Sophomores receiving Paul N. Bogart Scholar recognition were Willie Bowman, Cody Brelage, Ryan Foster, Zili He, Tori Kinnamon, Jason Su, and Cehong Wang.
Earning Heminway Scholar awards were first-year students Jacob Ashworth, Ayden Ayres, Blake Baker, Christian Buck, William Chong, Nathan Dalton, Olivia Davis, Ella Dorfmueller, Dylan Dorman, Michael Fraczek, Casper Freeze, Zack Gault, William Hawkins, Nathan Hurtig, Arjent Imeri, Peter Jacob, Andrew Kosikowski, Will Lawton, Brighton Lee, Yingeng Liu, Kiana Martin, Peyton D. Miller, Tracy Orgera, Andrew Pascente, Nathan Quets, Grant Ripperda, Andrew Shaw, Alex Sloan, Hannah Snider, Grayson Snyder, Michael Thede, Sam Walsh, Helen Wang, Liam Waterbury, Lydia West, Josh Wilmerding, and Kate Wood.
This year’s academic departmental honorees were:
Biology and Biomedical Engineering
John M. Beals Outstanding Graduating Biology Student Award: Zhenrui (Fergison) Zhang
Samuel F. Hulbert Outstanding Graduating Biomedical Engineering Student Award: Michael Stevens
Chemical Engineering
Elanco Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering (outstanding junior): Emma Goodman
Endress+Hauser Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering: Christopher Pirner
Sam C. Hite Award (graduating senior with greatest promise for career success): Lauren Copland
Chemistry and Biochemistry
John White Award in Chemistry (outstanding senior): Vincent James and Claire Mihalko
William Albert Noyes, Sr. Award in Chemistry: Colin Beach
Civil and Environmental Engineering
American Society of Civil Engineers Alumni Award (outstanding graduating chapter member): Samantha Nystrom
Morris L. Cleverley Award (commendable graduating senior): James Poinsette
Shelton Hannig Award (outstanding graduating senior): Luke Greenwood
Computer Science and Software Engineering
Pearson Education Award (outstanding graduating senior): Danielle Villa
Frank Young Outstanding Service Award: Andrea Wynn
Frank Young Outstanding Scholarship Award: Eric Chen
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Outstanding Electrical Engineering Graduating Senior: Brendan King
Outstanding Computer Engineering Graduating Senior: Matthew Callahan
IEEE Outstanding Student Award: Valerie Paiz and James Werne
Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts
Research and Analysis Essay Award: Tretter Lyons, Vineet Ranade, George Ritter, and Carl Yan
Interpretation of Texts and Cultures Essay Award: Lexie Crawford
Rhetoric and Composition Essay Award: Gwynneth Menzie
Outstanding Senior Economics Major Award: Joshua Bressman and Vy Luan
Elmer and Deanna Guerri Award in Anthropology: Brie Bell, Arudrra Krishnan, Connor Schulte, and Audrey Walters
Mathematics
Clarence P. Sousley Award (outstanding graduating senior): Reed Phillips
Henry Turner Ebby Award (applications of mathematics): Jayden Foshee and Shengjun Guan
Theodore Paine Palmer Award (top first-year mathematics student): Ben Lyons and Clara Place
Mechanical Engineering
Senior Leadership Award: Ben Warrick
The Cummins Inc. Award (outstanding graduating senior): Michael Hall
Edward A. MacLean Award (top mechanics student): Ethan Jones
Military Science
Captain “Sarge” Kearns Award (outstanding graduating Army ROTC cadet): Evan Baker
CPT W.D. Weidlein Volunteer Leadership Award: Drew Gearhart
Physics and Optical Engineering
Jean M. Bennett Award (outstanding graduating optical engineering senior): Margaret Luffman
John W. Rhee Memorial Award (outstanding graduating physics senior): Nathalie Grier
Outstanding Senior Engineering Physics Award: Jiaqi Shen
Special Awards
Samuel F. Hulbert Outstanding Teacher Award: Richard Perry, Greenwood (Indiana) Community High School
Outstanding Mentor Award: Beth Levan, Wilson High School, Reading, Pennsylvania