IU Bloomington Honors Convocation to recognize outstanding students
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Bloomington will recognize students for outstanding achievement Sunday during the 2014 Founders Day Honors Convocation, an annual celebration of academic excellence focusing on student accomplishments.
Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel will preside over the ceremony, which starts at 2 p.m. at the IU Auditorium.
More than 40 students will be recognized for receiving university awards for scholarship, leadership and service and for earning national scholarships and awards. Also honored will be approximately 3,300 Founders Scholars, who have earned a cumulative grade-point average of 3.8 or higher.
Herman B Wells Senior Recognition Award
Christopher Allen Kauffman, majoring in accounting and finance in the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and Rahaf Safi, majoring in political science and philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, will receive the Herman B Wells Senior Recognition Award. Established in 1962 and named for the university's 11th president and, later, university chancellor, the award recognizes excellence in academic growth, achievement and leadership.
Elvis J. Stahr Distinguished Senior Awards
Recipients of the award are Michael Auslen, majoring in journalism and political science; David Bloom, Jewish studies, religious studies and French; Andrew McLaren, Near Eastern languages and cultures; Rishi Sethia, biology and neuroscience; and Alexander Wilson, history. The awards, presented this year for the 49th time, were established by Elvis J. Stahr, 12th president of Indiana University, and are based on scholarship, leadership, personality and service.
Provost's Awards for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity
Five students received the award, which recognizes outstanding undergraduate achievement and originality. It also recognizes the faculty members who served as mentors.
Student award recipients and their projects are: Madeline Dinges, “Fiscal Analysis for Lake County, Indiana”; Christian Rochford Hayes, “Radial Velocities of Three Poorly Studied Clusters and the Kinematics of Open Clusters”; Thomas Michael Ladendorf, “‘Champions of Ignorance’: The Persistence of Conservative Hostility to Education, 1700-1870”; William Frederick Rowe, “Compositions ‘Secessionist Subjects’ and ‘The House on the Street’”; and Allison Brooke Yates, “Pragmatic Variation in Service Encounters in Argentine Spanish.”
Kate Hevner Mueller Outstanding Senior Awards
The Mueller Awards recognize students who have left the campus better than they found it by helping other students learn more about themselves, each other and the world outside the classroom.
Recipients and their majors are: Paige Boyer, public health; Roopsi Bring, biology; Laura Douglas, political science; Kristin Froehle, economic consulting and public policy analysis; Tierra Griffin, marketing; Cameron Hammel, history; Claire Houterman, Spanish and biology; Alyssa Kelly, political science and international studies; Courtney Litchfield, secondary social studies education; Andrew Litwiller, accounting and international business; Najja Marshall, physics and mathematics; Lauren McKinney, speech and hearing sciences; Blakely Meyer, psychology and English/creative writing; Rustie Mills, political science; Adam Nichols, chemistry; Aaron Olson, public and nonprofit management; Maria Grace Ortuzar, economic and political science; Kelsey Pepmeier, apparel merchandising and Italian; Matthew Reisdorf, informatics; Danielle Vetter, nonprofit management; Matthew Wilkinson, economics and political science; and Sasha Zawadsky-Weist, psychology and Spanish.
Students who will be recognized for winning competitive national awards and scholarships, along with their majors, include:
Beinecke Brothers Scholarship -- Nathaniel Aaron Sims, majoring in linguistics and East Asian languages and cultures
Boren Scholarship -- Taylor Lynn Webster, majoring in East Asian languages and cultures and economics
2013 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship -- Benjamin Allan Seitzman, majoring in mathematics and neuroscience; and Jordan Matthew Venderley, majoring in chemistry and mathematics
Truman Scholarship -- Rahaf Safi, majoring in political science and philosophy
Hearst Journalism Award -- Katherine Elizabeth Mettler, majoring in journalism
Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition -- Michael Joseph Majchrowicz, majoring in journalism
National Retail Foundation Next Generation Scholarship -- Carlie A. Jensen, majoring in apparel merchandising
The IU Bloomington Honors Convocation is a formal ceremony that includes addresses by the IU provost and a distinguished student. This year's student speaker is Rahaf Safi, a senior from Plainfield, Ind. Deans and other representatives of the schools greet students at a reception after the ceremony. The event can be viewed live or archived at broadcast.iu.edu. The Twitter hashtag is #iubhoncon14.
