Student achievement recognized at annual honors convocation

More than 300 students were recognized with academic and departmental awards or inducted into national honor societies during Wittenberg University’s Honors Convocation, April 14 in Weaver Chapel.

The convocation annually recognizes outstanding achievement. In addition, the top students were recognized based upon their scholarship, community service and leadership.

Brianne Veit, a junior from West Chester, Ohio, was named Alma Mater, which is elected by students, faculty and staff on the basis of character and integrity, service to community, concern for others and high standards of scholarship.

Stacy Shupe, a senior from Houston, Texas, received the Heimtraut Dietrich Award, which was established in 1981 to recognize the student who best emulates the spirit of the late associate dean of students’ devotion to Wittenberg through faith and service.

The M. Alice Geiger Award was presented to Karin Porada of Tiffin, Ohio.

The award recognizes the first woman graduate of Wittenberg and honors a senior woman for specific, outstanding contributions to the area of the performing or literary arts, athletics, extracurricular leadership, new programming, special academic pursuit or special presentation.

The John F. Mitchell Award, honoring the senior man who best represents the liberal arts tradition at Wittenberg, was presented to Scott Maurer of Niles, Mich.

The award goes to those who are good students and positive forces in academic, cultural and social aspects of the campus.

Aisha Hall of Gary, Ind., and Reggie Pace of Columbus, Ohio, were the recipients of the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for positive examples to members of the African-American community and to the university.

The Broadwell Chinn Award, named for one of the first African-American students to attend Wittenberg in the late 1870s, was presented to Teressa Wilkes of Fairborn, Ohio, for holding the highest grade point average among African-American juniors.

The Omicron Delta Kappa Award for outstanding teaching by a professor who has been on the faculty five years or less was presented to Cynthia Richards, assistant professor of English and director of the writing program.

She is a native of Louisville, Ky., and a graduate of Brown University, and she earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. from New York University. Richards joined the Wittenberg faculty in 1996.

Also during the convocation, which was held with faculty in full academic regalia, new members were inducted into Ivy Ring, Pick and Pen, Alpha Lambda Delta, Phi Eta Sigma, Mortar Board, Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies. Departmental award and national award recipients were also honored.