3 minute read
From the Dean's Desk
Honors keep rolling
After celebrating 50 years of Honors at MTSU, “the beat goes on,” the college continues to serve, and our students continue to soar.
This year, all four of MTSU’s most prestigious awards went to Honors students. Ross Sibley, a Biochemistry major, won the President’s Award; Sydney Robbins, a Forensic Science major, earned the Provost’s Award; Sarah Kamaridinova, a Biology/Pre-Dental student, received the Robert C. LaLance Jr. Award; and Brian Maxwell, a Video and Film Production major, won the Community Service Award. Maxwell and Elliot Certain, a Social Work student, also won the statewide Harold Love Community Service Award.
Our students continue to soar.
Brittany Johnson, a Global Studies and Spanish graduate who has been serving as a Fulbright Scholar in Spain for the last two years, became the first MTSU student and one of only 25 U.S. and 90 worldwide applicants to be named a Gates Cambridge Scholar and will pursue her graduate study in Great Britain.
Ariel Nicastro, a Physics major who studied at Oak Ridge over the summer, was named a Goldwater Scholar, and Rachel Booher, an English and Japanese major, became the first student to win a $20,000 Marcus L. Urann Fellowship from the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. The MTSU chapter further awarded its first scholarship of $1,000 to Maxwell to continue his graduate education in MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, and Ethan Estes received a PKP study abroad scholarship.
Victoria Grigsby recently participated in a program studying the Mississippi Delta and studied over the summer in Germany as a Gilman Scholar. Other MTSU students who received Gilman Scholarships to study abroad over the summer include Solyana Asefa, Mairiam Ibrahim, Jessica Stites, and Grace Young-ah Sandidge. Jake Salter spent the summer as a Fulbright intern in Canada.
Several students in the sciences participated in Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) at other universities across the country over the summer. They include Carlos Aldana Lira, Elijah Adkins, Lula Baldriche, Thomas Freeman, Isabel Jacober, Brian Matthews, Skye Neal, and Dara Zwemer. Recent MTSU graduates Jayme Frazee, Brionna Harbach, William Birdwell, and Coby Taylor are joining those who are already teaching in Japan as part of the JET Program. Rebecca Clippard, a previous JET recipient, has been awarded a MEXT Research Scholarship to pursue a graduate degree in Japan. Rachelle Laurel received the Bridging Scholarship for Japan to teach overseas.
Many other recent graduates are headed directly to graduate and professional schools. Samuel Apigian was awarded a DAAD RISE fellowship to study in Germany over the summer, and Laura Clippard, who heads our Undergraduate Fellowship Office, recently participated in a trip to Germany sponsored by the DAAD scholarship program.
We regularly post stories about our students that are increasingly being picked up by local media. Both because of our success with these media, and rising print costs, we will be issuing Areté only once a year. We hope that you are also following the two online issues of our literary magazine, Collage, that we post each year. Copies of our amply illustrated book, Celebrating 50 Years of the Honors College, remain on sale for $35 in the MTSU bookstore.
Please keep in touch as we begin our next 50 years!
John R. Vile Dean, Honors College
