Arts and Sciences Students Recognized for Outstanding Academic Achievements

University of Cincinnati McMicken College of Arts and Sciences students were recognized at the McMicken Alumni Celebration on April 11 for their outstanding academic achievements. 

Benedetta Khoury was awarded the Eleanor Hicks Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Female Senior. It has been awarded every year since 1974 to an outstanding female senior graduating from the college. 

Eleanor Hicks graduated Phi Beta Kappa from University of Cincinnati in 1965. While at UC she served on the President’s Advisory Committee on Intergroup Communications, the NAACP Youth Council and the Cincinnati Council on World Affairs. 

Benedetta Khoury will graduate this month with a bachelor of arts in international affairs, a minor in Spanish and a certificate in international human rights. While at UC, Khoury served as a peer leader for the Center for First Year Experience and an academic coach for the Learning Assistance Center. She plans to attend graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh to pursue a master’s of education in higher education management and hopes to pursue a career in student services. Khoury is from Warren, Ohio, where she attended Warren G. Harding High School. 

Matthew Woodruff was awarded the Robert Patterson McKibbin Medal for Outstanding Undergraduate Male Senior. 

The Robert Patterson McKibbin Memorial Prize was created in 1911 in memory of Reverend Robert William McKibbin’s son, Robert McKibbin, who died in 1910. The medal is meant to be given to the member of the senior class who has best kept before him the high ideals of manhood. Reverend Robert William McKibbin was president of Cincinnati’s Lane Theological Seminary. 

Matthew Woodruff is a double major in Arabic language and culture and history. During his UC career, he has participated in several study-abroad programs to support his Arabic studies including an intensive Arabic language program in Morocco and a summer program in Jordan. He is also a Taft Research Fellow in history, through which he conducted a yearlong research project on the social impacts of World War I on the residents of Jerusalem. Woodruff is from Findlay, Ohio, where he attended Liberty Benton High School.

The Outstanding Master’s Student Award was presented to Rachael Shockey. 

Shockey received her bachelor of arts in English writing from Marist College in 2012 and will be awarded her master's of arts in women’s, gender and sexuality studies this month. She was commended by her thesis chair, Erynn Masi De Casanova, for her research into the experiences of cheerleaders. Shocker also serves as president of the women’s, gender and sexuality studies student organization. 

Natalie Abell was awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award. 

Abell received her bachelor of arts in Classics from Indiana University in 2003 and her master's in Classics from UC in 2008. She will receive her doctoral in Classics from McMicken this month. Abell was awarded Fulbright in 2009 in support of her doctoral research, and the Archaeological Institute of America recognized her in 2011 for the best paper delivered by a graduate student at its annual meeting.