Reception Honors Graduates And Outstanding Seniors

June 9th marked a farewell and new beginning for McMicken graduates who were honored at a reception in the Great Hall. Families, faculty, and staff were on hand to celebrate with live music and hors d’oeuvres.

Assistant dean Jeanette Songer described June as “an exciting time for graduates who have worked hard and earned their degrees, so the college felt it was only fitting that we show them how proud we are of their achievements.”

Four students and one faculty member received special recognition at the event. James Mack, assistant professor of chemistry, was given the Carl Mills Memorial Award for Outstanding Student Relations. The honor is presented in memory of the late Carl Mills, who devoted much of his career as an English professor to furthering the interests of students.

The McKibbin Medal and Eleanor Hicks Award for outstanding senior male and female students went to Amit Zachariah and Stephanie Peters. McKibbin Medalist Zachariah was a biology major who had the highest GPA in the graduating class. Peters, winner of the Eleanor Hicks Award, had a double major in biology and psychology and graduated with Latin honors in both. Peters and Zachariah were recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Both plan to enter UC’s College of Medicine in the fall.

Jennifer Glaubius was honored with the Outstanding Master’s Student Award. She received her BA from the University of Nebraska in anthropology and classics and enrolled in McMicken’s classics program in 2002. Jack Davis, professor of classics, noted that her MA thesis was “one of the finest ever composed in the department of classics at UC.” The work is titled “The Venetian Period in Vostizza, Greece, 1685-1715: A GIS Analysis.” Davis added, “The information she presented in her thesis should be published and will be of significance to all economic historians of early modern Turkey and Venice.”

The department of physics nominated Theja de Silva for the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award. De Silva’s BS came from the University of Ruhuna in Sri Lanka and his MS from UC. Portions of his thesis topic, “Spin-Orbital Physics in Transition Metal Oxides,” have already been published as three separate articles, and he and his advisors, Michael Ma and Fuchun Zhang, have been invited to speak at national and international colloquia, conferences, and seminars. De Silva received his PhD in August 2004 and currently holds a postdoctoral appointment in physics at Cornell University.

The celebration continued June 10th as proud families watched deserving McMicken seniors participate in UC’s 186th graduation ceremony. “I’ve been to almost every one of these since coming to UC, and they never cease to touch me and make aware of the fine students we turn out,” said Richard Friedman, senior assistant dean and director of alumni relations.