Perseverance, dedication, classmate and faculty support systems, and lots of hard work provided the academic pathway to success for nearly 100 students recognized at the 2022 Honors and Awards Ceremony for their distinguished academic achievements, extracurricular activities and showing promise in their engineering and science career fields.

Medals were presented to the following students for having the top grade-point averages in their respective graduating classes following the 2020-21 academic year, based upon the highest number of graded course hours on campus: Biochemistry student Colin Beach, the Carl Wischmeyer Award as the top junior; civil engineering student Julia McGuire, the Paul N. Bogart Prize as the top sophomore; and computer science student Adithyra Ramji, the Heminway Bronze Medal as top first-year student.

“Asking and then getting help from chemistry professors when needed was a key factor to my success, because nothing comes easy here. Professors were always helpful and supportive,” said Beach, who is taking his skills to a doctorate degree program in medical research, starting this fall at Indiana University’s School of Medicine in Indianapolis. “Through classroom and research experiences, Rose-Hulman has prepared me well for the next step. I can’t wait to get started.”

Juniors named Carl Wischmeyer Scholars were Abi Clayton, Michael Hall, Thomas Hoevener, Brendan King, Taryn Perry, Cory Snyder, and Danielle Villa.

As members of the women’s cross country and track teams Clayton, Perry and Villa would frequently take runs to get relief from the daily pressures of classes, laboratories and tests.

“All students need a break from the daily grind. Fortunately, we found each other to form a strong support group,” said Clayton, a 2022 biomedical engineering graduate with a minor in data science.

Villa, a 2022 graduate with majors in software engineering, computer science and mathematics (along with a minor in Spanish), added, “If one of us was having a bad day, we’d meet up and say, ‘Let’s go for a run.’ Usually by the end of the run or practice, we had forgotten whatever our troubles had been or worked things out together.” 

Clayton is now working at Boston Scientific while Perry, a 2022 graduate in chemical engineering and computational science, is with Epic, and Villa is preparing to start graduate school this fall at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Meanwhile, Hall, a mechanical engineering graduate, will continue his academic horizons at the University of Michigan and Hoevener, a mathematics and software engineering alumnus, is going to University of Illinois, while King, an electrical engineering and mathematics graduate, is working with AMERGINT Technologies. Cory Snyder earned a degree in computer engineering. 

Sophomores receiving Paul N. Bogart Scholar recognition were Willie Bowman, Cody Brelage, Ryan Foster, Zili He, Tori Kinnamon, Jason Su, and Cehong Wang.

Earning Heminway Scholar awards were first-year students Jacob Ashworth, Ayden Ayres, Blake Baker, Christian Buck, William Chong, Nathan Dalton, Olivia Davis, Ella Dorfmueller, Dylan Dorman, Michael Fraczek, Casper Freeze, Zack Gault, William Hawkins, Nathan Hurtig, Arjent Imeri, Peter Jacob, Andrew Kosikowski, Will Lawton, Brighton Lee, Yingeng Liu, Kiana Martin, Peyton D. Miller, Tracy Orgera, Andrew Pascente, Nathan Quets, Grant Ripperda, Andrew Shaw, Alex Sloan, Hannah Snider, Grayson Snyder, Michael Thede, Sam Walsh, Helen Wang, Liam Waterbury, Lydia West, Josh Wilmerding, and Kate Wood.

This year’s academic departmental honorees were:

Biology and Biomedical Engineering

John M. Beals Outstanding Graduating Biology Student Award: Zhenrui (Fergison) Zhang

Samuel F. Hulbert Outstanding Graduating Biomedical Engineering Student Award: Michael Stevens

Chemical Engineering

Elanco Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering (outstanding junior): Emma Goodman

Endress+Hauser Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering: Christopher Pirner

Sam C. Hite Award (graduating senior with greatest promise for career success): Lauren Copland

Chemistry and Biochemistry

John White Award in Chemistry (outstanding senior): Vincent James and Claire Mihalko

William Albert Noyes, Sr. Award in Chemistry: Colin Beach

Civil and Environmental Engineering

American Society of Civil Engineers Alumni Award (outstanding graduating chapter member): Samantha Nystrom

Morris L. Cleverley Award (commendable graduating senior): James Poinsette

Shelton Hannig Award (outstanding graduating senior): Luke Greenwood

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Pearson Education Award (outstanding graduating senior): Danielle Villa

Frank Young Outstanding Service Award: Andrea Wynn

Frank Young Outstanding Scholarship Award: Eric Chen

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Outstanding Electrical Engineering Graduating Senior: Brendan King

Outstanding Computer Engineering Graduating Senior: Matthew Callahan

IEEE Outstanding Student Award: Valerie Paiz and James Werne

Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts

Research and Analysis Essay Award: Tretter Lyons, Vineet Ranade, George Ritter, and Carl Yan

Interpretation of Texts and Cultures Essay Award: Lexie Crawford

Rhetoric and Composition Essay Award: Gwynneth Menzie

Outstanding Senior Economics Major Award: Joshua Bressman and Vy Luan

Elmer and Deanna Guerri Award in Anthropology: Brie Bell, Arudrra Krishnan, Connor Schulte, and Audrey Walters

Mathematics

Clarence P. Sousley Award (outstanding graduating senior): Reed Phillips

Henry Turner Ebby Award (applications of mathematics): Jayden Foshee and Shengjun Guan

Theodore Paine Palmer Award (top first-year mathematics student): Ben Lyons and Clara Place

Mechanical Engineering

Senior Leadership Award: Ben Warrick

The Cummins Inc. Award (outstanding graduating senior): Michael Hall

Edward A. MacLean Award (top mechanics student): Ethan Jones

Military Science

Captain “Sarge” Kearns Award (outstanding graduating Army ROTC cadet): Evan Baker

CPT W.D. Weidlein Volunteer Leadership Award: Drew Gearhart

Physics and Optical Engineering

Jean M. Bennett Award (outstanding graduating optical engineering senior): Margaret Luffman

John W. Rhee Memorial Award (outstanding graduating physics senior): Nathalie Grier

Outstanding Senior Engineering Physics Award: Jiaqi Shen

Special Awards

Samuel F. Hulbert Outstanding Teacher Award: Richard Perry, Greenwood (Indiana) Community High School

Outstanding Mentor Award: Beth Levan, Wilson High School, Reading, Pennsylvania