Spoke at spring commencement to their graduating class:

• Megan Black (Murray State University), English education, outstanding senior woman
  
  
• Amanda Calleroz (University of Nebraska at Kearney), biology
  
  
• Joel Covert (Shippensburg University), school counseling (master’s degree)
  
  
• Christopher Goss (Augusta State University), music
  
  
• Whitney Taylor (Bowling Green State University), visual communications technology
  
  
• Hailey Wilson (Boise State University), health science studies

• Joel Funmilola Banjo-Johnson (East Carolina University), double major in broadcast journalism and German, the  Robert H. Wright Alumni Leadership Award, which recognizes academic achievement, service and leadership qualities
  

• Jaimie Borntrager (Kansas State University), elementary education, outstanding undergraduate student award
  

• Melinda Franklin (University of South Florida), elementary education, the King O’Neal Scholar Award from University of South Florida Polytechnic for perfect grade point average

• Diana Andreea Gliga (East Carolina University), biology major, the Robert H. Wright Alumni Leadership Award

• Marlowe Higginbotham (North Carolina State University), business administration, valedictorian

• Natalie Knight (Kansas State University), elementary education, outstanding undergraduate student award

• Jonathan McCoy (North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University), mechanical engineering, valedictorian

• Lindsey Sporrer (Clemson University), management, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for “influence for good, excellence in maintaining high ideals of living and genuine and disinterested service to others”

• Shannon Sweeney (University of Toledo), interdisciplinary studies, outstanding scholar, online learning, University of Toledo University College

• Stefanie Marie Wethington (East Carolina University), double major in communication and English, the Robert H. Wright Alumni Leadership Award

• Tom Apple (University of Delaware), Provost, University of Delaware. Promoted from Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

• Linda M. Bleicken (Georgia Southern University), President, Armstrong Atlantic State University. Immediate previous position: Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Georgia Southern University.

• Donald P. Christian (University of Montana), Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, State University of New York at New Paltz. Immediate previous position: Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

• Matthew S. Holland (Brigham Young University), President, Utah Valley University. Immediate previous position: Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University.

• Mark A. Hussey (Texas A & M University), Vice Chancellor and Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A & M University. Promoted from Interim.

• Linda Katehi (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Chancellor, University of California-Davis. Immediate previous position: Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

• Duane K. Larick (North Carolina State University), Dean of the Graduate School, North Carolina State University. Promoted from Interim.

• Wendy M. Nehring (Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville), Dean, College of Nursing, East Tennessee State University. Immediate previous position: Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Director of Graduate Programs, the College of Nursing, Rutgers University.

• Richard Pointer (Slippery Rock University), Acting Provost, Westmont College. Promoted from History Professor.

• Steven A. Scott (Pittsburg State University), President, Pittsburg State University. Promoted from Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

• Susan C. Scrimshaw (University of Illinois at Chicago), President, Sage Colleges. Promoted from Interim.

• Carly S. Nasehi (Florida State University), double major in international affairs and religion, teaching assistantship in Germany (and a Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, to prepare for a career in U.S. foreign service)

• Mike Reppert (Kansas State University), biochemistry, chemistry and math, studying single-molecule spectroscopy at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland

• Jennifer Staton (University of Alabama in Huntsville), history, teaching assistantship in Germany in English and U.S. cultural studies in middle or high school

• Stephanie Tucker (Berry College), chemistry, chemistry research on new energy sources while in France and volunteering in French high school chemistry classes

Named after Senator J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright Program was established in 1946 by Congress and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. The Fulbright Program is the largest U.S. international exchange program for students, scholars and professionals. Funding for fiscal year 2009 approaches $235 million. Approximately 7,500 Fulbright grants are awarded annually. The program operates in more than 150 countries worldwide. Roughly 294,000 people – 111,000 from the U.S. and 183,000 from elsewhere – have been Fulbrighters.

Garnered recognition from Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society:

Undergraduate scholarships:

• Ritchie A. Acosta (Lamar University), civil engineering
• Stacey L. Ahern (Kansas State University), industrial engineering
• James A. Bertin (Brigham Young University), mechanical engineering
• Evan M. Cherry (Texas A & M University), chemical engineering
• Mihail T. Cutitaru (Old Dominion University), computer engineering
• Russell M. Dibb (Brigham Young University), mechanical engineering
• Regan E. Gangel (University of Kansas), civil engineering
• R. Greyson  Geer (Texas Tech University), civil engineering and architecture
• Colin D. Gettig (Clarkson University), interdisciplinary engineering
• Daniel R. Givan (University of New Orleans), naval architecture and marine engineering
• Charles E. Hebert (University of Maryland), mechanical engineering
• Joshua A. Hill (University of Alabama in Huntsville), mechanical engineering
• Jantzen L. Hinton (Wright State University), mechanical engineering
• Lauren H. Hogan (Ohio University), electrical engineering and geology
• David W. Hunter (University of Maine), electrical engineering
• Zachary T. Jordan (Mississippi State University), computer engineering
• Carl Morris (Mississippi State University), industrial and systems engineering
• Ryan C. Morrison (University of Utah), metallurgical science
• Danica L. Nguyen (Louisiana State University), chemical engineering
• Octavio M. Oliva (Florida International University), mechanical engineering.
• Benjamin A. Schmitt (Wright State University), biomedical engineering
• Casey H. Still (Auburn University), mechanical engineering
• David J. Stipe (Oklahoma State University), electrical engineering

Graduate fellowships:

• Zachary H. Bugg (Mississippi State University), civil engineering
• Benjamin G. Freedman (University of Maine), chemical engineering
• Dane A. Grismer (North Carolina State University), chemical engineering
• Christine E. Holl (University of California, Davis), mechanical engineering
• William C. Selby (United States Naval Academy), robotics

Undergraduates: 234 awards from 428 applicants; winners receive $2,000 for senior year. The program began in 1998 and 858 awards have been granted since then. Graduates: 30 awards from 268 applicants; 17 winners received $10,000 while the others did not need aid, according to Tau Beta Pi. The program began in 1929 and 1,358 awards have been granted since then. All recipients, Tau Beta Pi members, are chosen for scholarship, leadership and potential. The honor society, with more than 500,000 initiates and upwards of 230 active chapters, was founded in 1885. 

Made USA Today’s 20th annual All-USA College Academic Team:

First team:

• Darby Driscoll (United States Naval Academy)
• Brian Goh (Louisiana State University)
• Anh Tran (University of Minnesota)
• Kelly Zahalka (United States Naval Academy)

Second team, third team and honorable mention:

• Christopher Deal (Iowa State University), second team
• William Euker (United States Naval Academy), second team
• Henry Swofford (Georgia State University), second team
• Taylor Barnes (Middle Tennessee State University), third team 
• Kimberly Jung (United States Military Academy), third team
• Kerri Phillips (West Virginia University), third team
• Shadrack White (University of Mississippi), third team
• Kathryn Huston (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), honorable mention

USA Today names 20 undergraduates to the first team and gives them a trophy and $2,500 apiece.

Became ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans as May graduates:

• Scott Rosenshein (United States Military Academy), chemical engineering, first team, at-large team, lacrosse
• Lakyn Bendle (Francis Marion University), psychology, second team, all-district III, softball
• Karin Kinnerud (Oklahoma State University), international finance, second team, all-district women’s at-large team, golf

The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) selects Academic All-America teams in 12 programs. Student-athletes must be starters or key reserves with at least a 3.30 grade point average. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has named more than 14,000 Academic All-Americans.

Earned two of eight Southern Conference postgraduate scholarships for excellence in athletics, academics and service:

• Kylie Harmon (Samford University), biology, children’s hospital visitor, softball infielder, primarily second base
• Brittany Nagel (The Citadel), political science, children’s center volunteer, golfer

• Roger “Bucky” Allen Jr. (Auburn University), longtime mathematics professor at Francis Marion University, has an endowed scholarship named after him – the Allen Mathematics Scholarship – for South Carolina math majors. He retired in 2006 after 35 years at the school and was Society chapter president 1984-‘85. Honors include department chair, distinguished professor and administrative posts in numerous math associations.

• Andrzej Bartke (Southern Illinois University-Carbondale), professor and distinguished scholar of internal medicine and physiology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, received an $8.6 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to expand his study of the factors of aging and longevity. He’s the lead researcher for a team that over a five-year project will focus on mutant strains of mice that live atypically long. This is the 15th grant Bartke, a past president of the American Aging Association, has received. The author of more than 500 articles in scientific journals has received many honors, including the 2001-‘04 Phi Kappa Phi Scholar Award.

• Dianne Ebertt Beeaff (University of Arizona) published her third book and first novel, Power’s Garden (Five Star Publications; 262 pp.; $15.95 paperback). In the historical fiction, “two families – one Texan, one Mormon – develop an embattled but gripping relationship in the Arizona desert while WWI rages abroad,” she wrote in an email. "Not long after I moved to Arizona from Canada in the late 1960s, I heard about the historical shootout in Power’s Garden and did some preliminary research. What really intrigued me about it was the clash of cultures, primarily based on religious intolerance; how people see and interpret the same event from their own perspective,” she added in press materials.

• Brian Beitzel (Colorado State University-Pueblo), Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oneonta, received a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. “I’m particularly excited to have received this after only five years of full-time teaching,” he wrote via email. He was one of two faculty members from the school to earn the statewide award. He earlier won the American Psychological Association’s Division of Educational Psychology Paul R. Pintrich Outstanding Dissertation Award.

• Ashley E. Bradham (North Carolina State University) was named the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists’ outstanding college graduate of the year. Cited for her perfect grade point average, leadership in student organizations and participation in the association, the polymer and color chemistry major received $1,000, among other prizes. The award dates to 2002; the association, to 1921.

• Brandi Brown and Sarah Beth Lee (Middle Tennessee State University) stood out as scholar-athletes at Middle Tennessee State University. Brown won the Sun Belt Female Postgraduate Scholarship for superior academic achievement as a forward on the women’s basketball team. A two-time CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honoree, she earned a degree in accounting in three years in May and averaged 11.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game last season as her Blue Raiders won the Sun Belt title. The scholar athlete is pursuing an MBA at her alma mater and will return to the team. Lee earned the Sun Belt Conference’s Female Sporting Behavior Award as a junior midfielder on the women’s soccer team. The team captain is a history major who serves as vice president of the school’s student-athlete advisory committee. She has taken mission trips and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity International.

• Francisco G. Delfin Jr. (University of South Florida) was elected president of the Geological Society of the Philippines. He is vice president at PetroEnergy Resources Corporation, a Philippine-based upstream energy company with holdings in producing oil fields in West Africa and the Philippines, and previously served as Assistant Secretary and Undersecretary at the Philippine Department of Energy.

• Lucas Desmond, Grace Mueller, Karine Odlin and Jennifer Willard (University of Southern Maine) did University of Southern Maine proud. Desmond, a May graduate in history, will present findings from a project about indigenous Mayan women and their land disputes in the inaugural edition of the Student Journal of Latin American Studies. Mueller, a May graduate in geography/anthropology and Society chapter student vice president 2008-’09, was one of 25 applicants out of 58 entrants to be accepted to the Maine NEW Leadership Conference on empowering women to become public policy leaders. Odlin, who majors in  health sciences in the honors program and is the Society chapter student vice president, was one of two to receive the school’s annual Praxis Award, founded in 2004 and worth $1,000; winners must maintain a grade point average higher than 3.4 and participate in community leadership. Willard, a May graduate in political science, wrote the Resource Manual for the Unemployed or Those Seeking a Change in Career, a comprehensive guide about state, federal and nonprofit services, while interning her senior year at the Maine Governor’s Office of Constituent Services.

• Ed Dyas (Auburn University) was one of 16 players named to the 2009 College Football Hall of Fame Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) Class. The Auburn University fullback, linebacker and kicker started as a freshman on the undefeated 1958 team and was first-team All-American in 1960. The scholar-athlete was a three-time Academic All Conference pick and won more than one citation for success in the classroom and on the field. Dyas is an orthopedic surgeon in Mobile, Ala., and head of physicians for the Senior Bowl. There were 76 nominees on the national ballot; his class includes Notre Dame wide receiver and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown. Founded in 1947, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1951; 846 players and 182 coaches have been inducted. Dyas also is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame and was given the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from his alma mater. 

• Dawn Edmiston-Strasser (University of Maryland) was one of eight honored by the YWCA of Greater Johnstown, Pa., at its 23rd annual tribute to women in May. The Assistant Professor of Management and Marketing, and director of the master of science in the health services leadership program, at Saint Vincent College won the education award. She is the first female to receive a full-time faculty appointment at the institution’s McKenna School of Business, Economics and Government. Earlier this year, she was named outstanding junior faculty member. YWCA award categories include education, arts and letters, community service, nonprofit-government, business and military service. Forty candidates were nominated by peers.

• Kyle Ensley (Oklahoma State University) was named one of the Top 10 Seniors at Oklahoma State University. The double major in political science and international business also is a recipient of a Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship to prepare for a career in U.S. foreign service. Trivia: not too long ago he made the top 50 of American Idol.

• Elliott Etheredge (University of Texas at Austin) has been appointed managing director and head of the marine transportation investment banking group of Dahlman Rose & Co., an investment bank that specializes in global energy and commodity supply chain. He has more than 15 years of experience in transportation, has worked for Bear Stearns, among other companies, and has participated in more than $55 billion in announced mergers and acquisitions.

• F. Chris Garcia (University of New Mexico), former president of University of New Mexico (2002-’03) and distinguished professor emeritus in political science, was one of four 2009 inductees into the Silver Horizons New Mexico Senior Hall of Fame in May; established in 1982, it honors people older than 65 for lifetime commitment to their community. Garcia held many other administrative positions at the school, including dean of the college of arts and sciences, vice president for academic affairs and provost, and served on many boards, committee and task forces in and around Albuquerque. Recipient of numerous research grants by the likes of the Ford Foundation and citations such as the New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award, he has written, co-written or edited 11 books.

• Pamela J. Gent (Clarion University), Professor of Special Education at Clarion University and the first Society chapter president at the school, published Great Ideas: Using Service-Learning and Differentiated Instruction to Help Your Students Succeed (Paul H. Brookes Publishing; 296 pp.; $34.95 paperback). “This book describes service-learning – a teaching method that helps students develop social and academic skills while giving back to their community,” she wrote in a letter. “The book is a practical how-to guide for using service-learning to promote inclusion and to differentiate instruction for students with and without disabilities.” It tackles how to help students meet academic standards, build self-esteem, develop interpersonal, job and life skills, and transition to the real world. 

• James P. Kaetz (Auburn University), managing editor of the Encyclopedia of Alabama, and company picked up plaudits in April from the Library Journal, which named the publication one of the Best Free References of 2008. Library Journal called it “an excellent example of a well-designed site on the history, culture, and geography of a U.S. State.” The online resource, which can be found at www.encyclopediaofalabama.org, was one of only 12 free reference works cited. Kaetz is former editor of Phi Kappa Phi Forum.

• Afshan Kamrudin (University of North Texas), University of North Texas senior psychology major and honor college student, received two grants. One was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to prepare for a career as a researcher in behavioral health. This year, 950 applicants won fellowships that encompass a three-year stipend of $30,000 plus $10,500 in education allowance each year. Some 43,000 fellowships have been given out since 1952 out of more than 500,000 applications. She also was one of nine undergraduates to earn a Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research and Training grant from the Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences (part of the National Institutes of Health) to go to Geneva, Switzerland, to study the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative. The grant covers transportation and living extends and includes a monthly stipend.

• Jessica Kauffman (Shepherd University) hit a homerun when she landed a job as ticket and group sales executive for the Harrisburg Senators, the AA baseball affiliate of the Washington Nationals. The onetime intern was hired after graduating in December 2008 as a top school scholar who earned a degree in recreation and leisure studies with a concentration in sport and event management and sports marketing.

• Joe Kotarba (University of Houston), chair of University of Houston’s sociology department, received the annual George Herbert Mead Award for lifetime achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI), an international professional organization of scholars pursuing sociological issues especially involving identity, language and pragmatism. Kotarba focuses on the sociology of culture as well as health and illness. The author of numerous books and articles is chair of SSSI’s publications committee.

• Robert McClure (University of Missouri-Columbia) presided over the annual meeting of the Society of Phi Zeta (the honor society of veterinary medicine), for which he serves as president, in July in Seattle. A Fulbright recipient and member of numerous veterinary associations, McClure is professor emeritus at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The prolific author and presenter has served as an editorial consultant, among other roles, for what’s now called Phi Kappa Phi Forum. His long service to Phi Kappa Phi includes being a charter member and the charter president of the University of Missouri-Columbia chapter (1972), serving many years as chapter president, secretary and treasurer, and being a regional vice president (1986-’92). Phi Zeta dates to 1925; it includes more than two dozen chapters.

• Rae Lynn McFarlin (Texas Woman’s University) was appointed student regent for Texas Woman’s University by Gov. Rick Perry. The senior mathematics and chemistry major, tutor and student assistant at the Denton campus will serve a one-year term.

• Panjah of Jesus (University of Texas at El Paso), pastor, gospel singer, songwriter and writer, released Set on Edge (PublishAmerica; 243 pp.; $24.95 paperback) in November. “Fatherless and hopeless, Vision earns herself a reputation as a mean-spirited gangster one just doesn’t mess with,” promotional materials read. “Her fast-paced, destructive lifestyle comes to an end when she has an eye-opening encounter with God that forces her to alter her life path.”

• Robert H. Purcell (Oklahoma State University), co-chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was named 2009 Distinguished Alumnus for the College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma State University. He oversees more than 100 scientists who seek cures for viruses including West Nile and hepatitis, the latter being his specialty. In 2007, the author or co-author of upwards of 600 publications became an NIH Distinguished Investigator, a distinction given to only the top 2 to 3 percent of NIH scientists.

• L. David Pye (Alfred University) received the 2009 Alfred University Alumni Awards for Distinguished Achievement and was recently named founding editor of the International Journal of Applied Glass Science that will debut in March 2010. The glass scientist earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from his alma mater and began his career at the school as an assistant professor for glass science at its New York State College of Ceramics. He went on to chair the department of glass science and serve as dean of the College of Ceramics, at which he’s now emeritus. He has been president of the American Ceramic Society and the International Commission on Glass and won major awards in his field.

• Margaret Ann Ferguson Raynor (North Carolina State University) was named a director of the General Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) for a three-year term. UNC class of 1967 and current adjunct associate professor in UNC’s school of medicine’s psychiatry department, she is also director of standards and medical education at Central Regional Hospital in Raleigh. She received the UNC School of Nursing’s Alumni of the Year Award in 2005 and is a past president of the UNC School of Nursing Foundation. She is a former member of the UNC Board of Visitors.

• Douglas A. Snyder (The Citadel) was elected chair of The Citadel Board of Visitors, an entity comprised of 11 Citadel graduates who serve six-year terms. Snyder was vice president a few years ago. The Citadel alum, class of 1982, received the Commandant’s Distinguished Service Award while a student. He is founding partner of The Snyder Firm, which provides accounting, tax and consulting services to emerging businesses and nonprofits in South Carolina.  

• David Soldan (Kansas State University), who teaches electrical and computer engineering at his alma mater Kansas State University, received the 2009 Meritorious Service Award from the American Society for Engineering Educators’ electrical and computer engineering division. He has worked in digital signal processing and adaptive filtering, computer networking, digital systems testing, computer systems reliability, manufacturing automation and wireless communications.

• Catherine M. Solórzano (California State University-Fullerton) was one of the President’s Associates Outstanding Graduate Student Award winners as a master’s student in nursing at California State University-Fullerton, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing. A nurse in psychiatric wards for more than 20 years, she works at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. Also, she’s a psychiatric clinical nursing instructor at Riverside Community College’s Registered Nursing Program.

• Mallory Sullivan and Hailey Wilson (Boise State University) were honored at the Boise State University Alumni Association’s annual Top Ten Scholars awards banquet. Sullivan majored in biology, was a scholar in a statewide research program and volunteered at Big Brothers Big Sisters. Wilson, a health science major, and member of the Nez Perce tribe, served as president of the Intertribal Native Council and volunteered at the Lapwai Valley Boys and Girls Club. Top Ten Scholars were selected from Boise State’s graduating class of more than 3,000.

• Jason W. Tarr (Syracuse University), who graduated from Syracuse University with a triple major in broadcast journalism, international relations and Spanish language and literature, received numerous honors from the school: best honors project for founding and directing student-run weekly Spanish-language news broadcasts; best student from the Spanish department; international relations scholar of the year; and Syracuse University Scholar, the highest undergraduate academic honor.

• Nicole Wayant (Kansas State University), a May graduate in geography and mathematics at Kansas State University, received two recent citations: a Science and Mathematics Research for Transformation scholarship through the U.S. Department of Defense for graduate studies in geography (including full tuition and job placement); and the school’s 2009 Presidential Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Student in Research ($1,000) for her work predicting disease outbreaks such as malaria. An undergraduate researcher and intern of some distinction at numerous organizations, she presented her findings at various professional meetings and is pursuing a master's in geography at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.