Special Service Awards Acknowledge Student Leaders
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, honored six of its student leaders with special service awards at the 45th Annual Honors and Awards Convocation ceremony on Sunday, April 23, in Erie Hall.
Faculty and staff members, including Chancellor Jack Burke, Senior Associate Dean Robert Light and Associate Dean David Christiansen, presented more than 80 awards to individual students, student organizations, and fellow faculty and staff in five primary categories: student life, athletics, academics, special service, and faculty and staff awards. The ceremony was followed with a reception in the Wintergarden for all winners.
The special service awards are listed alphabetically by recipient.
The John W. Oswald Award was presented to Stephanie M. Bowen. This University award was established by the Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Leadership Society to recognize a graduating senior who has provided outstanding leadership in at least one of several areas of student leadership activity at Penn State.
Maulin S. Gandhi was awarded the T. Reed Ferguson Award, which recognizes a junior who has demonstrated scholarship, leadership and citizenship that has impacted fellow students through academic and out-of-class involvement and gives promise of further achievement in the senior year.
Alexander M. Henderson was the recipient of the Eric A. and Josephine S. Walker Award in recognition of outstanding qualities of character, scholarship, leadership and citizenship that have been directed into student programs and services. Scholarship is a primary criterion along with a record of outstanding collegiate service. Henderson also was awarded with the Irvin H. Kochel Lion Ambassador Award plus Most Outstanding Student Organization President and Outstanding Political Science Major.
Brandon C. McGraw received the Outstanding First-Year Student, which recognizes a first-year student who demonstrates outstanding promise of character, scholarship, leadership and citizenship through achievements in the first year of study.
The Thomas H. Turnbull Award, which lists outstanding service as the most important criterion, was presented to Seraina N. Naef. This award is presented annually to a Penn State Behrend student who has contributed to the college community through outstanding qualities of character, scholarship, leadership and citizenship. Naef also received the Guy W. Wilson Award for Student Service to the College, a Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Service Award and a Student Activities Leadership Award.
Cleon A. Smith was presented with the Irvin H. Kochel Award. The award is presented annually to an undergraduate student who demonstrates outstanding qualities of character, scholarship, leadership and citizenship through their involvement in programs and services that positively influence fellow students and have contributed to the college community. Smith also was recognized as a part of the Penn State Behrend Honors Program, which recognizes students who completed at least nine honors credits while maintaining a minimum 3.2 grade-point average each semester through their sophomore year.