Robyn Lee Bowers, daughter of Melanie and Gary Bowers of Enon, Ohio, was among six graduating Denison University seniors who were honored by President Dale T. Knobel as this year's "President's Medalists" during the University's annual Academic Awards Convocation on April 19.

Bowers, who was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honorary, as a junior, is an English literature and Latin double major with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. She also is a member of Eta Sigma Phi, the national honorary for students of Latin and Greek. A consistent dean's list student and holder of a Faculty Scholarship for Achievement, she also has been named as a Robert C. Byrd Scholar, an Ohio Academic Scholar and as a Juliet Barker Sarett Scholarship winner. She has twice been given Young Scholar Awards to pursue research with a faculty member during the summer. Bowers also is the winner of the Wilson Writing Contest Prize for Scholarly Writing. Her honors project topic was "Desire and Identity: Roman Elegy to Shakespeare."

Bowers has served as president of Omicron Delta Kappa, the international leadership honorary, and was named to Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities. She was editor-in-chief of Articulate, a forum for cultural and literary criticism, and wrote for Judy, a feminist journal. Bowers also was sports editor of The Denisonian, the student newspaper. A member of the Campus Environment Team, the General Education Task Force and the Academic Affairs Council, she was a member of the student staffs for June and August Orientation programs. She also was a player and assistant coach for the women's varsity basketball team.

Bowers is a graduate of Shawnee High School.

Presentation remarks:

"Robyn, the word 'classic' describes you in a number of ways. As a Latin and English double major, you have taken the focused study of the classics to new heights, culminating in two consecutive Young Scholar awards to research the role of women in the erotic elegiac world of Augustan poetry, and in what one teacher calls a graduate-quality honors thesis on issues of gender and identity in Latin epic and Shakespeare.

"Your presence has loomed large in the classroom and in literary circles across the campus. Here's the proof of that statement: You rank number one academically in your class, with a perfect 4.0 grade point average -- not even one lowly A-minus to sully that record. Your ubiquitous literary presence is reflected in your winning the All-Campus Wilson Prize for Scholarly Writing, your sports editorship for the Denisonian, your role as Editor-In-Chief of Articulate, and your many contributions to Judy.

"One of your English teachers writes that the quality of your work 'is on a par with that of a professional scholar in terms of both its content and its writing -- thoughtful, innovative, cutting edge.' While leaving a stellar trail on the academic skyline, you have also been very active in campus-wide forums. Over the span of your four years, you have been a stalwart in assisting the women's basketball team, as the women's junior varsity coach, the varsity assistant coach, and in numerous other capacities.

"One imagines you walking across campus with a heavy classics tome in one hand and a basketball in the other. In addition, you have served as President of ODK and as a committee member on the General Education Task Force, the Academic Affairs Council, and the Campus Environment Task Force. Robyn, as you embark on the next leg of your journey we offer you the words of Seneca as descriptive of your four years at Denison: 'Profice et ante omnia hoc cura, ut constes tibi.' 'Make progress, but with this concern above all else, to thine own self be true.' "