Cora Walsh, a biology major and music minor, holds a full-tuition Mary Carr Scholarship at Denison and was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar, a finalist for the Fulbright Scholarship, and has been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She has done research on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and went to Tanzania with the Global Serice Corps. to teach secondary students about AIDS prevention. She also has volunteered at Denison with the Habitat for Humanity and Nursing Home Companions committees of the Denison Community Association, and with Hospice, Relay For Life, and the Red Cross Blood Drive.

Presentation remarks:

"Cora, rarely is it the case that a person succeeds in being so highly focused as you and at the same time so omnipresent in activities across the campus. A full-tuition Mary Carr Scholar, Harry S. Truman Scholar, Fulbright Scholar Finalist, and Phi Beta Kappa Scholar, you have interwoven your biology major with probing scholarship in sociology and anthropology by producing original research on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Your interest in this subject has not, however, been only academic. In the summer of 2004, as a budding health care professional, you joined the Global Service Corps for AIDS education in Tanzania. There you taught secondary students about AIDS prevention, and you went beyond the call of duty by creating educational manuals for foreign volunteers.

"On returning to Denison, you hit the ground running by founding the Denison chapter of the Student Global AIDS campaign, and, beginning with your Young Scholar award in 2005, you crafted a novel interdisciplinary honors thesis comparing the effectiveness of AIDS prevention programs. One of your advisors says that, 'Cora doesn't know just the published literature on this subject; she knows the dissertations and masters theses as well.' A testimony to your scholarly work in this area is the fact that, shortly after this ceremony, you will be flying to Cape Town, South Africa, where you will be delivering a paper at a prestigious international conference.

"Your additional activities at Denison read like the charge of the Light Brigade, including admissions work, Habitat for Humanity, the Chamber Choir, Hospice, Relay for Life, the Red Cross Blood Drive Committee, the Recent Student Trustee Selection Committee, and Nursing Home Companions -- all activities that led to your instant selection as a Dean's Distinguished Leadership Award recipient.

Next fall you will be entering the prestigious London School of Economics in preparation for your passion, a career in public health and medicine. One of your teachers says that you not only help people, but you help them with a smile on your face.