B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology
Kinsman, Ohio

Presentation Remarks:

Hannah, anyone who looks at your record at Denison ends up asking the same question: how did you spend so many of your waking hours in leadership and service roles and still achieve 4.0 grade point average? Was it persistence? Grit? Bi-location? In your case part of the answer is the combination of your keen intelligence and your irrepressible energy. But another key is the strategic integration of your scholarly enthusiasm and your work in community outreach, what we might well call your living laboratory of service and learning. Sociology/ Anthropology major and Phi Beta Kappa in your junior year, you have been a National Merit Scholar, Dunbar Scholar, Marshall Finalist, Truman Finalist, and Summer Scholar. One of your teachers observes that you are able to grasp complex ideas quickly and easily, and that you combine these skills with a remarkable work ethic. It is perhaps the fact that you “have always combined your academic interests with social activism that results in your unusual ability to see the social consequences of political assumptions.”

Your interest in the links between policy and social inequality propels your committed involvement in a range of volunteer organizations: Mentor at Ben Franklin Elementary, KIPP volunteer at Journey Academy, two-time Denison Service Orientation Leader, four-time Breakaway volunteer in East St. Louis, Atlanta, and Nashville, internship volunteer in Chile, Food Pantry worker, House Coalition volunteer – just a few of the engagements that led inexorably to your receiving the President’s Service Award and Distinguished Leadership Award. You have blazed such a wide and substantial trail of academic and service achievement in four years that it is hard for us to believe that you have not been here for a lifetime!

Hannah, your commitments have been deep, and your accomplishments myriad. They have not only been an extraordinary credit to yourself, but a great honor for our College, which is deeply proud to call you its graduate.

Student Achievements:

Institute for the International Education of Students, Santiago, Chile; Alford Center for Service Learning - Paul R. Ashbrook Scholar; Office of Admissions - Senior Interviewer; Department of Sociology/Anthropology - Fellow; Jonathan Everett Dunbar Scholarship in the Humanities; National Merit Scholar; Strimbu Memorial Fund Leadership Scholarship Award; Denison GO Fellowship; Leadership and Community Involvement Scholarship; Phi Beta Kappa; Mortar Board; Alpha Kappa Delta (Sociology Honorary); Iota Iota Iota; (Women’s Studies Honorary); Lambda Alpha (Anthropology Honorary); Harry S Truman Scholarship Finalist; Marshall Scholarship Finalist; President’s Gold Service Award; Honors Program; Denison Community Association (DCA) - Vice-President, BreakAway - Trip Leader, Make-A-Difference Day, A Call to College, Big Brothers/Big Sisters; Denison Service Orientation - Student Coordinator, Student Leader; Model United Nations - Research Assistant; August Orientation - Student Staff; June Orientation - Student Staff; Writing Center - Consultant; Educación Popular en Salud Santiago, Chile; Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Washington, D.C.; KIPP Journey Academy - Volunteer; English Opens Doors; Denison Religious Understanding (DRU); Newman Catholic Ministry - Executive Board; Service Chair.