B.A. in English literature
Akron, Ohio

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Presentation Remarks:

Allison, you have been described as someone who has deliberately seized Denison’s educational opportunities with dignity, civic-mindedness, insight, professionalism and grace. It is clear from all that you have accomplished that you are gifted with the written word and the spoken word, and that you are dedicated to supporting the development of these gifts in others.   Your nominators see you as a teacher, writer, scholar and organizer.  As a student consultant with the Writing Center, and then as the Center’s manager, you brought your love of wordsmithing to your fellow students.  As a participant in Academic Integrity workshops for hundreds of first-year students, you helped to deepen our student community’s awareness of academic integrity and the appropriate use of other people’s ideas and intellectual property.  In your interest of the written word, you were one of the founding editors of Prologue, the first-year students’ academic journal, in 2008. In addition, you have served on the University Honor Committee; as coordinator for the four-day First Year August Orientation; as the student representative to the Academic Affairs Council; and as a volunteer at the Granville Library.  Your nominators say that as a scholar, your work is unparalleled in its depth and incisiveness, and that your work ethic is impeccable, especially in your willingness to explore a text fully and then theorize beyond it.  Such was the excellence shown in your 120-page thesis for your Summer Scholar research, titled, “Boarding Schools and Broomsticks:  Education in the Harry Potter Novels”; and your current senior research has been described as publication worthy.  You utilized research opportunities at Denison to work with a faculty member in the English Department to design a course on children’s literature, and this semester you are assisting him in teaching the course. It’s worth noting that this course is already popular enough to have a waiting list!  These activities make you a paragon of the values reflected in in your membership in Delta Tau, the English Department Honorary.  Your desire to pursue the academic study of children’s literature leads your professors to call you an innovator and one whose “innovations are designed to serve your community.”  Overall, your desire to become a college professor resonates with what we already see in your dedication to teaching, learning, writing, and promoting the literary arts. We appreciate the excellence you have demonstrated in your many gifts to Denison and are proud to award you this medal of honor.

Student Achievements:

Phi Beta Kappa; Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges; K.I. Brown Scholarship; McCann Prize (English); Juliet B. Sarrett English Department Scholarship; Sigma Tau Delta (English Honorary); Distinguished Leadership Award; Phi Society (Freshman Honorary); Denison University Founders Scholarship; Dean’s List; Young Scholars Summer Research Scholar; Office of First-Year Programs - June Orientation Student Leader; English Department - Teaching Assistant; Small Liberal Arts Colleges - Writing Program Administrators Conference - Student Organizer, Facilitator; Writing Center - Writing Center Consultant, Manager; Office of First-Year Programs- August Orientation Student Staff Coordinator, Leader; University Appeals Board - Student Representative; Honor Committee - Vice-Chair, Student Representative; Academic Affairs Committee - Student Representative; Sigma Tau Delta (English Honorary) - President, Membership Chair; Articulate Literary Journal - Senior Editor, Junior Editor, Editorial Board; Spark!: Leadership and Social Justice Workshop; Prologue: A First-Year Journal - Editor