B.A., English literature and educational studies
Mason, Ohio

Presentation Remarks:

Hannah, among the many outstanding attributes you brought to Denison, your nominators highlight your stellar leadership and deeply rooted commitment to the college mission, which seems to have been a driving force behind many of your achievements. They cite a class assignment, in which you reflected on your vision for Denison students: "…to build for ourselves a community in which we look out for each other," you write. "It's a community where people care… It's a community of respect. It's one where bright, engaged students interact in healthy, productive ways."

So focused were you to that ideal that you campaigned for and won the presidency of the Denison Campus Governance Association, where you translated your beliefs into a transformative course of action. Crediting your "cooperative approach, a clear vision, and a large reserve of energy," your nominators note that you "led a number of collaborative initiatives to bring about campus change—often working against entrenched vestiges of unhealthy campus culture. The advances … that resulted were not merely circumstance," they write, "as it seems Hannah applied her developing knowledge of educational philosophies and institutions to the tasks at hand." In addition, as a senior interviewer, a June Orientation staff member, and as a member of the Presidential Search Committee, you shared your vision and values with current and future Denisonians.

An education studies major, you far exceeded the expectations of not just your professors, but also the teachers with whom you collaborated in Granville and Cincinnati. One of them noted that you established yourself "a person commanding respect while respecting others." Whether in those classrooms or on a Breakaway trip that you lead to Selma, Alabama, where your team engaged children in the fine arts, students were drawn to you because of your "sensitivity to their needs and (your) efforts to meet them."

Hannah, Denison University is a better place because of your belief in and service to our educational mission, and so the world shall be as you carry our values forward.