Academic Awards Ceremony May 8 2024

so we're going to start before a minute because everybody's uh ready to rock and roll welcome to the award ceremony for the Feinstein School of humanities arts and education I'm Dean Jeffrey Maryweather I'm the associate Dean and Proctor uh we are here to day to celebrate the accomplishments of our students for the friend woo friends and families that are with us please know that we have far more praise and pride to express than we could possibly have time for in a single afternoon your students and you all being honored those of you who are here to support you are the reason for what we do we are very proud of you and we're so happy to happy to celebrate you today and we have a big Program full of exciting Scholars and artists and performers and Advocates so let's get started we'd like to kick it off and welcome our history faculty to the podium I'm a little shorter than Dean Merryweather anyway um hi my name is uh Deborah Mulligan and I am the chairperson of the history department and it gives me a great pleasure to be here today um we're honoring our wonderful students with amazing averages and they've done amazing work and it's not it's not Hy perally they really have um excelled in all their classes so um I'm here first first of all let's see where' the program go okay here we go I am going to introduce Professor sardon Donovan um let's give it [Applause] up thank you Debbie um so let me get right into this we have a bunch of awards to give out our first award for the history department is the Cleo award our Cleo award is for excellence in the study of history by a sophomore uh this year's recipient is Nathaniel oldenberg Nathaniel has done fantastic work at the level of a sophomore um in fact actually he took his methodology and uh historiography course with me this semester uh and he's currently working on a piece on the history of the Aztecs and conquistadors where is he's uh Ju supposing the uh the information that we have from the Aztecs themselves but also from an indigenous perspective but also from The Conquistadors um and going back and forth between the two to actually figure out ways in which the uh material culture actually was affected by the way in which the Conquistadors viewed the Aztec it's a really fascinating take on this um Nathaniel has taken numerous courses with me already um throughout the history Department with all of us but uh did superb work last semester as well in Middle East um survey and to be honest he's wonderful he's eloquent his knowledge far surpass surpasses most sophomores that I've dealt with over the past 10 years and we look for really wonderful things for him in the future so I'd like to say uh to bring Nathaniel up here can we invite all of our history re up thank you okay okay um I can move along I think Nathaniel is here but I hasn't come up yet no okay okay um our second award is actually the Ronald Davis Memorial award for excellence in the study of history um our Davis award is the award that's given each year to the history student the student uh history major with the highest grade point average in history and this year we actually have a three-way tie and I'm going to present the first one so I'm going to present the award to uh Samuel cas um Sam is a has been a fantastic student in the department these four years um on a regular basis I tell Sam Sam is actually our expert in the department in the department uh for religious studies and theology his knowledge of religious studies and theology far surpasses most PhD students that I deal with on a regular basis and I'm on many committees outside of Roger Williams um Sam wrote a fantastic piece for me uh on the Black Death last year um and looking at both Christian and Muslim sources and looking at how they theologically interpreted the Black Death what they thought that meant for those of Muslim faith and those of Christian faith um with the exception of I think the only thing you didn't do was look at the Arabic sources other than that your work was fantastic um and also I have to say that if we can invite him back in a few years after he gets his PhD you can come back on for religion in the state you're going to do some theology with hi there everyone um I'm Charlotte Carrington farmer associate professor of history and it's my privilege this afternoon to award the second Davis award to the high senior with the highest GPA to Richard McGee as a transfer student Richard has made a huge impact in such a short time he is the history Department arguably his greatest achievement is his senior thesis entitled The Devil drives their worship European perceptions of Witchcraft in early modern in the early modern Atlantic world by reading sources against the grave Richard has produced a graduate level thesis and I don't say this lightly but this work has fundamentally reframed the existing historiography here's a forthcoming peer-reviewed article religion war in Native America the causes of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials which will be published in the F ala Theta Journal Richard is currently working with rw's archist Heidi Benedict on a project to uncover hidden histories in ru's own archive he's dedicated to Pion pioneering the experiential reacting to the Past pedagogy in the classroom and his efforts in this field will stay with me forever he will attend the University of Rhode Island this coming for to study for his Masters in history and this is only the beginning Richard from one historian of the early modern Atlantic world to another Richard you Alias kroad future professor of History I look forward to learning with you and from you for years to come hello it's me again um by the way um between uh Sam and Richard they they uh impersonate the best history folks ever like from sulan The Magnificent to Oliver resent Oliver Cromwell or Thomas crell Thomas CR Thomas Cromwell so yeah we'll miss that a lot so they'll have to come back so anyway I um I'm also here to award the Third Ronald J Davis who from what I understand was a European historian who passed away very suddenly in the 1980s so they named a uh an award for him for the highest GPA as Charlotte and Sargon said but this is for uh Elizabeth in but my guess is I don't know I don't think she's here Lizzie are you here if she is not she's probably teaching or on our dreaded 195 Bridge [Music] in the third lane waiting for um the investigation on Bridge construction to [Music] conclude um so I will move along to Herber and cl Andel award for excellence in the study of US history and culture which will be awarded to again we have Bai two students Adam J horvitz and Amanda L um and again two wonderful students are amazing Amanda done her um did her senior thesis with me um comparing she's going to correct me I know but anyway comparing African and Chinese uh diaspora and immigrants and an amazing job because comparative history is quite difficult and uh yeah she's she's done uh wonderful work and she makes me laugh all the time so um this uh Clayborn P award um is for excellence in American history and um Herbert and Clayborn of course Clayborn pel was a um a senator from 1960 to 76 his father Herbert Clayborn pel which is actually what the award is uh is named for was uh min to Portugal and I believe he was instrumental at the nurg war trials so um so the family always um has these Awards and also P grants but anyway I'm going to bring Amanda come on now believe we also have this oops somewhere I'm so gracious [Music] here [Music] congratulations we just uh heard an a wonderful presentation we use the words amazing and wonderful but they're really not hyperbolic they're really true um Adam was just presenting at the Middletown Newport historical society and big old fancy hotel uh Dean Merryweather was there um we had you know uh Professor quesada Grant was there and the Middletown Historical Society folks were there and they were extremely impressed with Richard um and the work that he's done that they want to continue with us and he looked at uh New England ston walls he did a wonderful presentation and also gave a amazing pamphlet that they're going to hand out to their people so um we wanted to honor Adam for his award and he's got he's just getting all sorts of awards today right so you want to Adam who's also doing this is you're welcome congratulations to every just one more reward from history um so it's my pleasure then to award the heritors award for exceptional um service um to Richard McGee who we met earlier um and as you heard earlier Richard McGee is an exceptional scholar but really what sets Richard apart is that he's committed to using his scholarly knowledge to bring about change through service Richard has spearheaded a wide range of initiatives to uncover the hidden histories of slavery in and around the state of Rhode Island he's completed several Community Partnership public history projects with the Rhode Island slave history medallions which is a Statewide Public awareness program committed to marking historic sites connected to the history of slavery Richard has completed extensive archival research on and slav peoples in salesville Rhode Island which has fundamentally changed our understanding of ideas of indigenous UNF Freedman and freedom and indeed Quaker involvement in slavery he's dedicated his exceptional talent to the task of combing through countless primary sources to recover the names of enslaved peoples that have been lost to time he truly is a practitioner of bottomup History his service is extraordinary he volunt at open houses accepted students day and he's currently mentoring juniors in our historiography and methodology course Richard is also a leading and active member of the rwu chapter of fi Alpa Theta he's a president of rw's chapter of alpha Kai the National Honor Society and perhaps most importantly Richard put's Theory into practice and he's deeply committed to building upon rw's commitment to being anti racist and most recently he's using his knowledge of indigenous history and the ethics of Facing East and decolonization to lead a team of students to campaign for indigenous people's day here on campus thus in a fitting tribute it's my pleasure to award you Richard a signed copy of the Indian Great Awakening with a special message from the author Lyford D Fisher who like me is excited to see what the future holds for you congratulate congratulations [Applause] Richard thank you history next up we have philosoph say thank you I'm might right uh and Bob blackor can you hear me all right um Bob Blackburn says would be here also but the vicissitudes of what for unfortunately he has to be somewhere else right now so I'll be doing this and I want to first of all acknowledge Christen Harold uh who is also getting an award uh graphic design because she's she part of her senior project has something to do with philosophy because she's also a philosophy minor uh the award that uh I'm going to be giving is uh named after Dr rul Louie AAR was a professor of philosophy here from probably the late 50s until 79 he was a man who hired Bob Blackburn who in turn hired me so I'm in a funny kind of way the replacement for Dr a bear however I don't look at all like him because he looked like a professor of philosophy uh old world charm he always referred to Bob as Mr Blackburn because Bob did not have PhD and I was was referred to as Dr Wright because I have a PhD in any event the award itself is not based on uh GPA uh although fortunately this uh uh recipient this year has a impressive GPA of 3.95 and also just received an award uh from the business school uh for the highest GPA in the management program there so he's he's got some street cred I guess um and uh it's not based on the on the uh GPA and uh it's uh kind of hard to figure out exactly what it's based on but uh I would say that it's uh it's based on a sense of uh of Wonder because as AOS said philosophy begins in Wonder and Ethan Ethan Ian here who is a recipient uh exemplifies a number of things several things first of all Mastery of the material of course um but that would also be reflected in the in the GPA uh what's more impressive about him is uh his uh almost obsession with pursuing questions philosophic uh I've been working with him for a year on thesis and I've been meeting with him several times a week also uh on a independent study course and and in that kind of contact you see how the mind is working the questions that it asks and and uh the joy that uh he takes in playing in the playground of philosophers with Concepts and ideas and so forth um and uh I think that uh oh yes he's also a double you know he's a double major uh and what I like about this the fact that one is in business and one is in philosophy uh is that uh in a funny kind of way there's almost the spirit of Socrates there because Socrates is the one who took philosophy in the marketplace and uh Ethan while he could do graduate work in business and could do graduate work in philosophy he's decided to get a degree in gradu a degree in uh uh social work and I think the reason is tied to perhaps his thesis his thesis is on well-being and I think what he want F to do is to help other people enhance their own well-being so conratulations all right hooray philosophy thank you I'd like to invite thank you I'd like to invite our education faculty and students to come up hello everyone and thank you for coming to support and you know applaud these wonderful um students the education department Awards the John Dewey medal to graduating seniors in our three Majors Elementary education secondary education and educational studies the criteria for winning the medal includes demonstrated excellence in teaching internships and scholarships this is Marissa everyone let see you may not remember this but you wrote it in one of your papers when I teach I want to make sure that the students feel comfortable and validated each time they would answer a question or raise their hand I make sure to call them by their name and congratulate them on the correct answer I always have believed that the more excited I am to teach content the more excited students will be to learn it every teacher we say should have taken a theater class because you have to be dynamic and enthusiastic well Marissa minor in theater every every teacher needs to have a basic understanding understanding of the stem area well Marissa specialized in Steam every students need to know about special education areas of teaching Marica is getting a graduate degree in educa in special education every faculty member knows Marissa as someone who is knowledgeable and a resource to everyone let me tell you Maurice's study guides are famous I wouldn't be surprised if they sell on the undercover market for an enormous price she is that good most importantly Marissa is genuinely interested in learning herself learning best practices for teaching kids she's creative she's enthusiastic she excels she's reflective always asking for feedback applies edits and improves her work with her students in mind it is my honor to award Marissa EST Stone the John Dewey medal for demonstrated excellence in teaching and scholarship in the field of Elementary education Christina close this is what Christina says I aim to see every child succeed inside and outside of the classroom socially and academically Christina graduated G may as a first generation college student in her family she has 3.99 [Applause] GPM remaining on the teens list all throughout college and at the same time balancing working part-time she's graduating with a main minor in professional and public writing a steam certificate and variety of teaching experiences she has worked with kidses 4 and to 11 in various capacities during her student teaching in pel Elementary School in Newport Christina researched and implemented learning supports and strategies to eight student score English language Learners in her classroom Christina is looking forward to Leading her own classroom where she will continue to hone her teaching and research skills it is my privilege to award Christina reposal the John Dewey medal for demonstrated excellence in teaching Samantha pepc Samantha is extraordinary she is a double major secondary education and Mathematics the 3.96 GPA in mathematics I mean really in addition she has a minor in computer science she's a sought after tutor at Roger Williams in the math department she has studed cal1 to college algebra you name it cementa has been a first year orientation advisor and coordinator for three years now an honors student with two kept Stone projects one in education one in the Hors program to find more about this young woman you only need to tune in to wqri 88.3 FM at rwu where Sam is a co-founder and co-host of the radio show it's a metaphor for Life in Her practicum placement teaching both geometry for English language Learners and algebra to inclusion Sam sent out out a survey to 53 of her students as a means to quickly get to know them 85% of the students reported feeling anywhere from relatively neutral to very uncomfortable with mathematics as a whole this is a quote from Sam what these students feel and think cannot be ignored I have to believe that the way we teach the subject can influence these attitudes and as such I want to research what we could be doing better in fact Sam is going right after the bachelor's to her doctoral degree in math education at Columbia University it is my privilege is my privilege to award the John Dewey medal for demonstrated excellence in teaching and scholarship to Sam you please step up this is Maggie Grace she's an exceptional student during her undergraduate studies Maggie consistently demonstrated outstanding dedication and enthusiasm for her coursework she exhibited um brilliant critical thinking skills and had a strong ability to grasp concept uh complex Concepts apply them to real world scenarios and communicate them to our class this leads me to one of Maggie's most notable qualities her genuine passion for helping students she is a Natural Curiosity about finding and creating resources to support students mental health and a strong appreciation for supporting all students needs in our classes Maggie created a literature review presentation and students mental health during the pandemic and developed an engaging and interactive lesson plan teaching high school students the importance of college preparation which I could have used when I was in high school I wish you were my daddy's counselor then her enthusiasm for education is contagious and Maggie consistently went above and beyond to deepen her understanding through extracurricular activities such as being a member of the colleges against cancer Club at Roger Williams interning for the Mount Hope High School school guidance department and working at the Roger Williams University tutoring center for finite mathematics I have no doubt that her passion will continue to drive her success in the education Fields aside from her academic and research accomplishments Maggie possesses outstanding personal qualities that make her a really great person to work with and have in the class she is highly motivated self-disciplined and possesses excellent communication skills her positive attitude her perseverance and ability to adapt to New Challenges have consistantly impressed both her peers and her faculty members including myself congratulations for getting the John Dewey award for educational studies Maggie we're so proud of you education thank you very much next up we have our friends in creative writing afternoon I'm Ted Delany calling Professor adto to bring up our award days uh I'll be presenting the Matthew wolf scholarship uh the Matthew wolf is something that we have been giving students for better than 40 years now and our recipient for this year is Cecilia Egan and uh I thought that more so than telling you about Cecilia what Cecilia to tell you about Cecilia through the essay that she was awarded this Matthew wolf priz for so I'm just going to read a few paragraphs but to give you background Cecilia was diagnosed as a kindergartener with Frederick's attx which is a rare degenerative condition and she wrote this very very poignant uh essay on that so I'll just read from that when I was diagnosed at the age of five nothing changed but everything changed I was just poorly trained at walking I'd attempt to practice the craft by traing up and down the hallway spoiler word I wasn't very good at it but I missed that feeling that I had as a kid feeling like nothing has the power to slow you down 15 years post diagnosis things are more complex now I need a new body I want a new body my balance completely shot my legs hardly Cooperative hands and figures mediocre at best my heart somewhat damaged but stable for now the unfortunate thing is that my mind is completely and happily functioning working faster than my physical self as human beings we're in this vicious cycle of stressing over the next chapters of Our Lives it's human nature it's also not wise Futures can't be predicted my future with the question mark is a perfect example huge chunks of adulthood are wasted on creating goals that may never be achieved kids know what's up they live in the moment they are the moment happiness love acceptance forgiveness those are the main ingredients in baking this pie that is life where did I learn this valuable piece of information in kindergarten Cecilia again Matthew congratulations cilia I'm Renee SoDo I am in the creative writing program I teach poetry teach many of the students here who are receiving Awards in other areas it's a real thrill to see you all here The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in creative writing is one of the longest programs at the University it's a special or it's a special degree it's an arts degree and it's more than 50 years in the making a couple of years ago a student a former student from the early days endowed two Scholarships in honor of the mentoring and the teaching of early professors um Jeffrey Clark and Bob McRoberts there are two Clark McRoberts Awards they both have the same criteria a graduating student who's a graduating senior who's demonstrated Superior ability and a minimum GPA of 3.0 or higher or a graduating senior who's demonstrated strong academic progress a graduating senior who has demonstrated a passion for creativity inventiveness and an ability to break new ground as displayed through their creative writing in the categories of poetry and or fiction and students who have expressed interest in pursuing a career in the field of creative writing or related field that's the criteria for both the senior and the first through Third Year Awards the senior award goes to Nicole kovaleski uh you I will just say to you that Nicole also knows that the word belongs on the stage as well and she may have seen her recently performing as Lori in Oklahoma or in other stage events and the first through third year award goes to Shelby gy who um I don't think is here but you may also see Shelby who also takes the page and moves it to the stage in her own standup thank you congratulations thank you to our creative writers I'd like now to welcome up our English literary studies faculty and students and while they come to join me up at the podium I want to congratulate one of our faculty members Jim tach after 45 years of scholarship teaching and service to this fin institution and uh this community of colleagues and students Jim is retiring this year so please join us in congratulating Jim good afternoon thank you for attending I have a couple of awards to give each year we give an outstanding senior thesis award English majors are required to author a senior thesis a research essay completed over two semesters second semester junior year first semester senior year this year's outstanding English literature senior thesis award goes to Anna swans pie is titled M War throughout A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine hansbery explains how both racial and gender prejudices challenge the female character in this 1959 play by a black female dramatist so this award goes second award I'm giving several years ago my longterm colleague Professor Mel Toof established an award in my honor this award recognizes a junior English major who has an outstanding academic average and a record of campus activities and service this year's winner Matthew militus has superb academic aage and record of excellent and extensive Service as an English literary Department intern he is also helped our department plan and execute many many many successful campus events so Matthew thank you Professor Tom for establishing that award thank you Jim I'm actually just going to go slightly out of order I'm Cynthia schneberg professor in the English Department um uh i' I'll just since we started seniors Juniors I'll go to the sophomore award unfortunately our awarde for the outstanding sophomore award Lucas Matthews can't be with us today but I just wanted to note um that he is the recipient of our outstanding sophomore English major award uh anyone who's had Lucas in class knows what an Engaged um empathetic wonderful classmate that he is who's always asks wonderful questions and we really want to honor Lucas sorry he couldn't be with us today but congratulate our outstanding first year English major award is going to Leah McAn I was lucky enough to meet Lea at orientation when she first stepped on campus to register for classes and I was struck at her calm and cool demeanor uh in the midst of what sometimes feels like chaos uh and somehow I managed to persuade her to take my uh upper division course in gender and sexuality uh in English literature and I remember when you came into the class and I saw all the seniors and juniors array chatting it was chaotic they all knew each other and I thought oh was this a good idea to have a first year here but of course it was a good idea Leah had absolutely no problem fitting into this Lively group of advanced students and she did exceptional work as is evidenced by her 4.0 GPA in her first semester please welcome all right hi there I'm Laura diore and I have the pleasure of giving the awards out for the Ronald J kid award for excellence in American studies the award is named after the founder of American studies at Roger Williams University over the past few years we changed the name of American studies to cultural studies but the core of the program is the same and so we continue to honor the founder with this award the Ked award is given to the most outstanding cultural studies graduating senior and this year the award is going to two phenomenal seniors Hannah Cormier and Alisia Alba Ortiz Hannah Cormier is a double major in cultural studies and legal studies and we be heading to a master's program at Simmons College in the fall it's been my pleasure to get to know Hanna over these four years for the purposes of this ceremony I'd like to recognize her excellent work as an anti-racist Mentor for underserved High School youth in Providence through her participation in deeply Community engaged year-long course called racial Justice in the classroom and her outstanding senior thesis with distinction titled radical love for black women and girls in the crunk feminist collection which was also presented at a National Conference in Chicago in March we will miss you Hannah congratulations and best of luck in your future end don't even start all right Alicia Alba Ortiz is a double major in cultural studies and creative writing and plans to attend graduate school for Latin American and Caribbean studies I had the opportunity to be Elicia's first year seminar instructor in her first semester here which was a remote year where she was learning from the Dominican Republic that was a me memorable first semester and then again for her senior thesis which are perfect book ends for an rwu experience Alicia uh participated with Hannah in as an anti-racist Mentor for underserved High School youth in Providence again in that deeply Community engaged uh yearlong course and her groundbreaking senior thesis develops and refines an original and exciting Theory about Dominican fragility it's called Dominican fragility race is not an issue in the Dominican Republic because we are all mixed which was also presented um at a National Conference in Chicago in March again we will miss you too Alicia and congratulations I now invite my esteamed colleague Professor McKinley to the podium to present the awards for music greetings um nice to see everybody here today yes Emily come up Nick are you in the audience come on up and Dev come on up so so I I promise I know that these things tend to go long so I I made a promise to not go very long with these things so I'm Dr Elliot miles McKinley associate professor of Music here and I have the privilege of awarding um these fine students here various awards for their activities and achievements and the first award is going to go to Emily raisin who is getting our academic achievement award in music now Emily um the only thing I'm going to say is that you came to me a couple years ago actually uh I was on sabatical so her first year she didn't get to have me but she came in and Emily likes to say I can't do that and I don't understand that but she found out that she actually can do things and does understand things and Emily is going to Italy with me in all three of these students are going to Italy with me in a few weeks so I can't wait so Emily I present to you the academic achievement award in music congratulations okay next on the H parade is this gentleman over here he's a guitar player you can't tell by looking at him as guitar player he actually played a blues this morning in class uh Nicholas r and uh Nick is going to get our musicianship award and I did tease him this morning that he would play the solo that he was learning of John scoffield um Trio Blues did you bring your guitar he didn't bring his guitar sorry I guess you're not getting the award is that okay all right so actually he is and Nick has grown by Leaps and Bounds the only thing I'm going to say about Nick is that he came in as a as a a music concentration then he converted to a minor cuz he liked it then somehow either I convinced him or he convinced himself to become a major and now he's a double major and uh he does very much uh he's very much earned this award and it's I'm very proud I'm very proud of all of them so Nick come and Grant get your award first all right and finally but certainly not least is Devon McGowan and Dev uh I couldn't convince him to be a major because he it was a little too late in his career uh Deb is staying with us actually right he's graduating and he's going to get the outstanding music minor award um and actually uh Deb is one of those students and I'm sure that uh my my colleagues can uh certainly resonate with this that one of the students that you just love to have in your classes um engaged very honest brutally honest um he will tell you when you're not doing the right thing um but I actually really like that and uh Dev is devb is a bright and very talented musici and is going to do really great things in his life I know and we're going to have fun in a couple of weeks so Dev you come and get your award for outstanding mus all right I'd like to welcome our theater faculty and students to come up to the podium thank you good afternoon I would I'm Jeffrey Martin from the eer program uh I'm here with my colleagues Robin Stone and L Lee Wallace will presenting these Awards uh since brevity we're told is the soul of wit we will be brief you can thank us later I have the honor of presenting the first award and this is the William Grand George excellence in performance award uh William Grand George of course was the founder of the theater program uh way back in the 1960s and was here for many many years the theater within the Performing Arts Center is named after him uh this award this uh this year goes goes to Grayson Simmons Grayson uh has been in a number of Productions over the years this year she was in four plays from the absurdist theater is that what we called it yes four plays from the absurdist theater yes uh and which she was part of the Ensemble and particularly for her performance as Christopher an autistic young man in the Curious incident of the dog in the night time in which he led the he they led the Ensemble of the cast and it was a uh an intense rehearsal period in one in which the Ensemble taught me a great deal uh about the subject matter uh the performance was uh stellar and we are very happy to present GRA with this award this is my turn so I have the honor of presenting our excellence in production award and this year we really are focused on stage management those of you that don't do theater might not be familiar with the role of the stage manager but it is absolutely the one person that is required to mount a production now the glue that holds everything together the actors the director everything and we have to amazing stage managers receiving these Awards but not only are they awesome stage managers but they're also brilliant performers and one of the things I'm excited to see is more performance from both of them um that said this uh this first award is going to uh R out who has this year has staged manage um the theater of the Absurd whatever we're calling it The N of theater of the obur he also stage managed Oklahoma with me which we just closed um he's a brilliant stage manager not only that he's really kind of the glue holding a lot of us together at the department um so oh he also directed he directed murder of the greyh house manner this year we're really excited about everything he's done and and looking forward to what the future holds for him is this for you right and we just couldn't pick one for this award this year because we have a really special student um with Hannah Drisco carrian right I said it right Hannah is really just like she's only a first year student but she arrived and and really took the reign as a stage manager um stage managing the Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime she was also a stage manager for Oklahoma which was working with me and we lost our Aunt Ella um you know a few weeks into the rehearsal process and Hannah stepped into the role and I just think that says a lot about a student that can do both of those things and that can switch you know uh positions for the good of the group and and I'm just really proud of her and can't wait to see what she's doing next it's for you hello I presenting the Peter Wright highest academic achievement award this award is named after Peter Wright who was a longtime theater Professor starting at Roger Williams college and then Roger Williams University and Peter demanded excellence in the classroom and on stage he didn't always get it but he demanded it nonetheless uh and and we present this award to the student with the highest GPA the studies theater and this year we're very happy to give it to someone who is an excellent student actor and writer Sophia Thomas our final award is the Mary J stab Memorial award Mary was our Administrative Assistant for many years in the Performing Arts Center uh she was she did everything she knew everything she fostered everything she was uh a wonderful person and we've named the reward after her and we look for a student who is always there uh always willing to help always willing to contribute in whatever capacity is needed uh theater survives on this kind of people on this kind of person as you've heard from uh my colleagues often it's an actor who's also a stage manager who's also a a tech technical person who's also a designer who who's who will fit in and do whatever needs to be done this year it goes to Anthony Miranda Anthony has been in this in these in our tough circumstances there everywhere wherever he has been needed on stage backstage in the booth front of house or just cleaning up uh and we really appreciate him and for all of those reasons we give him this award so That's all folks I welcome now Visual Arts faculty and students afternoon I'm Michael Rich professor of Visual Arts uh Visual Arts is like a small family sometimes dysfunctional family but a small family nonetheless and the way that we determine our Awards is by getting together as faculty and sharing stories about our students and uh um talking about the good things that they do we are very fortunate to work with some amazing gifted uh young people with Incredible talent and there's not enough time to say all that we would like to say so we've collected some of the best comments from uh various faculty members that describe these students um we have two scholarships to give today one the Adalia wicom scholarship and there are two recipients of that the first is Sarah busad espol who unfortunately can't be with us today I will say uh Sarah's work is inventive personal highly original she was crafting her own language in painting and drawing a language full of spirit she gives thoughtful feedback to her fellow students uh the second student receiving the wicom award is Andrew Melo Andrew is here uh this quote Andrew has bold interesting ideas impressive drawing and painting skills his work always provides great conversations and among the rest of the class second scholarship we have today is the Thomas E Fitzgerald Jr award a longstanding uh scholarship that endowed by the Fitzgerald Family in memory of Thomas Fitzgerald um the recipient for that award this year is Grace kmar Grace brings tremendous insight Ingenuity and generosity to the studio she is endlessly curious and creative and has a strong work ethic she is a very bright future ahead in making and teaching I'll give you these later uh and then we have a number of excellence awards uh in Visual Arts and go through these quickly uh Victoria Machado Victoria has a passion for painting and an amazing work ethic her work has expanded into narrative and is beautifully personal and will Nichols will is an outstanding photographer and video artist as well as a substantial Community Builder you'll begin working on his MFA at Savannah College of Art and Design uh this fall congratulations thank you hi I'm Elizabeth Jeffy um and I'll continue this we have some awards for excellence in Visual Arts the first is for Amanda [Music] Smith Amanda is a Powerhouse who puts dozens of hours into each project showing passion care and Brilliance in everything she does congratulations next we have an outstanding Community member who makes class conversations pop due to her energy and imaginative Spirit like many of our AES she recently exhibited her work in the Bristol Art Museum exhibition congratulations ER [Applause] has inspired several years of classmates and artists here she consistently innovates takes risks collaborates and creates deeply felt thoughtful work this summer her work will be presented in Rome Italy and she will participate in an artist residency in cre Gree so great Sophie [Applause] Del an intensely gifted Visual Arts major Sophie's humility and Devotion to craft helps engage your classmates to delve deeper and understand that time and craft is part of the life of an artist congratulations not enough superlatives to describe Mia her energy her playful sense of humor they're all reflected in the imaginative Works she creates in every media she touches so congratulations and we can have and you can see all these artists work tomorrow evening at the muffin show 5 to 7 is the reception so please come it's open to everybody congratulations to our talented artists I'd like to now welcome a big group up to the front of the room our uh media and design and communication faculty and students there's plenty of room come on up hello everybody I am Dr paa paru and this is the fine talented inspiring and very goodlooking faculty of media design and communication I have good news for you we are the last to present today the bad news is that there are five disciplines involved but we're almost there so I will call up uh The Faculty of communication and media studies please uh Dr gentle SP Dr Rah and Dr Cole evening everyone um I'm Dr Angel Ram of communication media studies every year one of the most joyful tasks of the communication media studies faculty is selecting the student to be given the Excellence in communication studies award this year we hit the trifecta and are delighted to give this award not to one but three students and so with much pleasure I recognize Dominic gold as one of our three excellence and communication studies awardees Dominic is unable to be with us this evening but we would still like to acknowledge his accomplishments in absentia uh Dominic is majoring in communication media studies and has a minor in marketing he has been on the Dean's List through all his four years at Roger Williams demonstrating his record of academic Excellence Dominic Stellar writing skills was recognized in 2021 with the bermont fellowship for fiction by Roger Williams University Library bermont fellows are chosen based on their submissions of an original fiction piece and he got to attend a master class with established writer for his his work for the past year Dominic has been working on campus as a social media and marketing intern and with Roger well is and where he has been developing uh really good strategic marketing plans for advertising and promoting Health Services on our campus in addition to his academic accomplishments Dominic is on the men's lacrosse team and has found time to serve as a team Ambassador and a member of the student athlete athletic advisory so is with great pleasure I present the Excellence in communication studies award to Dominic gold hello I am Professor Gentle Spirit Camille Gentle Spirit and I have the honor of presenting the next excellence in communication studies award to Tessa uden Tess I do not have time to do justice to the Brilliance the astuteness and the groundedness that is Tessa so I'll just say a few words Tessa is a graduating senior and she's been on the dean list every semester she's been here wonderful as her adviser and Professor however I can say with confidence that this honor does not do her justice it does not truly represent who she is Tessa is smart and Brilliant yes and she's compassionate and empathetic she wants to make our local and Global communities safer more inclusive and more just for everyone she's currently inter turning with the Community of Hope program where she's working with underserved marginalized communities writing stories from their perspectives with the hopes of creating social change and her pursuit of Justice also extends to our furry friends when she's not in class Tessa works at the Bristol animal shelter where her duties include caring for shelter animals familiarizing them with human touch and provid providing attention love and care to each animal until they are adopted now Tessa's transcript and academic record doesn't show this but Tessa is a total package she is smart and she's concerned about injustices and inequalities which is a wonderful and Powerful combination Tessa congratulations thank you I'm Robert Cole also a faculty member in the department and rounding out our Awards in excellence and communication studies we're pleased to recognize Thomas McMullen Thomas is a rising senior and he's made the Deans List every semester since he's been here at Roger WS University not only is he pursuing a uh major in communication Med media studies but he's also pursuing a dual minor in political science and criminal justice but Thomas isn't just a thinker he is also a doer he's been involved in the RC program since his very first semester he's completed courses in military skills one and two he's taken courses and completed military leadership and management one and two and as a well-rounded student he's even wedged in horor in food studies and taken guitar lessons here now probably wondering where is this Renaissance person we'd all like to see him he got called up at the last minute for a military activity so he's somewhere in the rain in North Kingston is that right but in any case please recognize the Excellence in communication com and now I call up my amazing colleague Dr M and the one of the most kind-hearted social justice Champions you will ever meet I'm here to present two awards today the first one is the Excellence in journalism award to Alex Tavon she's not able to be here today but uh Alex uh she's a full package and she is a double major in legal studies uh she just got an internship with W PRI uh in sports journalism for the summer and also she L A group of students uh reporting on bristo's Health Equity zone so she's doing all kind of work and leading the students in the department uh but also uh because of her work we also secured a podcast with the New England First Amendment Coalition for next uh fall and is going to be leading that uh uh initiative too so please uh recognize uh Alex and the second award I we have here um I honestly think the name of the award doesn't make uh justice for uh what CLA Kelly has done in the past year uh this is the societal profession professional journalist member of the Year award but Claire not only is responsible for uh The Rebirth of our chapter of the soci professional journalism organizing many trips organizing uh group bringing people together uh creating a list of uh jobs in internship for students uh getting a workshop with the pr Tim White um and uh one thing that I think is more important than anything is that since the beginning so since last year Claire stepped up to be a leader in the commun supp program and because of her now we have not only uh triing program but we have about 40 students working from support helping in both on cus and in in the communities of BR Island uh and none of this would be possible without Claire's work organizing leading and serving as the best example that we can have for a person in uh the site of professional journalism and commun of hope so please and now don't go anywhere Dr Shelton you are next this is please welcome Dr Ami Shelton a dynamic energizing force in our department I just want to say I huged Claire because she's a PR major so she does all that for journalism but she's a PR major so it's pretty cool I'm kind of tear this year has been an amazing year for the pr program this year we've increased our PR numbers by 3 38% we got a nest which is a new PR lab in this building and we did some PR for PR for the to raise awareness of the program's viability as a major or double major for people across the university additionally I was voted professor of the semester by the students I don't bring this I don't bring this up because it's nothing about me it's solely because of the students these students are part of a cohort that is energetic in enthusiastic and hungry to learn while representing representing their respective class levels these four students Rose above with their actions for the entire year each of these four students have contributed to this banner year for public relations in ways that I've never seen before and I've been here since 2006 as a building manager on campus and an advocate for PR and always willing to lend a hand he has spent innumerable hours helping with PR students play on events do activities and do Outreach for the pr program as an intern for University College the Providence division of rwu he has implemented social media campaigns that assisted students and understanding the unique benefits that University college offers he's volunteered his time to work with Bristol waren high school students to know their options after high school and he coached top soccer for special need participants throughout his entire High School career the senior of the year goes to Christian [Applause] gcla as prsa President Alexander CA has served as an organizer a cheerleader and a mentor for countless students on campus and those visiting RW she is gifted at making everyone feel like they're included and she sings AC capella too as she proved the Nashville to our complete amazement she is dedicated to everything she can do on campus and she's planned over four trips for students as of today with three more plans next year she's participated in the Bristol waren Town Grant opportunity and she's been selected as a baitman team member for uh next year's competition to try to win a PR campaign she's also a member of the advertising competition next fall also both of those are pretty big deals and you have to apply for them other students provide quite RVE reviews about her leadership abilities so congratulations Alexandra a member of the pr ssae board Victoria has spearheaded the program on Lon relations efforts reaching over 60 alumon personally Victoria has brought guest speakers to campus coordinated Zoom interviews with the planned and executed a PR firm tour to Boston and coordinated travel for programs to Chicago and San Antonio she has volunteered hours for program efforts and for campus recruitment she has also secured a highly coed internship this summer with the Bost and Red Sox join me in congratulating and Aiden bladder s a very tall hurdle for other freshmen Aiden coex executed the first PR crunch cute right crunch first PR crunch with Alexandra two weeks ago this event which was held right here in this room had over 50 people attending in an included 19 alumni he's also assisted the program in various campus recruitment events the Bristol Warren High School grant program and a spearheading a PR campaign to increase school spirit at Roger Williams University his excitement and energy are contagious and they're going to be used quite well with his brand new appointment as liaison to a newly created PR alumni Advisory Board we expect great things from him in the next three years now uh introduce you to Dr denil Emmons uh who is the lead faculty in that incredibly talented always magical always creative program of graphic design communication so much congratulations to all of the today's awardees it is a joy to be with you to celebrate greetings to everyone faculty staff family friends thank you Professor pra and the department of media design and communication it is my honor to work aside you I also want to begin by extending a special thanks to our faculty in graphic design for their endless mentorship and support we all know that it takes a village and I'm proud to recognize In This Moment our visiting faculty and graphic design Emily Sarah who was integral to our work this year along with our exceptional and talented yeah she gets around with our exceptional and talented part-time faculty who are such an important part in determining these awards today I extend a warm thanks to Carrie Dennis and licker John farmer Elaine Frolic Eric Kowalski James party and Zena zagan inski Dennis I know all of these committed Educators wish that they could be here with you today I will go quickly I have a total of six lovely awardees to uh share with you today there's only five of them here right now though um but does not take away from the award moment each one of these incredible students maybe you guys can come forward each one of these incredible students have made an impact in the studio and the community applying their creativity and critical thinking and design skills to work inside and outside the classroom together they are our future in design where no imagination goes too far where there is no limits to creativity and I just want to before I give the individual Awards just give a round of applause to these incredible designers Grayson and Sh Smith I am so proud of all of you but I'm going to begin with Kristen Kristen Harold is receiving the Excellence and graphic design award today this award recognizes excellence and leadership in the graphic design program by acknowledging outstanding Project work and dedication within and outside of the creative Studio Kristen's passion her consistency and her ability to deliver the highest caliber of work reflects both her creativity and technical skills her commitment to her craft and her willingness to go above and beyond in pursuit of Excellence inspires her peers and elevates the standard of quality within our program as presidents of the design Club senior coordinator of the design Collective and the lead researcher on the provos funded Grant research project designing our shared future Kristen's dedication to collaboration and inclusivity has left an indelible mark on the program it is my honor to award Kristen Harold the Excellence and graphic design next our emerging designer award celebrates a student who transferred into the graphic design program and has displayed exceptional Focus creativity and exploration of new mediums I am so sorry Nick Totino is not here with us in this moment but I am proud to present him with the emerging designer award next I'm pleased to recognize luo Blanco who is receiving the design Vanguard award for her groundbreaking design practices and ability to Forge New Paths and creative directions she questions and reshapes the very essence of design itself lucero's Innovative approach to design pushes the boundaries of what is possible she fearlessly explores new ideas and Concepts that defy convention her willingness to question question establish norms and experiment with unconventional methods makes her a true Visionary in the field she inspires others to think outside the box and embrace the ey it is my honor to present the design Vanguard award to luo Blanco me too uh next I'm pleased to present the program award for community and Scholars engagement to Jordan dery this award proudly acknowledges Jordan's outstanding interdisciplinary work that spans disciplines across Shay and recognizes a deep commitment to fostering respectful Community interactions and inclusive scholarly environment Jordan is a dual degree recipient in English liter literary studies and graphic design and that's a ba with 180 credits this is a big deal so yeah that's a lot of them Jordan exemplifies the principles of community and scholarly engagement embodying the spirit of Shay's mission to create a welcoming and inclusive learning environment for all Jordan stunning record at rwu clearly demonstrates Superior academic performance coupled with a profound Devotion to the values and principles that guide our institution it is my honor to present the award for community and scholarly engagement to Jordan dery everybody's cute last but certainly not least yes okay last but certainly not least our Awards this year have expanded to include a Rising Star Award in both the sophomore year and in the junior year and I'm pleased to recognize sharissa Smith and Grayson filb In This Moment The Rising Star Award yeah the Rising Star Award honors a design student who has gone above and beyond with their campus engagement their support of others and their Devotion to our campus Community they are critical thinkers and are consistently engaged in exploration of expansive practices not only in design but across their extracurricular activities each awarde has shown a deep commitment to their work as fit interns and has made significant impact in their extracurricular Endeavors through Innovative Project work inside and outside the classroom they offer unwavering support to their peers and they are what make rwu so very special it is my honor to present the St The Rising Star Award first to sherissa Smith and the Rising Star Award to our sophomore goes to Grayson filb I think that's it this concludes the awards for media design and communication and our Dean has a few words I think no yes we have another round of applause for our fantastic students they are the reason we're here our students are the reason we work here very proud of what we do proud of them as well thank you all for joining us on this lovely afternoon some of you don't think so but I think it's fantastic I wish you well thank you