Academic Excellence of Students and Faculty Celebrated at 2022 Honors Convocation
The importance of authenticity, vulnerability, and discovery were central themes at this year’s in-person Honors Convocation at Arcadia University on March 26, which celebrated the academic excellence of students and faculty.
The annual event recognizes graduate and undergraduate students who earn Dean’s List and Distinguished Dean’s List, inductees into academic honor societies such as Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Epsilon Lambda, and students and faculty recipients of departmental and University academic awards.
“Your excellence comes in part because you don’t just look, you try to see,” Arcadia President Ajay Nair said in his address. “The academic process is discovering new knowledge, discovering new methods, discovering new points of view, and perhaps most importantly, discovering what you did not know. Through your exploration and discovery, you hopefully also are discovering something very important about yourself.”
Mia Woo ’22, a Studio Arts major with a concentration in Ceramics, served as the student speaker after being selected by the deans of Arcadia’s Schools and Colleges.
“Authenticity is a form of vulnerability,” Woo said. “My authentic self isn’t perfect. I’m still terrified of messing up. I’m still terrified of making mistakes. And each time my inner perfectionist likes to lie to me and convince me that the world will end should I fail, I’m proven wrong time and time again by my community that I’ve found here at Arcadia. They have shown me that whether I succeed or fail, that does not diminish my worth or my potential not just as a student but as a person.”
A complete list of award recipients and honorees is available at arcadia.edu/honorsconvocation. University and faculty awards include:
- Garrett Knox ’24, a Biology major who achieved a 4.0 average and placement on the Dean’s Undergraduate Distinguished Honor List award for three semesters, earned the Provost’s Prize, given to the Arcadia sophomore with the highest cumulative grade point average in three semesters. (Although there were 10 students with a 4.0 GPA, Garrett had the most completed Arcadia credits.)
- Michael J. Stemen ’23, a double major in Spanish and in French and Francophone Studies, earned the President’s Prize, which goes to the junior with the highest cumulative average for five semesters of study at Arcadia. Stemen is known to bring a global perspective to his academic career and to have developed his cultural literacy of the more than 29 countries where French is spoken.
Faculty awards include:
- Dr. Christine Mullin, assistant professor of Media and Communication, received the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Advising and Mentoring, which honors a faculty member whose advising or mentoring displays consistent, exemplary commitment to students’ success.
- Instructor Daniel Pieczkolon received the Adjunct Faculty Award, which recognizes an adjunct faculty member who is an especially effective classroom teacher and has significantly influenced students’ education at Arcadia.
- Dr. Michael Tevald, associate professor of Physical Therapy, received the Lindback Award, which recognizes particularly effective classroom teachers at Arcadia; students nominate faculty for the award. It is the most prestigious honor bestowed on a faculty member at Honors Convocation.
More information on Honors Convocation, including a full list of awards, is available here.
