Fall Academic Awards Ceremony Honors Outstanding Students

What better way to impress par­ents during Family Weekend than Colgate University’s annual Fall Academic Awards Ceremony? On Friday, October 28 in the Colgate Memorial Chapel, a plethora of stu­dents were honored for their out­standing scholastic achievements in a multitude of academic fields of study. The event sought to high­light and recognize these students for their significant influence inside and outside of the classroom. These students have pursued their respec­tive fields of study to the point of mastership and have shown active interest in what they are learning by engaging in these respective fields of study beyond what occurs inside the lecture hall. Whether going to numerous office hours or spending large portions of time researching and studying in the library, these students have gone the extra mile to achieve the academic awards they have received.

“This ceremony celebrates the academic achievements, effort and service of select students to their community,” Professor of English and University Marshal for the event George Hudson said.

Professor Hudson went on to suggest that this event serves as a way for the Colgate community to come together to recognize a few of the many students who have beneficially impacted the overall environment of our university. Furthermore, Professor Hudson explained that the faculty in at­tendance at the event were in full academic dress (which is usually only seen at graduation) in order to symbolize the unbroken conti­nuity of the scholastic community at Colgate University. President Jeffrey Herbst went on to indicate that in fact these robes have tradi­tionally been worn since the time of Medieval Europe, where profes­sors would wear them as a symbol of prestige and acclaim.

The ceremony appropriately be­gan with an invocation by Univer­sity Chaplain and Catholic Cam­pus Minister Mark Shiner. His speech served as a way to initiate the ceremony and create a mood of reverence within the audience. Through Shiner’s speech, the au­dience truly began to understand the magnitude of the accomplish­ments of each and every student being honored at the event.

Shiner suggested that the cer­emony served as a way to “recog­nize students who have decided to spend their time wisely and serve themselves and people that are mar­ginalized,” in the Chenango Valley and around the globe.

As the ceremony began to take its course, President Herbst took center stage for his announce­ment of fellowships, scholarships and awards.

President Herbst immediately affirmed to the audience that our community would not be as rich and conducive to learning as it is today if it wasn’t for the constant persistence of his fellow colleagues and of course the students being honored at the ceremony. He went on to assert that this ceremony was one of the most important of the year because it signified the true academic achievements of several students from Colgate’s student body. These achieve­ments are an emblem of what Colgate and other such universities seek to do on a daily basis throughout the years.

President Herbst stated that even though Colgate stands for so many purposes in our community, its most distinct and important purpose still remains to educate young stu­dents and produce eventual scholars and cre­ators of thought itself. This ceremony serves as a way to bring this underlying and fun­damental purpose of our university to the surface in the hopes that students and faculty alike will further embrace this idea as the year quickly begins to take its course.

“One thing stands as more important than anything else – academic achievements,” President Herbst said.

Herbst stressed that although the cer­emony mostly serves as a way to stress the accolades of numerous intellectual students, it also serves as a way for our academic com­munity to continue to embrace the phe­nomenon of learning and discovery. The ceremony honors the learning atmosphere we are a part of and embraces all the tools and resources we have been blessed with in this community.

President Herbst went on to suggest that these students have “set the bar high for our entire community” and have encouraged a large amount of students to take more strides to achieve success both inside and outside the classroom. These students have successfully raised the bar in our community and have served as a key example of Colgate Universi­ty’s proud educational environment in which each and every student is given the utmost opportunity to prosper and discover their true intellectual passions.

As the ceremony continued, students were individually honored for their academic en­deavors by representatives from each indi­vidual subject matter. However, the ceremo­ny served as more than just another step in the learning process for these students. The ceremony marked the transition of these in­dividuals from consumers of information to society’s producers of knowledge.

Contact Alan Pleat at [email protected]