Honors Convocation celebrates student achievement, curiosity, and character

Honors Convocation, a Skidmore tradition for more than six decades, brought the Skidmore community together once again to recognize students’ exceptional academic achievements, leadership, service, and creativity.
 
“We are extraordinarily proud of the accomplishments of all our students, and it is heartening also to celebrate the faculty who helped shape their intellectual curiosity and academic pursuits,” Dorothy Mosby, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs, said of the event. This year’s ceremony was held May 1 on the second floor of Murray-Aikins Dining Hall.

Dorothy Mosby, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs, delivered remarks to open this year's ceremony.

A special element of the tradition are the personalized statements that faculty prepare about each award recipient, describing each student’s academic accomplishments and distinguishing qualities.

 
Faculty, staff, friends, and family share in the celebration, which recognizes the whole student and the people who encourage and support them.

 
Here’s a look at this year’s honors, by the numbers: 
 
32 national merit scholarship and fellowship honorees were recognized. Christopher Bentley Arnold III ’24 and Chloe Elizabeth Hanrahan ’24 are the recipients of Fulbright Scholarships, Heba Salman ’25 and Natasha Ana Wozniak ’25 are the recipients of Goldwater Scholarships, and Rebecca Kate Banner ’23, Jonah Silberman Brenner ’20, Allison Taylor Hands ’19, Abigail Grace Monahan ’23, and Britney Philomena Smart ’16 are recipients of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Vicky Grijalva ’24 is the recipient of a National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Undergraduate Fellowship, and Willa Faye Flink ’24 is the recipient of an Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service. Twenty-one students were semi-finalists, nominees, alternates, or earned honorable mentions for these awards. 
 
8 department and program prizes and opportunity awards were given to a total of 17 students. These awards are given for papers, competitions, field and laboratory research, artistic projects, and other creative endeavors, and they build on close faculty-student collaborative work. 
 
72 academic awards and prizes were bestowed across all disciplines, from ceramics to computer science, economics to world languages, and everything in between. 
 
31 senior class members of the National Honor Society of Phi Beta Kappa were acknowledged. The society exists to encourage and recognize outstanding achievements in liberal arts education, and Skidmore was granted a charter in 1970. 
 
47 senior class members of the Periclean Honors Forum were acknowledged. Through honors-designated courses, planned co-curricular activities, and participation in community service, the forum strengthens intellectual life at Skidmore and provides positive leadership on and off campus. 
 
317 memberships in national and international honor societies for specific areas of study, from the National Honor Society in Physics to the International Honor Society in History, were recognized.