McKelvys Take Top Honors as We Bid Farewell to Seniors

I can’t express how proud I was at various thesis defenses, the Honors Convocation, Honors Thesis Ceremony and Commencement this month as our McKelvys past and present racked up the awards and showed off their accomplishments– all evidence that a lot more than BBQs and film nights goes on in the House. The brain power on the second and third floors is spectacular!

The Highest Cumulative GPA crew on stage at graduation was 40% McKelvy, with Megan Feeney ’12 and Julie Martin ’12 being honored for straight 4.0s their whole tenure at Lafayette. Megan will be close by as she goes off to grad school in Philosophy at Rutgers in the fall– come back and visit, Megan!!! I (Prof. Lee) served as the outside reader on Megan’s thesis defense, at which McKelvys and friends of the House made a fantastic showing of entirely-unneeded support. The Philosophy Department sent her off with their love and a Rutgers hat. Daniel Faulkenberry’s trips to watch fuzzy Russian news broadcasts at the Library of Congress this year paid off with an amazing thesis in History and Russian and East European Studies. Daniel also received the Class of 1910 prize, awarded annually by the Department of History to the senior students who have excelled in the study of history or in an allied field of humanities and who, in the determination of the department, manifest the greatest promise for responsible civic leadership and public service. Lexi Flowers ’12 won the William C. Rappolt ’67 and Walter Oechsle ’57 Neuroscience Prize, awarded to outstanding seniors based on scholarship in the classroom and laboratory, and service to the major, college or community. Ashley Kaminski ’13 won the Dr. E. L. McMillen-K. K. Malhotra ’49 Prize, awarded to a junior who has attained a high cumulative average in chemical engineering and who has demonstrated a high level of proficiency in the Unit Operations Laboratory. Meagan Betke ’13 won the “Culture/Literature Studies Award” of the Rexroth Prize in German. As you can imagine, the assorted cum laudes and Phi Beta Kappas are too numerous to mention.

Congratulations everyone on all of your hard work this year! We will miss you seniors, but look forward to your return visits, especially at the 50th anniversary celebration in October!