ANNOUNCEMENT: Honors Scholar & Emerging Honors Scholar of the Year 2021 Recipients
The Virginias Collegiate Honors Council (VCHC) is pleased to again offer the VCHC Honors Scholar of the Year and Emerging Honors Scholar of the Year awards to our best and brightest undergraduate honors students in Virginia and West Virginia. The Honors Scholar of the Year and Emerging Honors Scholar of the Year are awarded to students who successfully embody the scholarship, character, and ambition associated historically with honors students in the Virginias Collegiate Honors Council.
The 2021 winners are Ellen Druebbisch of the University of Lynchburg (Honors Scholar of the Year) and Claire Seibel of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Emerging Scholar of the Year). The VCHC is grateful to have Ellen Druebbisch and Claire Seibel studying in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The selection committee judged their personal essays exceptional, and letters of support superior in their detailed account of academic and co-curricular accomplishments.
Ellen Druebbisch was nominated by University of Lynchburg Honors College Dean Dr. Beth Savage. “Ellen consistently pushes herself and raises the level of discourse in the classroom,” says Savage. “In her role as mentorship chair, Ellen reinvigorated our very important mentorship program, and helped to create close bonds between incoming students and upper-class students. This was particularly important this year, as COVID made it extremely difficult for students to interact and for first-year students to find friend groups. Ellen re-designed the mentorship program while under considerable pressure herself, as a senior struggling with COVID's effects on her own academic research and her athletic season.”
Claire Seibel was nominated by Virginia Tech’s Director of Professional Development, Dr. Christina McIntyre. As Dr. McIntyre states in her letter “In the Venn diagram of the university, the Corps of Cadets and the Honors College, Claire is the center intersection. Her efforts are not for her own benefit but towards a larger vision of the impact of responsible leadership to a global society.” McIntyre goes on to describe one of Claire’s projects “In her second semester, Claire led an Honors College Reading Seminar as a Peer Educator. Her proposed seminar focused on rethinking leadership. This seminar was well received by the other students enrolled in the weekly seminar and benefited from Claire’s guidance as she applied the discussion, teaching and learning methods introduced in the weekly peer-mentoring classes.” McIntyre later states “She is a motivated, enthusiastic learner, eager to share the experience with her peers.”
Awardees of these scholarships receive – courtesy of the VCHC – registration and lodging at the annual conference, a $500 cash prize, and their narrative may be published in a future edition of the online Proceedings of the Virginias Collegiate Honors Council. The recipient also have the opportunity to address their peers at the VCHC meeting, where they have an opportunity to receive further acknowledgement and speak about being a part of an honors community and what that means to them. This year’s spring meeting was held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns.
The VCHC also wishes to recognize all Honors Scholar and Emerging Scholar nominees and their institutions:
The 2021 winners are Ellen Druebbisch of the University of Lynchburg (Honors Scholar of the Year) and Claire Seibel of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Emerging Scholar of the Year). The VCHC is grateful to have Ellen Druebbisch and Claire Seibel studying in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The selection committee judged their personal essays exceptional, and letters of support superior in their detailed account of academic and co-curricular accomplishments.
Ellen Druebbisch was nominated by University of Lynchburg Honors College Dean Dr. Beth Savage. “Ellen consistently pushes herself and raises the level of discourse in the classroom,” says Savage. “In her role as mentorship chair, Ellen reinvigorated our very important mentorship program, and helped to create close bonds between incoming students and upper-class students. This was particularly important this year, as COVID made it extremely difficult for students to interact and for first-year students to find friend groups. Ellen re-designed the mentorship program while under considerable pressure herself, as a senior struggling with COVID's effects on her own academic research and her athletic season.”
Claire Seibel was nominated by Virginia Tech’s Director of Professional Development, Dr. Christina McIntyre. As Dr. McIntyre states in her letter “In the Venn diagram of the university, the Corps of Cadets and the Honors College, Claire is the center intersection. Her efforts are not for her own benefit but towards a larger vision of the impact of responsible leadership to a global society.” McIntyre goes on to describe one of Claire’s projects “In her second semester, Claire led an Honors College Reading Seminar as a Peer Educator. Her proposed seminar focused on rethinking leadership. This seminar was well received by the other students enrolled in the weekly seminar and benefited from Claire’s guidance as she applied the discussion, teaching and learning methods introduced in the weekly peer-mentoring classes.” McIntyre later states “She is a motivated, enthusiastic learner, eager to share the experience with her peers.”
Awardees of these scholarships receive – courtesy of the VCHC – registration and lodging at the annual conference, a $500 cash prize, and their narrative may be published in a future edition of the online Proceedings of the Virginias Collegiate Honors Council. The recipient also have the opportunity to address their peers at the VCHC meeting, where they have an opportunity to receive further acknowledgement and speak about being a part of an honors community and what that means to them. This year’s spring meeting was held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns.
The VCHC also wishes to recognize all Honors Scholar and Emerging Scholar nominees and their institutions:
- Elizabeth Combs and Zeke Workman (Emory and Henry College)
- Conner Merk and Alex Powers (Virginia Wesleyan University)
- Karolina Straznikiewicz (Northern Virginia Community College)
- Abigail McGovern and Alexzondra Mattson (Ferrum College)
- Maci Keaton (Radford University)
- Layla Abbud (James Madison University)
- Maya Jenkins and Piper Giannini (University of Mary Washington)
- Rebecca Chung (Longwood University)
- Yanni Ervin and Myles Perry (Norfolk State University)
- Sophia Tully and Ellen Druebbisch (University of Lynchburg)
- Kevin Babu (Virginia Commonwealth University)
- Claire Seibel and Madeleine Paulsen (Virginia Tech)
The Virginias Collegiate Honors Council (VCHC), now more than twenty five years old, joins universities, colleges, and community colleges throughout Virginia and West Virginia to support and enhance programs and activities to meet the needs of exceptionally talented and motivated students.
The mission of VCHC is to:
The mission of VCHC is to:
- provide a forum for sharing information about honors programs,
- provide students with greater opportunities for intercollegiate honors programs activities,
- collaborate with regional and national organizations which have similar goals,
- encourage articulation between two- and four-year honors programs, and
- increase public and private awareness of and fiscal commitment to honors programs and projects.