Skip to main content

Fifteen seniors earn top honors as Winthrop Scholars

The 2010 Winthrop Scholars pose with President <br>Leo I. Higdon Jr., center, and Professor Lawrence Vogel, right.
The 2010 Winthrop Scholars pose with President
Leo I. Higdon Jr., center, and Professor Lawrence Vogel, right.

Fifteen Connecticut College seniors have been named Winthrop Scholars, the highest academic honor bestowed by the college.

The scholars were recognized at a ceremony Feb. 16. All have also been chosen for membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the national honor society of undergraduate higher education, and will be initiated officially in May.

"I am extremely proud of our Winthrop Scholars, who have all demonstrated exceptional scholarship," Connecticut College President Leo I. Higdon Jr. said. "Their academic achievements are significant, and their leadership on campus shows they are taking advantage of all Connecticut College has to offer."

The 2010 Winthrop Scholars are:

- Elizabeth Joy Archer, a botany and chemistry major from Trumbull, Conn.

- Laura Elizabeth Frawley, a biological sciences major from Needham, Mass.

- Sarah Elizabeth Hammond, a human development and psychology major from Malden, Mass.

- Jennifer Rose Jacoby, a government major from Bayside, N.Y.

- Melanie Teresa Joubanian, a psychology major enrolled in the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Action from West Newtown, Mass.

- Sharon Beth Katz, an economics major from Barrington, R.I.

- Abigail Pratt Mayer, a history and philosophy major from Hingham, Mass.

- Karina Bell Mudd, a dance and sociology-based human relations major from Woodside, Calif.

- Danielle Johanna Murphy, a government major from Medford, Mass.

- Heather May Petrucci, a psychology major from North Branford, Conn.

- Zoe Kirsten Philip, an economics major from Lexington, Mass.

- Lily Amelia Preer, a French and psychology major enrolled in the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts from Milton, Mass.

- Gwendolyn Margaret Shockey, an art major from Princeton, N.J.

- Timothy Francis Sullivan, an economics major from Ridgewood, N.J.

- Charles Barteld Van Rees, a biological sciences and environmental studies major enrolled in the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment from Needham, Mass.  

Parents, friends, faculty and staff attended the Feb. 16 recognition ceremony, which included remarks by Kenneth A. Bleeth, professor of English, and Lawrence Vogel, professor of philosophy. President Higdon also congratulated the scholars at the event.

In 1928, 17 years after Connecticut College was founded, the practice of honoring Winthrop Scholars - those members of the senior class who demonstrated exceptional scholarship, personal fitness and promise - was begun. The honor was named after John Winthrop, founder of New London and a governor of Connecticut.

All Winthrop Scholars also receive invitations for induction into Phi Beta Kappa, the national honor society of undergraduate higher education. Admission to the society is based on exemplary academic scholarship over four years of college; members are in the top 10 percent of their graduating classes. The Delta of Connecticut Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was installed at Connecticut College on February 13, 1935.

-Amy Martin



March 11, 2010