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TWU to
recognize outstanding students
4/15/05
DENTON
— Texas Woman’s University will recognize artistry
and academic excellence during Honors Convocation ceremonies
Thursday, April 21.
Convocation begins
at 10 a.m. in the Margo Jones Performance Hall, located at
Oakland and Sawyer streets on TWU’s Denton campus.
Kayla Hamilton
of Texarkana, Texas, will receive the Pauline Bishop Leman
Memorial Award for outstanding artistic achievement. Outstanding
Senior awards, which are based on academic excellence and
involvement in extracurricular activities, will go to Sarah
Godding of Houston and Rebecca Basham of Sherman.
The university
also honors a master’s and a doctoral student for excellence
in scholarship and service. Joy Christiansen of Denton will
receive this year’s Outstanding Master’s Student
award, and Nadine Barrett of Denton is this year’s Outstanding
Doctoral Student.
Kayla Hamilton
Hamilton is in the process of completing her bachelor of arts
degree in choreography and performance. She has been a member
of DanceWorks, TWU’s repertory company, since 2002.
She also is a member of The International Folk Dance Company
and performs dances from Venezuela, Mexico and Spain. Hamilton’s
choreography has been produced in the TWU Dancemakers Concert
Series as well as by “The Moving Spirit Dance Collective”
in Baltimore, Md. She received an Excellence in Performance
Award from TWU in 2003-04. She also was awarded a performance
merit scholarship to attend Bates Dance Festival, an internationally
renowned dance intensive.
Sarah Godding
Godding, a nursing major, carries a 3.955 grade point average
and is a member of the TWU Honors Scholar Program. The Golden
Key Honour Society recognized her for outstanding academic
achievement from 2002-2004, and she also received recognition
from Phi Kappa Phi in fall 2004. She was inducted into both
Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing
honor society, this spring.
She has participated
in numerous health fairs with Houston hospitals, performing
depression screenings, providing information about diabetes
and raising money for research. Her own research, currently
in progress, is titled “Bariatric Surgery Among Morbidly
Obese Adolescents.”
Godding has been
involved in Helping Hands and TWU’s Habitat for Humanity
chapter, and currently serves as a volunteer at Ronald McDonald
House. She organized a used eyeglasses donation drive in 2004,
and was honored as Humanitarian Cum Laude by the Carpe Diem
Foundation Inc. in 2002.
Rebecca Basham
Basham holds a 3.75 GPA and will graduate in May with a bachelor’s
degree in chemistry/pre-med.
She has been named to both the TWU and the National Dean’s
lists, as well as to Who’s Who Among College Students.
She is president of both the American Medical Student Association
and the Baptist Student Ministry on TWU’s campus. She
is a member of the Gamma Beta Phi, Kappa Epsilon Mu and Athenian
honor societies. She is active in church and in the community,
where she serves as a tutor and mentor to students. Basham
also volunteers in animal shelters and kitchens for the homeless.
Joy Christiansen
Christiansen will graduate in May with a Master of Fine Arts
degree in photography.
She was the recipient
of the 2005 Freestyle/Society for Photographic Education Crystal
Apple Award, which brings a $5,000 award as well as national
recognition. She was a 2004 National Graduate Seminar Fellow
for The Photography Institute at Columbia University, New
York. She has been a member of the SPE since 1999 and the
Texas Photographic Society since 2003. She served as president
of the Photographic Artist Coalition, a student-run organization,
in 2002-03.
Christiansen has
worked as a gallery assistant in TWU’s Fine Arts Gallery
and as both a graduate assistant and graduate teaching assistant
in the photography department. She served as exhibition coordinator
for the Joyce Elaine Grant Exhibition at TWU in 2003-04.
Nadine
Barrett
Barrett , a sociology major, holds a 4.0 GPA. She will receive
her doctorate in August and will then begin a prestigious
two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She was the recipient of the 2004-05 Robert B. Toulouse Federated
Outstanding Doctoral Student Scholarship Award, which recognizes
one outstanding doctoral student among the federated universities
of North Texas. The Federation includes TWU, the University
of North Texas and Texas A&M University-Commerce. She
also was the recipient of the University of Texas-Permian
Basin’s ABD Minority Scholars Fellowship this year.
Barrett was named to Who’s Who Among Students in America’s
Universities and Colleges in 2004, and has been a member of
Alpha Kappa Delta, the international sociology honors society,
since 1999. She also is a member of the American Sociological
Association, the National Women’s Studies Association
and the Association of Black Sociologists.
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For Further Information Contact:
Karen Treat
Senior Copywriter
Tel: (940) 898-3456
e-mail: ktreat@twu.edu |