2024 President’s Medalists

Cara, your Denison career is marked by a range of experiences that inform one another to create a cohesive whole. Your commitment to student mental health and thriving extends across your outstanding undergraduate achievements. Your Psychology faculty describe you as an exceptional student and researcher, taking on a summer scholar project on “the role of parenting style and gender in college students’ adjustment” that resulted in a poster presentation at a national conference. That accomplishment was followed by a prestigious internship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in which you independently developed a project on the “social information processing skills” of pediatric brain tumor survivors. On campus, you have been a leader in Mission 34, a program that promotes mental health awareness and openness among student-athletes. As a three-year Community Advisor in our residence halls, you’ve been described as exceeding “in the moments when an extraordinary level of compassion is required.” In addition to all of this, you are a year-round athlete on Denison’s cross-country and track teams. You run long distances very fast!, leading in both athletic performance and team-building, serving as team captain in your junior and senior years. In this role you do “an excellent job of serving your teammates, motivating them daily and providing them with support in all aspects of their life, not just athletics.” For your compassionate dedication to Denison life, we are delighted to honor you with the President’s Medal.

Torria, as a member of the 2020 cohort who began college in the midst of the pandemic, you made an immediate impression on your Politics & Public Affairs faculty. “Whether on Zoom,…in-person behind a mask, [or] even in the friendly, oversized confines of Eisner’s Sharon Martin Hall,” you established “a model for student engagement.” You have “consistently [used] academic inquiry to address division and justice,” culminating in a PPA senior research project that is a fresh and beautifully written study of “the role of the Black press in sustaining democracy and spotlighting injustice in central Ohio.” Your gift for writing is matched by a keen reporter’s instinct, honed in your Journalism major. One of your nominators states that while “it might be hyperbolic to prophesy so much for someone so young…I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Torria wins a Pulitzer at some point.” Your reporting of the central Ohio housing crisis has been especially incisive and important. As the editor-in-chief of The Denisonian this past year, you’ve led the paper during an intense time of campus debate with a commitment to holding “spaces where members of the community can express their opinions, arguments and beliefs in dialogue.” You also were a valued member of our fencing team for two years and have worked in our Admission program as a docent, now serving as a mentor to younger students in that role. Your contributions to Denison merit our gratitude and recognition with the President’s Medal.

Kate, your time at Denison has been an immersion in “rich academic, athletic, and service-based experiences.” Your Health, Exercise, and Sports Studies faculty describe you as an excellent student with an exceptional “ability to apply classroom learning to real-world scenarios.” Your internship at the US Olympic Training Center included physiological research that examined “differences in…metabolic function due to changes in…various running shoes.” At Denison, you are an Admission docent and a leader on the Student Athletic Advisory Council. You’ve made a singular contribution to our community by founding “Crossover for Change,” a non-profit organization dedicated to “fostering confidence…and leadership for young women in Uganda through athletics and education.” Under your leadership, the Crossover team traveled to Uganda to conduct basketball camps that reached 400 young women and your fund-raising efforts built a basketball court there. You are a collegiately-ranked golfer, a team captain with the “third lowest season scoring average in Denison Golf History” – and the season isn’t over yet! Your coach wrote about you, “Kate exemplifies the meaning of being a Denisonian… She is one of the most competitive people I know, but is the last to talk about herself and her [achievements]. I am forever thankful for the impact she has had not only on this team but this University and beyond…Thank you for leaving the Denison Golf Family better than you found it.” You have accomplished all of this in just three years as a transfer student. We are immensely grateful that you decided to join our college on the hill and recognize your achievements with the President’s Medal.

Nadeem, one of your nominators states that you “represent the best of what a classic liberal arts education can do to educate the whole person, mind, body, and soul.” As a pre-med student double-majoring in Chemistry and Studio Art, you have a stellar academic record. You are a highly valued member of the three-time conference championship tennis team. Your coach says of you, “In over three decades of mentoring… student-athletes, I’ve encountered few individuals as impressive as Nadeem. He is a strong athlete, a remarkable student and a world-class individual…with a work ethic second to none… Nadeem has exemplified the spirit of commitment and excellence that defines [Denison] community…[and] is an incredible role-model for everyone he comes in contact with.” Nadeem, you’ve also served as a head tutor, insightful member of our honor committee, and service chair for Beta Theta Pi. What stands out the most in this astonishing range of activity is the character and creative sensibility you bring to each encounter. Your faculty have complimented you as a scientist for your “facility with the spatial understanding of molecular structure,” and celebrated you as an artist for “the risk taking…and depth of research and process” in your art practice, most notably displayed in the painting triptych you produced in your senior capstone. As part of that project, you shared your artistic manifesto: “Medicine keeps us alive. Art is what we stay alive for.” You have modeled the ways in which “everything connects to everything else” and we are honored to present you with the President’s Medal.

Priyanshi, as a double major in Communication and Politics & Public Affairs, you have excelled academically, demonstrated by your induction into Phi Beta Kappa in your junior year. You have been described as “intellectually fearless” and were nominated by the Lisska Center to participate in the Athens Democracy Forum where you spoke to an “audience of dignitaries…on the relationship between climate change and gender inequality.” You followed up on the Athens experience by “writing a Summer Scholar paper on political rhetoric and how the same rhetorical strategies that fuel populist movements can be deployed to support democratic ideals.” You have enlarged our global perspective as you serve with “seemingly inexhaustible joy a multitude of communities both at Denison and globally.” You are the founder of a Kolkata non-profit focused on the education and healthcare of underprivileged girls. As president of the Denison International Student Association, you work to “create an inclusive campus community” and are “committed to passing this down to [your] peers” by creating a legacy of campus events including the “cross-cultural communities formal.” Your nominators praise your outstanding service as an Academic Resource tutor and student worker, a member of the University Honor Committee, and a mentor to your fellow consultants in the Writing Center. We are forever grateful for the ways in which your global outlook has deepened our local community and celebrate your achievements with the President’s Medal.

Jack, our campus provides a home loved (so) well for all Denisonians. It is more rare for a student to build a home that is deeply rooted in Licking County and its environs. You have done just that as a journalist, podcaster, and researcher who has made central Ohio your leitmotif. Your work includes a breaking story from the Johnstown city council for the Newark Advocate, an article for the Columbus Dispatch on Latinx members of the Columbus Clippers, and a Reporting Project piece on a phenomenal local basketball team having a special season. Called “Newark’s Boys of Winter,” it is a “longform, midseason feature about a basketball team in a small city in Ohio and yet it’s a story about youth, resilience, and tenacity that could speak to most anyone in the country.” You’ve been an all-conference linebacker for the Big Red, an “impact player” who is “a leader for the program.” That impact extends beyond your 125 career total tackles to your contributions as “a strong member of the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee” and a mentor to younger athletes in your dedication to your sport while maintaining the highest academic standards. That commitment to your academic work has shined during your senior Journalism project composed of profiles of people from the local community, including organizers of pancake breakfast fundraisers and alumni who helped teach the first Black Studies course at Denison. It is a delight to recognize our local storyteller with the President’s Medal.

Taylor, your nominators describe you as “an all-in individual with an incredible work ethic and…a strong ‘true north.’ In your Politics & Public Affairs major, your excellent academic performance has been characterized by memorable and transformative contributions to class discussions, arriving every day “100% ready to have productive and thoughtful conversations.” You have been “strikingly successful in your off-campus leadership,” with “highly prestigious” summer internships at the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, the Brookings Institute, and the U.S. Congress. On campus, you have been devoted to the Black Student Union, progressing in leadership positions and now serving as Chief Minister. You have “actively supported BSU’s goal to uplift the Black community through unity and community, active civic and political participation, and the promotion of academic and professional standards,” creating events focused on issues including the impact of SCOTUS’ on affirmative action and Ohio Senate Bill 83. As co-host of the Doobie’s That Black Girl podcast, you “delve into issues affecting Black women on mostly white college campuses.” As a docent in the Office of Admission and as a Community Advisor, [your] attention to detail…and organizational prowess shine brightly.” In all of this work, you emphasize belonging and connections with a “compassionate spirit,’” “focused on making Denison better…by ensuring a broader array of voices make it to campus…[and] that these voices are heard and supported once they arrive.” We are much the better place for your leadership and we present you with this medal with joy and gratitude.

Max, you are a student “who recognizes the ways that science and art come together to create something delightful.” As a Data Analytics major and Philosophy and Computer Science double minor, you are “eager to engage challenging material…and drive the conversation forward… [Your] incredibly varied but rigorously pursued interests are a superlative example of what a liberal arts education makes possible.” Those interests include serving as a teaching assistant for Portuguese, being a valued member of the University Honor Committee, and conducting a computational summer research project on changing bird migration. Your outstanding academic and service accomplishments alone make for a medal-worthy Denison career. But then there is the music! You have time and again brought audiences to tears and laughter with brilliant musical theatre and singing performances. While not a Music major, you performed an inspirational senior recital that was met with ovation from your faculty and peers alike. One of your directors shared that “[Max] sets an example for the other students in every way imaginable. He has incredible talent, but never relies on that talent. He works with dedication and focus, while always supporting his fellow students.” You’ve led “productions of Company and Threepenny Opera and you were Pippin. The spotlight operators learned to assume that you would end just about every song with your arms fully extended, embracing our community and sharing your joy for the art.” Thank you for embracing us with your gifts. We are so proud to celebrate you with the President’s Medal.