2025 President’s Medalists

Annabelle, your multiple letters of nomination unite in describing you as an inspiring force throughout your time at Denison. As a biology major, your senior research project, focusing on developing a course on exercise metabolism and physiology, has inspired your faculty advisors to “understand the science better and see the teaching enterprise in new ways.” You are a committed student assistant in the athletic training room and, as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, you’ve “championed initiatives that uplift fellow student-athletes and foster a sense of inclusion and support.”

You are an absolute star on the softball field, having been recognized as the National Fastpitch Coaches Catcher of the Year, the first in the history of Denison softball to earn this accolade. You are an All-American and the 2024 NCAC Player of the Year, sporting a .495 batting average and a .982 fielding average. While celebrating your unparalleled achievement behind the plate, your nominators from the Department of Athletics are most impressed by how you act as an “energy giver,” empowering others through your leadership and “unwavering belief in the potential of yourself and those around you.” For the exceptional ways that you have served to inspire your teachers, coaches, classmates, and teammates, we are delighted to recognize you with the President’s Medal.

Noah, one of your nominators reflects that, “I am not sure what good fortune brought Noah to our campus, but [your] presence has been a gift to us in so many ways.” You are a dynamic classroom presence, “contributing to the learning environment … and lowering people’s inhibitions to the point that no one feels strange in their nerdiest, most academically authentic selves.” A double major in philosophy, politics, and economics and women’s and gender studies, your faculty unite in celebrating your academic excellence and admire how you “put all that theory … to practical use” in your singular achievements as a campus leader.

As a first-year student, you wrote, “I will make my mark at Denison by doing all I can to improve the structure and culture of the Denison Campus Governance Association.” You have indeed made your mark in “progressive leadership as a class senator, rules committee chair, speaker of the senate, and ultimately president.” You’ve led in ways small and large, “modifying internal procedures to align organization bylaws,” while also charging your fellow students with “being courageous in making this place their own.” You’ve lived that charge in countless ways, whether in governance or as a member of the Sketch’rs comedy troupe, in leading the Songwriting Club, or as master of the Denison Survivor game that is a “feat of creative and organizational genius” available to all students. Noah, the Denison tribe has spoken. We are thrilled to recognize you as a 2025 President’s Medalist.

Gabe, you have “taken advantage of your Denison experience and contributed substantially to our community in the process. Your contributions occur at multiple levels — in the classroom, on the stage, and in the community at large.” Your nominators in the Department of History describe you as a student who “elevates the potential learning of your classmates through preparation, deep thinking, and your openness to new ideas and perspectives … You engage deeply with complicated questions, listen, learn from others, and to help others learn in the process … These [qualities] make your desire to become a teacher of history and of music feel so right.”

Your nominators in the Department of Music share that you are “an incredibly talented student whose work demonstrates an acute intellect coupled with care for your peers.” You are a cornerstone of vocal music at Denison. Our vocal ensembles will be at a loss next year because, as our choir director notes, “20% of the sound you hear is Gabe.” A powerful baritone, you were selected as co-winner of this year’s concerto-aria competition. Your voice is foundational to this generation of Denison Hilltoppers, for whom you serve as the music director. You also support our community through your work with Planned Parenthood and your role as a community advisor. For the power of your voice and the depth of your engagement across campus, Denison awards you the President’s Medal.

Jacob, your nominators praise your accomplishments in three areas: academic excellence, community service, and the gift of “brighten[ing] the life of everyone you encounter.” As a double major in data analytics and mathematics, you have exhibited “contagious enthusiasm” for both fields and your research has been published in an undergraduate journal.

As co-president of the Denison Community Service Association, you have re-energized service outreach since the limitations imposed by Covid. You expanded the Saturday service program from a handful of annual events into last year’s record of 113 programs. Leading by example, you “have not missed a weekend Saturday service in your entire time at Denison” and have served as student leader for three alternative spring break trips. As a 2024 summer scholar, you merged academics and service in a research project focused on community gardens. Partnering with a local non-profit, you collected granular data on population density, food deserts, and poverty rates. Your project identified the Licking County location that would most benefit from the creation of a garden – a garden that is now in development. Your findings were bolstered by direct understanding of the work involved, through countless hours pulling weeds, even in 100-degree weather, “when you were the only volunteer to show up!” Jacob, Denison has been enriched by the gardens you have cultivated here. Today we honor you with the President’s Medal.

Maddie, you have been described as the “glue that makes our varsity women’s basketball teamwork.” A four-year starter, your coach says you are one of the most “dedicated and hard-working students I’ve ever been around.” Your athletic accolades include being a Division III Team of the Week selection and a recipient of the 2024 Ted Barclay Top-Five Award.

Beyond your stellar athletic career, you are a gifted scientific researcher. One of your nominators notes that it may sound “corny, but I really believe Maddie could cure cancer with her research.” Last summer, you were awarded a highly competitive position to conduct biomedical research at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, where you evaluated the role of G protein-coupled receptor signaling in kidney disease. Throughout that program, you continued your basketball training for your senior season. You have presented your research across the country and “right in your backyard at Denison’s Summer Scholars Symposium.” Your biochemistry faculty celebrates you as “extremely bright, motivated, and intellectually curious … [combining] natural talent with a strong work ethic and a true depth of thought.” You maintain academic excellence and athletic achievement while also serving our campus as a first-year fellow and a tutor in the Academic Resource Center. Your achievements across campus, on the court, and in the lab make you a truly deserving recipient of the President’s Medal.

Sophia, throughout your undergraduate career, you have been exemplary in developing opportunities for Denisonians to better understand and learn from one another. As a forward scholar in the Center for Belonging and Inclusion, you’ve organized events on dialogues across difference, led a student workshop on “Identity & Ally-ship,” and conducted research on the “social determinants of health.” Reflecting on your work as the two-term president of the Denison Asian Student Union, a nominator describes you as “a transformational leader … not only expanding DASU’s programming and events each year but also [developing it as] a more cohesive organization, thanks to [your] strategic vision and ability to cultivate collaboration.” A nominator observes that your deep commitment to fostering an inclusive, engaged, and globally conscious campus community is matched by your academic accomplishments.

You have excelled in your biology major, “skilled at understanding complex scholarly literature and discussing ideas with confidence and competence.” In your Spanish minor, you have created a multi-media research project on Nicaraguan politics and are studying the health of Latina women to support your planned career in medicine. Along the way, you have been a member of Denison’s orchestra, participated in the Community Health Seminar, and served as a teaching assistant for a course in pathophysiology. Your contributions to Denison life are varied and rich. We are proud to honor you with the President’s Medal.

Jay, you are acclaimed by your nominators as a “fantastic Denisonian.” A four-year member of the men’s varsity basketball team, your coach describes you as one of the finest leaders he has known throughout his years of coaching. Your teammates share that while most of us “work within 24 hours in a day, Jay somehow makes it 28.” You have made terrific use of those extra hours in your double major of history and Black studies and in your work with the Knowlton Career Center, being selected in your sophomore year for an internship at the law firm of Wilkinson Stekloff, where you participated in the FTC vs. Microsoft trial.

Your leadership across campus has been vast in establishing Denison’s first Black Student Athlete Association in the Black Student Union and through your participation in a wide range of other campus activities, including DU Votes and the Denison Christian Community. A nominator shares that “what truly separates Jay is the way he does all of the above with an optimistic and forward-looking attitude … If one thinks about the four different kinds of intellect – intelligence, emotional, social, and adversity quotients – Jay is one of those rare students who has all four.” Thank you for sharing these gifts with us. We are enormously proud to honor you with the President’s Medal.

Kerstyn, you have combined your double major in theatre and health, exercise, and sport studies into an exceptional Denison career. A nominator observes, “I’d frankly be inclined to nominate Kerstyn solely on the basis of the rarity of this combination of deep engagements and achievements in the arts and athletics, but it is the remarkable level of achievement, across her passions, that makes Kerstyn a genuinely unique student in my experience at Denison.” You are described as being “at once: easily one of the finest researchers and writers of theater history and theory; a leader and mentor to your peers in the Mitchell Center, in the Eisner Center, as a first-year fellow; a practicing theater artist of tremendous maturity and acumen; and a six-time NCAA All-American diver who regularly challenges for regional and national championships.”

In the theater, you work almost entirely backstage as a technician, designer, dramaturg, and maker, despite your great talent as a performer.” As a diver, you are a three-time College Swimming & Diving Coaches First-Team Scholar All-American, a two-time NCAC Diver of the Year, and a key member of the 2023 NCAA Division III Women’s Swim & Dive National Championship team. You have “truly been a star on both sides of The Hill,” and you have earned recognition with the President’s Medal.

Gavin, you are an outstanding student who is acclaimed for “exceptional academic achievements, intellectual curiosity, and unwavering dedication.” These traits have been exhibited in your double major in communication and economics. A Phi Beta Kappa student, you are described as “especially adept at synthesizing and translating challenging theoretical texts and making the consistent effort to listen to your classmates.” Your communication research on the sports that have been adopted for inclusion in the Olympic Games asked “challenging questions about the tensions between tradition and novelty, athletic excellence and cultural relevance.” Another nominator praises the exceptional diligence and unwavering dedication you have brought to your coursework in economics.

Diligence and dedication also are at the core of your extraordinary accomplishments as a student-athlete and helped you lead our men’s swimming and diving team to the 2025 NCAA Division III National Championship. Your coach describes your formidable qualities as a swimmer as best reflected in the phrase “grit and grind.” Your “year-round dedication to developing your craft … culminated in qualifying for and competing in last summer’s U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.” Your long list of athletic accolades includes being a First Team Scholar All-American and five-time NCAA All-American swimmer, twice in the 400 individual medley. Your prowess in the medley reflects well the varied gifts you have brought to our campus. Congratulations on being a 2025 President’s Medalist!

Liz, your time at Denison is an embodiment of the President’s Medal criteria: academic excellence, service to the community, athletic achievement, and contributions to the arts. You have impressed your biochemistry faculty with the “consistently excellent quality of all your work.” You have supported your biochemistry peers by brightening classrooms and labs with your “infectious excitement and skills at fostering community,” traits that you brought to a research lab at the Washington University School of Medicine last summer.

You are a four-year member of the women’s varsity golf team, bringing a “passion and joy” to the team that “will leave a lasting impression on the program.” You have served as the research assistant to the Faculty Ombuds Program and are a notably enthusiastic T.A. for the course on conflict resolution. Along with this impressive range of activities, you are the most desired Denisonian to sing the national anthem at campus events. You are a tremendously talented soprano with a voice noted for its “sheer beauty and power.” A nominator shares that the quality of your voice is matched by the warmth of your personality, and “radiated in your interactions on campus and in your artistry as a singer.” We are so grateful that your voice has graced our fair college and celebrate you with the President’s Medal.