From the Office of Public Affairs | https://www.news.ku.edu
KU students honored with Tradition of Excellence Award
LAWRENCE — Ten University of Kansas students received the 2025 Tradition of Excellence Award, presented annually by the KU Alumni Association and the Student Alumni Network. The award recognizes students who have significantly enhanced the KU community through efforts such as serving as teaching assistants, leading student organizations or volunteering. Recipients include students from Hutchinson, Lansing, Manhattan and Overland Park as well as from Independence, Missouri.
KU undergraduate team secures third place in national intelligence competition
LAWRENCE — A team of three University of Kansas undergraduate students has earned a third-place finish in the national collegiate Moonshot Labs Analyst Jam with IC Centers for Academic Excellence Competition. The KU team of Amy Wright, of Independence, Missouri; Alpha Ngo, Derby, and Katherine Koplik, Overland Park, competed against 19 teams from other institutions across the nation that, like KU, are affiliated with Intelligent Community Centers for Academic Excellence, which prepares students for careers in intelligence and national security.
Winners crowned among group of moving collections in Snyder Book Contest
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Libraries honored eight student finalists and awarded cash prizes at the 67th annual Snyder Book Collecting Contest during a reception April 24 at Watson Library. The contest, established in 1957 by libraries donor Elizabeth Snyder, is designed to recognize students’ passion for creating personal book collections. Students receiving awards or honorable mentions include Jayhawks from Hutchinson, Lawrence, Mulberry and Spring Hill.
Full stories below.
————————————————————————
Editors: Photo available.
Contact: Ryan Edmonds, KU Alumni Association, [email protected]
KU students honored with Tradition of Excellence Award
LAWRENCE — Ten University of Kansas students received the 2025 Tradition of Excellence Award for their leadership on the Lawrence campus. Winners were honored at a ceremony and reception April 24 at the Jayhawk Welcome Center.
The Tradition of Excellence Award, presented annually by the KU Alumni Association and the Student Alumni Network, recognizes students who have significantly enhanced the KU community through efforts such as serving as teaching assistants, leading student organizations or volunteering in the Lawrence community.
Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible for the award, which includes a $1,000 scholarship and $200 for each recipient to donate to a KU Endowment fund of their choice.
The 2025 Tradition of Excellence Award winners:
Edona “Donna” Kraja, a senior in accounting and international business from Montenegro.
Hailey Meggers, a senior in biochemistry from Hutchinson.
Jessica Mumm, a senior in strategic communications from Omaha, Nebraska.
Yash Prajapati, a senior in mathematics and interdisciplinary computing from India.
Fatima Qureshi, a senior in molecular, cellular & developmental biology from Overland Park.
Ariana Siddique, a junior in molecular, cellular & developmental biology from Overland Park.
Madeline Souser, a senior in political science and environmental studies from Lansing.
Austin Sullivan, a doctoral candidate in medical nutrition science from Independence, Missouri.
Astha Thapa, a senior in computer science from Nepal.
Emily Ward, a senior in anthropology and political science from Manhattan.
About the Tradition of Excellence Award
The award is organized by KU Student Alumni Ambassadors, a student organization that provides students with leadership experience in support of the KU Alumni Association and KU Endowment. Student Alumni Ambassadors champion alumni networking, philanthropic engagement and numerous KU traditions. The Tradition of Excellence Award is funded through private support raised through KU Endowment’s Class Legacy Walk, an initiative that honors and celebrates the legacy of past generations of Jayhawks with a growing campus walkway near the Ambler Student Recreation Center.
-30-
————————————————————————
KU provides fire, rescue and law enforcement training across Kansas.
https://ku.edu/distinction
————————————————————————
Editors: Photo available.
Contact: Mike Denning, Office of National Defense Initiatives, 785-864-1684, [email protected]
KU undergraduate team secures third place in national intelligence competition
LAWRENCE — A team of three University of Kansas undergraduate students has earned a third-place finish in the national collegiate Moonshot Labs Analyst Jam with IC Centers for Academic Excellence (MAJIC) Competition, surpassing numerous teams, including many composed of graduate students.
The KU team of Amy Wright, of Independence, Missouri; Alpha Ngo, Derby, and Katherine Koplik, Overland Park, competed against 19 teams from other institutions across the nation that, like KU, are affiliated with Intelligent Community Centers for Academic Excellence, which prepares students for careers in intelligence and national security.
The MAJIC Challenge is sponsored by the National Geospace Agency’s Moonshot Labs, the National Intelligence University and the Office of the Director for National Intelligence. This competition provides students the opportunity to collaborate with subject matter experts while analyzing real-world national security challenges and presenting innovative solutions.
The team’s participation was part of an undergraduate student research class, POLS 489 Topics in International Relations: China-US Relations, instructed by Kurt Preston, director of KU’s National Defense Initiatives.
“What makes this achievement particularly noteworthy is that the KU team consisted exclusively of undergraduate students, while the first- and second-place teams were primarily composed of graduate students,” Preston said. “This remarkable accomplishment highlights the exceptional quality of KU’s undergraduate research and the outstanding capabilities of its students.”
Wright, the team leader, reflected on the experience following the competition.
“It was an excellent learning experience and a good opportunity to put oneself in the mindset of the role,” she said. “It’s hard to know how to present on intelligence without actually presenting on intelligence.
“From a team perspective, I will say that it was and will be an astronomical advantage to have experience working in a team from such different backgrounds on a central topic. As analysts, navigating the conversation in context of others’ backgrounds seems vital to success.”
As a result of their performance, the KU team now has an opportunity for its work to be published in NGA’s Tearline Project and NIU’s academic journal. The students may also have the opportunity to present their findings to senior Intelligence Community leaders at the 2025 National Security Analysis & Intelligence Summer Seminar.
Through their participation in the MAJIC Challenge, KU students strengthened their analytical skills, gained valuable exposure to intelligence methodologies and established professional connections with both peers and intelligence community professionals, according to Preston. This experience provides them with practical insights that will prove invaluable in their future academic and professional endeavors.
-30-
————————————————————————
Each of Kansas’ 105 counties receives KU Medical Center outreach.
https://ku.edu/distinction
————————————————————————
Editors: Photos, video available.
Contact: Kevin McCarty, KU Libraries, 785-864-6428, [email protected]
Winners crowned among group of moving collections in Snyder Book Contest
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Libraries honored eight student finalists and awarded cash prizes at the 67th annual Snyder Book Collecting Contest during a reception April 24 at Watson Library. The contest, established in 1957 by libraries donor Elizabeth Snyder, is designed to recognize students’ passion for creating personal book collections.
Charles Johnson, a senior from Lawrence, won first place in the undergraduate division for “Coming to Terms with Collective Violence: A Graphic Reconciliation,” a collection of graphic novels.
“The collection really began how I think a lot of collections begin, which was more or less by accident,” Johnson said during remarks at the award ceremony. He described an experience during the summer before he entered third grade, when he mistakenly checked out a book that was “wildly age-inappropriate” for him at that time, “The Complete Maus,” by Art Spiegelman.
The book’s metaphors, based on the historical context of the Holocaust, were largely lost on Johnson at that young age, but the experience helped spark an interest in the persecution of vulnerable populations across many regions and cultures, intersecting with Johnson’s multiple majors in history, political science, religious studies and global & international studies at KU. Johnson’s winning collection illustrated an appreciation for the graphic novel medium, with selections highlighted for their ability to engage a wide audience in complicated, sometimes violent situations and conflicts.
“The medium invites outsiders to view and to understand and to grapple with these histories otherwise easily relegated to dense volumes of academic texts,” Johnson said.
Nicholas Hoekstra, a doctoral student in special education from Comstock Park, Michigan, won first place in the graduate division with his entry, “From Black and White to Every Shade of Gray: The Changing Dynamics of Good and Evil in Fantasy.”
Hoekstra said the submitted collection represented a fraction of his total collection that he estimated at 500-600 books.
“I was very surprised to win first place because I still am accustomed to people looking at fantasy as very much the nerdy kind of books that unpopular kids read,” Hoekstra said. “But personally, I think fantasy is a really, really interesting lens through which to examine our own world and reality, and fantasy kind of gives us a little bit more of a flexible playing field to explore ideas that we kind of encounter every day.”
Hoekstra said preparing and displaying his collection for the contest required a little extra creativity, and the end result illustrated the ways his interactions with books have changed over time, beginning with his mother reading to him when he was young.
“My collection is very broad. It consists of a lot of books in audio formats, books in braille, books on Kindle, even books on tape, because as a person with a visual impairment I read through a different medium than your traditional paperback,” he said.
Laura Moriarty, best-selling novelist and professor of creative writing at KU, delivered the evening’s keynote address, exploring the books she has used to inform and inspire her writing, as well as an especially meaningful collection of published works written by authors she’s advised and mentored through KU’s Master of Fine Arts program.
Moriarty also served as a judge of the contest, and she said reading the “passionate and deeply personal” essays of the finalists was a delightful part of the unique Snyder contest experience.
“Each (finalist) collected books not to impress, not to make money, not with a goal in sight, not even to simply hunt and own,” she said, “but to more fully engage with a subject that moves them, intellectually, emotionally and even physically.”
In the undergraduate division, second place went to Zoe Savage from Austin, Texas, for “A Comprehensive Guide to Roller Derby History and Culture.” Jasmine Hunt, Spring Hill, received honorable mention for her collection, “Scientific Curiosity: The Human Experience as it Relates to Science and the Universe.” Abraham Frederick of Mulberry was honored as a finalist for “From Jacobins to Bonapartists: The Wars of the Coalition and the Age of Revolution.”
Joshua Navarro, Hutchinson, won second place in the graduate division for “First Love, Lasting Legacies: Stories of the Lives of Presidents and First Ladies.” Honorable mention was awarded to Christine Singleton of Richmond, Virginia, for “’Why … Wherever God Motions’: A Black Feminist Phone Tree.” Abby Breyer of St. Louis was recognized as a finalist for “’Her tears were tears of shame and loss and love. Love most of all’: A Collection of Books that Made Me Cry.”
“I think this year was particularly special because so much is uncertain right now. It’s always great to be able to look back and look forward with optimism and joy,” said Beth Whittaker, executive associate dean of KU Libraries and a longtime judge of the Snyder contest. “We really saw that this year with our finalists.”
Each winner received a cash prize as well as a gift card from contest co-sponsor Jayhawk Ink, who will also display the top collections in a case outside the bookstore in the Kansas Union through May 9. Cash awards are made possible by an endowment fund created by Snyder. First place winners in each division are eligible to compete in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, which awards a top prize of $2,500.
-30-
————————————————————————
KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
https://www.news.ku.edu
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
