From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Editors: Note students from Dodge City, Lawrence, Leawood, Overland Park and WaKeeney as well as Platte City, Missouri.

Contact: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, KU News Service, 785-864-8858, [email protected], @ebpkansas

KU recognizes 14 students with 2024 University Awards

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has awarded 14 students with honors that recognize community engagement, leadership and academics. The University Awards, among the most prestigious awards presented at KU, were established to recognize students who embody service excellence, dedication or whose academic achievements are stellar.

Class of 1913 Awards

These annual awards go to two graduating students who show evidence of intelligence, devotion to studies, personal character and promise of usefulness to society.

Fatima Asif is a senior from Overland Park majoring in both biochemistry and English.

“I am honored to be recognized for my accomplishments at KU, which would not have been possible without the support of my family and professors throughout the last four years,” Asif said.

“I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to my mentors, who not only encouraged me to explore my wide-ranging interests but also inspired me to become a better scholar and person.

“KU has provided me with invaluable opportunities to pursue meaningful work that I hope to continue in my future endeavors.”

Aditya Vargheese is a senior from Overland Park majoring in biochemistry and mathematics with a minor in business. Vargheese is thankful for professors, mentors, family and friends for their support.

“At KU, I had the opportunity to explore my interests academically while being a part of service organizations where I could get involved with the community,” Vargheese said.

“These experiences helped me grow as both a student and as a leader, and I hope I have been able to inspire my peers to continue our work.

“I am honored to receive this award and hope that I can carry the lessons I learned at KU with me in the future.”

The Donald K. Alderson Memorial Award

The award goes to a graduating senior who has demonstrated loyalty to and interest in the university and who has been active in events and services that benefit other students. This award was established in memory of Alderson, former dean of men and dean of student services.

Curtis Nelson is a senior from Overland Park majoring in architectural engineering.

“Serving the KU and Lawrence community has been incredibly fulfilling,” Nelson said. I’m deeply grateful for the support of my mentors, advisers and family empowering me to be the change and representation I want to see in the world.

“I am thankful for Phi Iota Alpha, Theta Tau and TRIO/McNair scholars, which helped shape me into the proud Black engineer I am today.”

The Alexis F. Dillard Student Involvement Award

This award goes to two graduating students who have unselfishly contributed to the university through campus involvement. It was established in 1993 by Dillard’s family and friends to remember and honor him.

Hassan Ahad is a senior from Overland Park majoring in microbiology with a minor in chemistry.

“I am eternally grateful for the mentors, peers and friends I have had the pleasure of interacting with here at KU,” Ahad said.

“They continually inspire me to strive for personal greater heights and ultimately motivate me to give back to the community in whatever way I can.

“I truly would not be the person I am today without my experiences at KU, and I hope to one day inspire others the way they have inspired me.”

Aisha Malik is a senior from Leawood majoring in speech-language-hearing.

Malik said having been immersed in the Honors Program and in diverse interdisciplinary pursuits fostered deep engagement in the “vibrant tapestry” of campus life.

“I’m deeply thankful for the guiding light of God, the unwavering support of my family, the wisdom imparted by my professors and the invaluable mentorship I’ve received,” Malik said.

“But above all, my time here has been defined by a clear sense of purpose: to uplift others, to serve my community and to inspire each person I encounter to strive for their fullest potential.”

The Rusty Leffel Concerned Student Award

This award annually goes to students who demonstrate a concern for furthering the ideals of the university and higher education. The award was established by a group of seniors in 1973 to honor their fellow student, Leffel.

Lesli Koffi is a senior from Denver majoring in architecture and with a minor in business.

Koffi said that being a part of organizations like GEMS (Gifted, Empowered, Motivated Sisters), Black Student Union and others provided confidence and strength to become a better leader, student and person.

“I want to give a huge thank you and kudos to all the organizations that have welcomed me with open arms and pushed me to achieve more than I could ever imagine,” Koffi said.

“Biggest thanks to my mentors and faculty members Nikita Haynie, Paige Freeman and Jordan Brandt. These are three women who have empowered me and believed in me in ways I could never explain.”

Cherin Russell is a senior majoring in English from Lawrence.

“I am thankful for all the support I’ve received from my mentors, family and friends who encourage me,” Russell said.

“It is a blessing to represent my community and campus, and I’m so grateful for the trust and belief that many peers have shown me.”

Aakanchcha Raj is a doctoral student in architecture from India anticipating to graduate in December.

“Having received this award validates my work as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kansas and motivates me to work even harder for the communities I engage with in my research,” Raj said.

“The University of Kansas has provided me with a platform to bridge the gap between research and community participation, and I am grateful for this opportunity to give back to communities by listening to their stories and helping change the narrative for the better.”

The Caryl K. Smith Student Leader Award

This award goes to a graduating sorority or fraternity member who has demonstrated commitment to the local chapter, the KU sorority and fraternity community, the university and the Lawrence community. It was established in 1993 to honor Smith, a former dean of student life.

Libby Frost is a senior from WaKeeney majoring in business administration.

Frost said she is thankful for a support system of family, friends and mentors — including Caitlyn Gastfield and Keith Chauvin — for creating an “amazing” undergraduate experience.

“I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to my chapter, Alpha Delta Pi, for always lifting me up and being my ‘home away from home’ throughout college. The Panhellenic community at KU has been a constant source of encouragement and inspiration, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to serve it.”

The Kathryn Nemeth Tuttle Student Scholar Award

This award is presented to a graduating senior scholarship hall student. Recipients have demonstrated academic focus, leadership in the scholarship hall and commitment to the KU and Lawrence communities.

Emma Jones is senior from Platte City, Missouri, majoring in environmental studies with a minor in sport management.

Jones said that being part of the scholarship hall community has been life-changing.

“Here, I have met individuals who I will be friends with long after my time being a student Jayhawk,” Jones said. “Additionally, (I’ve been) able to continue the legacy of Elizabeth Miller-Watkins — whose mission was to support women in their academic endeavors by providing them with affordable housing — by serving as a member of the Watkins Hall Executive Board.”

The Agnes Wright Strickland Awards

These awards were established in 1953 in memory of Strickland, a member of the Class of 1887. They go annually to graduating seniors in recognition of their academic records, demonstrated leadership in matters of university concern, respect among fellow students and indications of future dedication to service in the university.

Rileigh Heeke is a senior from Dodge City majoring in both political science and history with a minor in women, gender & sexuality studies. Heeke said life-changing experiences, opportunities for growth and constant support at KU have come from places like the Department of History and the Student Ambassador Program.

“I cannot imagine what my undergraduate journey would look like without such an extensive community behind me along the way,” Heeke said. “They have offered the ability to develop academically and professionally, but most importantly, they have made me feel valued at an individual level. I am so incredibly fortunate to receive such an honor from the institution that I love from the bottom of my heart.”

Thanh Tan Nguyen is a senior from Vietnam majoring in business. Having arrived in Lawrence in fall 2020, Nguyen feels fortunate to be part of a strong college community that takes pride in uplifting each other.

“My commitment to enriching the student experience at KU started with the support gifted upon me by my first-year roommates: Jackson Rauenzahn, Karson Mustain and Wyatt George,” Nguyen said. “They helped me understand what it felt like to be a Jayhawk and to help others. This award encourages me to do my best job in representing KU to the world and empowering aspiring Jayhawks.”

Campanile Award

The Campanile Award is given to a single graduating senior who has displayed remarkable leadership, character and respect for KU.

Eleazar Abraham is a senior from Indonesia majoring in both chemistry and molecular, cellular & developmental biology with a minor in global & international studies. Abraham said KU offered opportunities to be challenged and to excel. Abraham expressed gratitude for support from family, friends and KU faculty mentors and advisers.

“From community service to scientific research, the opportunities at KU have shaped who I am and what I am excited to be in the future,” Abraham said. “The unmatched school spirit KU has instilled in me is something that I hold dearly. I am eternally grateful to be a Jayhawk and will always be a Jayhawk as I go through my next steps in life as an aspiring scientist.”

-30-

————————————————————————

KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

Phone: 785-864-3256

Fax: 785-864-3339

[email protected]

http://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

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Media advisory

Contact: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, KU News Service, 785-864-8858, [email protected], @ebpkansas

Information for news media covering University of Kansas Class of 2024 Commencement

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas invites news media to cover the university’s Commencement ceremony May 12 for the Class of 2024.

The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. as graduates begin the traditional “walk down the Hill” to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, followed by a program and the conferral of degrees by Chancellor Douglas A. Girod.

News media photographers will need KU credentials to shoot from the photo pen on the Campanile plaza and to get inside the stadium. News organization credentials alone will not suffice. To receive KU credentials, email Erinn Barcomb-Peterson by noon May 8.

Construction on the stadium that is part of KU’s larger Gateway District means guests will be seated entirely on the east side of the stadium, with some overflow seating available on the field if needed. All graduates will enter the stadium on the east side before being seated on the field.

A few other things to keep in mind:

Members of the news media are welcome to capture photos or video of the events from any publicly accessible area.
The graduates will be seated on the field facing south. Limited roaming in the graduate seating area is allowed; however, photographers may not photograph on or from the dais.
Because of space constraints, media members may not bring large video cameras with tripods into the photo pen.
Only graduates and the university’s official photographers from KU Marketing are allowed to walk through the Campanile.
Unmanned aerial systems, including drones — other than those of official photographers from KU Marketing — are not allowed.
Nearly 2,300 parking stalls are available a short distance from the stadium, and a complimentary shuttle service will run May 12.
Additional details, including an inclement weather plan, are available at the Commencement website.

-30-

————————————————————————

KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

Phone: 785-864-3256

Fax: 785-864-3339

[email protected]

http://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

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

KU announces new 2024-2025 Self Memorial Scholars

LAWRENCE – Twenty-two students have been selected to receive the University of Kansas Madison and Lila Self Memorial Scholarship, a merit-based, $10,000 award given to outstanding seniors from KU who will transition into their first year of a graduate program at the university in fall 2024. Recipients include students from Emporia, Hutchinson, Kansas City, Lawrence, Leavenworth, Olathe, Overland Park, Topeka and Wichita.

Contemplating eco-catastrophe through Spanish science fiction lens

LAWRENCE – The “deep, existential malaise” stemming from fear of impending ecological catastrophe has permeated science fiction around the globe, a University of Kansas professor writes in a new journal article. In his work Miguel Ángel Albújar-Escuredo compares the 2018 Spanish-language novel “Fafner,” by Daniel Perez Navarro, to a 2014 English-language novel with a similar theme, “Annihilation,” by Jeff Vandermeer.

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Daniel Rivera, Self Graduate Fellowship, 785-864-7249, [email protected], @Selfgraduate

KU announces new 2024-2025 Self Memorial Scholars

LAWRENCE – Twenty-two students have been selected to receive the University of Kansas Madison and Lila Self Memorial Scholarship for the 2024-2025 academic year.

The Self Memorial Scholarship is a merit-based scholarship that is awarded to outstanding seniors from KU who will be transitioning into their first year of a master’s or doctoral degree program at KU in the fall 2024 semester. Students who were selected demonstrated achievement in leadership and scholarship, capable of envisioning and attaining goals that require energy and tenacity. The Self Memorial Scholarship provides each recipient with a $10,000 scholarship award, $1,000 professional development award, leadership and career development training, and an opportunity to be a part of an interdisciplinary cohort of graduate students. The leadership and career development training, the Scholar Development Program, complements the specialized education and training provided by the graduate programs.

Madison “Al” and Lila Self were deeply motivated by the idea that developing and investing in young leaders was vital for a successful future. The Selfs began their legacy of supporting graduate students in 1989 with the establishment of the Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship. Since 1991, the Self Graduate Fellowship has supported over 200 doctoral students.

The Self Memorial Scholarship was launched and permanently endowed in 2014. The first Scholars were awarded in 2018. Since 2018, the scholarship has supported nearly 100 graduate students. The overall mission of Self Graduate Programs is to provide funding and development opportunities for exceptional graduate students who demonstrate the promise to make significant contributions to their field of study and society as a whole.

The 2024-25 Self Memorial Scholars:

Bhupen Adhikari of Kathmandu, Nepal: bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from KU; incoming master’s student in mechanical engineering.
Saoirse Boyd of Lake Villa, Illinois: bachelor’s degree in speech-language-hearing from KU; incoming master’s student in speech-language pathology.
Niels Braaten of Lawrence: bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from KU; incoming master’s student in aerospace engineering.
Blake Bruno of Topeka: bachelor’s degree in accounting from KU; incoming master’s student in accounting.
Andrew Dodge of Wichita: bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from KU; incoming master’s student in aerospace engineering,
Anna Ferkul of Shakopee, Minnesota: bachelor’s degree in microbiology from KU; incoming doctoral student in interdisciplinary program in biomedical sciences, KU Medical Center.
Alexis Greenberg of Overland Park: bachelor’s degree in digital marketing communications from KU; incoming master’s student in project management.
Ella Hinson of Olathe: bachelor’s degree in social work from KU; incoming master’s student in social work.
Lisa Hoang of Kansas City, Missouri: bachelor’s degree in social work from KU; incoming master’s student in social work.
Mylo Johanes of Jakarta, Indonesia: bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from KU; incoming doctoral student in mechanical engineering.
Cailin Kessen of Paw Paw, Michigan: bachelor’s degree in ecology & evolutionary biology from KU; incoming doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology.
Ava Lemon of Topeka: bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from KU; incoming master’s student in accounting.
Faith Lopez of Leavenworth: bachelor’s degree in social work from KU; incoming master’s student in social work.
Aisha Malik of Itasca, Illinois: bachelor’s degree in speech-language-hearing from KU; incoming master’s student in speech-language pathology.
Josh Navarro of Hutchinson: bachelor’s degrees in political science and public administration from KU; incoming master’s student in public affairs & administration.
Nicholas Niemann of Castle Pines, Colorado: bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from KU; incoming master’s student in business administration.
Gabriela Ruiz of Overland Park: bachelor’s degrees in English, humanities and economics from KU; incoming master’s student in economics.
Cherin Russell of Lawrence: bachelor’s degree in English from KU; incoming master’s student in English.
Clarice Sabolay of Belleville, Illinois: bachelor’s degree in chemical & petroleum engineering from KU; incoming doctoral student in chemical & petroleum engineering.
Benjamin Shaw of Overland Park: bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from KU; incoming master’s student in business administration.
Aaron Thomas of Emporia: bachelor’s degree in public administration from KU; incoming master’s student in public affairs & administration.
Elise Wehrmann of St. Peters, Missouri: bachelor’s degree in exercise science, minor in business from KU; incoming doctoral student in physical therapy, KU Medical Center.

-30-

————————————————————————

The official university account for X (formerly Twitter) is @UnivOfKansas.

Follow @KUnews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

————————————————————————

Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman

Contemplating eco-catastrophe through Spanish science fiction lens

LAWRENCE – The “deep, existential malaise” stemming from fear of impending ecological catastrophe has permeated science fiction around the globe, a University of Kansas professor writes in a new scholarly journal article.

An article in the literary journal Alambique, by Miguel Ángel Albújar-Escuredo, assistant teaching professor in KU’s Department of Spanish & Portuguese, compares the 2018 Spanish-language novel “Fafner,” by Daniel Perez Navarro, to a 2014 English-language novel with a similar theme, “Annihilation,” by Jeff Vandermeer.

Both works, Albújar-Escuredo writes, “propose a different relationship between human beings and the ecosystem in which we live.” He writes that such futurist concepts as “post-human” and “coexistence” with the nonhuman are “byproducts of this new mindset on what it means to be human in a world in perpetual crisis.”

“Fafner” follows the titular “feral” hunter-gatherer through a post-apocalyptic landscape until he encounters and is transformed by a “New Nature.”

The protagonists of Vandermeer’s “Annihilation” are a team of four women exploring strange phenomena associated with “Area X.”

Albújar-Escuredo writes that whereas Vandermeer’s “open purpose is proselytizing his new iteration of ecocriticism” and that his novel “provide(s) humans with some hope of surviving,” Perez Navarro’s novel, “in the end … reveals itself as an example of nihilistic and pessimistic cosmic horror.”

Albújar-Escuredo sees “profound ideological differences between both novels. ‘Annihilation’ rejects human supremacism, and ‘Fafner’ accepts it as the lesser evil until a greater one comes.”

Both, however, are bleak, the KU researcher concludes, and “offer very somber outcomes to the reader.”

Albújar-Escuredo, who joined the KU faculty in 2019, said he likes using science fiction to teach foreign language students and finds that they respond well to it.

“It can get very political,” he said. “It can lead to huge debate about moral and ethical issues. I think that’s also one of the missions of a public university — to try to make your students reflect and think about things that maybe they are not forced to consider in their daily lives.”

-30-

————————————————————————

KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

Phone: 785-864-3256

Fax: 785-864-3339

[email protected]

http://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