On Friday, the fourth annual Honors Convocation was held at Wittenberg in Weaver Chapel at 4 p.m. The program recognized students who excelled as scholars and leaders during their college experience.
The audience gave a huge congratulation to the Alma Lux award recipient, junior Adam Barstow, and to the Alma Mater award winner, junior Ellen Martin; there were five finalists for each award. Others were recognized during the event, including the Community Faculty award winner, Stefan Broidy, and the Lillian Franklin Award for faculty and staff winner, Brian Richardson.
Also on Friday was the Celebration of Learning. This was a day dedicated to celebrating student achievement with many posters, presentations and performances. This event was held at many different areas on campus to accommodate for the amount of student involvement.
One such event was at 9 a.m. in the atrium of Shouvlin, when junior Kennedy Cook and senior Josh Bannick presented their invention about how to maintain and grow a fan base in a professional organization. Both Cook and Bannick are sports management majors.
The invention was to place BC sensors on the inside of a football helmet that could track the level of impact when hit in the head. These sensors would then send the level of impact to an iPad for the athletic trainer to determine if the player needs to come out and be checked immediately.
“Concussions are a hot topic in sports right now; BC sensors can help reduce the amount of concussions for football players. This would help make the game of football a lot safer,” Cook, also a member of the Wittenberg football team, said.
Later, at 9:45 a.m. in Founders Pub, senior Ali Miller performed for Improvisation of Theatre. The marketing and communication double major enjoys being put on the spot in front of a large audience.
“We are given a word and a subject, and we have to make everything up on the spot; there’s no script,” Miller said. “Our act was called ‘Freeze,’ and our subject was the word ‘paddle,’ so I decided to have some fun with it and act out a kayaking lesson.”
While acting may not be in everyone’s best interest, Miller said, “Business majors take this course a lot; it helps to be in front of a crowd. It also helps with interviews, because you have to be in the present moment and can’t anticipate what people will say.”
Miller spoke highly of the class with a big smile as she related it to “Whose Line is it Anyway.”
Also in Shoulvin, at 10:30 a.m., senior Taylore Bundy presented her research on comparing perceptions and subcultures: predicting drinkers and binge drinkers.
The sociology major was intrigued to find that people’s social groups are a strong predictor on if they will binge drink and drink. Also, how students’ perceptions on campus about how much they drink are accurate.
“It was interesting to find out that athletes are not more likely to drink and binge drink than non-athletes, because my research had said they would be,” Bundy said.
When asked about her motivation to research this topic, Bundy said, “Because I know that drinking and binge drinking on campus is a frequent event.”
The 2016 Celebration of Learning was filled with many students with various majors, and there were a total of 151 presentations.
“Celebration of Learning means to reflect on the privileges and opportunities that we have here at Wittenberg. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of how lucky we are,” Miller said.
