By Linda Hoeberigs
Staff Writer
During the 2013 Convocation Ceremony welcoming the class of 2016, the first annual Academic Achievement and Student Leadership Awards were given out. Initiated by the 2012-2013 Academic Affairs Council (AAC), the Academic Achievement award is meant for a first- and second-year student who are doing exceptionally well academically and are very active in student life at the same time. The Student Leadership award goes to a recently graduated student who made outstanding contributions to student life at UCR and the local community.
The first-year Academic Achievement Award went to Ivar Troost. Not only does he have a nearly perfect GPA, he is also the founder of the Teaching and Learning Society, a student assistant for the Academic Core department, has designed newsletters for CultureCo and Political Society, and set up a blog for the Rhetoric class.
The winner of the second-year Academic Achievement Award is Vejune Zemaityte, who also has a nearly 4.0 GPA and who has been very active in the Middelburg community, as well as the UCR photography committee, PhoRA. Currently, she is on exchange at the University of California.
The first recipient of the Student Leadership Award is Kristy Evers, who received this award from Harald Bergmann, the Mayor of Middelburg. Kristy graduated with the class of 2012 and next to her 4.0 GPA, she was the chair of the culture committee, CultureCo, was part of the AAC in her second year, is the co-founder of the Review of Arts and Writing (RAW), and was an active member of the literature committee, LitCo. She also reached out to the community of Middelburg, which was demonstrated in her involvement with the Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, as well as her summer internship at the PZC.
Linda Hoeberigs, class of 2014, is an Economics and Politics major from Rijswijk, the Netherlands.
