Academic achievement prizes, prize scholarships and other recognition of student accomplishments were awarded at Hamilton's 59th annual Class & Charter Day convocation on Friday, May 8, in the Chapel. Among the top prizes, Corinne Bancroft '10 won the Milton F. Fillius Jr./Joseph Drown Prize Scholarship, and Ashley Stagner '09 was awarded the James Soper Merrill Prize.
Bancroft, a comparative literature major, is one of the founders of Hamilton's Community Farm Garden. She was instrumental in organizing Hamilton participation in the No More Deaths Spring break project to the borderlands desert region near Arivaca, Az. in 2008 and 2009. Bancroft is also active with the Social Justice Initiative. The Milton F. Fillius, Jr./Joseph Drown Prize Scholarship, established by the Joseph Drown Foundation, is awarded to a student completing the junior year who has been very successful academically, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities while at Hamilton and who is likely to make a significant contribution to society in the future.
Stagner is an art and English literature major. She is a Quantitative Literacy Center tutor, an Arts and Entertainment writer for The Spectator and a member of the Emerson Literary Society. The James Soper Merrill Prize is awarded to the member of the graduating class "who, in character and influence, has typified the highest ideals of the College." The winner is selected by the faculty and speaks at Commencement.
A total of 133 students won other prizes and scholarships for public speaking, writing and achievement in all academic disciplines. This year's speaker was Hamilton alumnus and Utica businessman Eugene Romano '49.
An all-campus picnic followed the awards and HamTrek, the sixth annual campus triathlon, began at 2:30 p.m. with individuals and teams competing in swimming, biking and running.
