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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, May 26, 2011

IU honors students with senior awards; students honor faculty with Student Choice Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Six Indiana University students were honored for academic excellence and outstanding leadership at this year's annual Spring Recognition Banquet. Student Choice Awards for Outstanding Faculty also were presented to five professors.

Recipients of Student Choice Awards for Outstanding Faculty were:

• Julie James, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Applied Health Science in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation and co-founder of Bloomington Area Birth Services,
• Dana Anderson, associate professor of English, primarily teaching rhetoric and composition
• Cem Basman, director and assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation,
• Irene Vlachos-Weber, senior lecturer of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences and
• Israel Herrera, lecturer in the department of Spanish and Portuguese in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Kelsey Nelson, IU Student Alumni Association vice president for Homecoming and special events and a senior from Loveland, Ohio, majoring in business marketing/management, presented the Student Choice Awards.

Each spring, the Student Alumni Association presents the Student Choice Awards to up to five faculty members. IU students nominate their favorite professors for this prestigious award and selections are based solely on student input. Faculty members are selected based on their knowledge, class presentation skills, student rapport and enthusiasm, and only faculty who receive three or more nominations are considered.

The first Student Choice Awards were given in 1979, and more than 120 faculty members have received this award since its inception.

The Elvis J. Stahr Distinguished Senior Award was established in 1966 by Stahr, IU's 12th president. The annual award honors three to five seniors who have excelled academically while serving as active student leaders. The awards are based on scholarship, leadership, personality and service to IU. The names of the recipients are added to a permanent plaque that hangs in the Indiana Memorial Union.

The five recipients of the 45th annual Elvis J. Stahr Distinguished Senior Awards are:

• Elizabeth Bercovitz, a senior from Indianapolis majoring in biology, who also is minoring in Spanish and is a student the LAMP program,
• Laura F. Goins, a senior from Palmyra, Ind., and a mathematics and philosophy major
• D. Christian Hines, a senior from Terre Haute, Ind., who is a history major and an Individualized Major Program student in democratic theory and contemporary American citizenship. He is minoring in English,
• Isak O. Nti Asare, a senior political science and linguistics major, both in the Honors Program, from Laramie, Wyo. He also has a minor in African languages (Swahili and Akan),
• Esther Oluchukwu Uduehi, a senior from Evansville, Ind., who is majoring in chemistry and mathematics

Amanda Stahl, of Milwaukee, Wis., a criminal justice major, and president of the Student Alumni Association, received the Jerry F. Tardy Memorial Scholarship.

The Tardy Scholarship is awarded annually to the president of the Student Alumni Association at IU Bloomington. This $2,500 scholarship honors the memory of Jerry F. Tardy, a champion of student programs who served as president and CEO of the IU Alumni Association from 1987 until his death in 2001. The first Jerry F. Tardy Memorial Scholarship was presented in 2002.

The Spring Recognition Banquet was sponsored by the Student Alumni Association at IU Bloomington and the IU Bloomington Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President.

One of the largest and most active student organizations at IU Bloomington, the SAA sponsors student leadership initiatives and events such as Homecoming, Networking Nights, Leadershape IU and business-etiquette programs. For more information on the Student Alumni Association, visit www.indiana.edu/~saa.

The IU Alumni Association is dedicated to serving the university and its diverse alumni, students, and friends. As one of the nation's largest alumni organizations, serving more than 540,000 graduates worldwide, the IUAA provides many programs and services to its members, nonmember alumni, and the university. For more information, visit www.alumni.indiana.edu or call 800-824-3044.

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