Chestnut Hill College Awards the St. Catherine Medal to Kelly Dennis of Cincinnati

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Kelly Dennis of Cincinnati Received Chestnut Hill College's St. Catherine Medal.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (05/15/2013)(readMedia)-- Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D, president of Chestnut Hill College, awarded junior Kelly Dennis, an accounting major and Spanish minor from Cincinnati, OH with the St. Catherine Medal at Honors Convocation held on April 28, 2013 at the College.

The St. Catherine Medal of the Kappa Gamma Pi Honor Society is awarded to a sophomore or junior student who "represents the high ideals of a Catholic college education." The recipient is selected on their contribution of leadership and service to the College.

In addition to her studies, she is a part of campus ministry, the women's tennis team, and a student ambassador. Dennis is also the founder of the campus chapter of Unified for UNIFAT, a group that she became involved with while attending Mount Notre Dame High School in Cincinnati. Seeing the documentary "Invisible Children" highlighting the unspeakable conditions children in Uganda face under Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Dennis and her classmates joined other local schools to fundraise and provide assistance to school children there.

Unified for UNIFAT, a student-run organization that has now grown to 17 schools nationwide, raises money for the primary school UNIFAT in Gulu, Northern Uganda, and concentrates on sponsorship, mentorship, nutrition, and medical care. The College's UNIFAT chapter fundraises specifically for three children at the school, and the College's athletic teams began sponsoring three more students last fall. Unified for UNIFAT hosts a variety of films and fundraisers during the school year, including the school's popular Fair Trade Event. This summer, Dennis will travel to Uganda with other members of the CHC chapter to visit one of the students they are sponsoring.

About Chestnut Hill College

Chestnut Hill College is a four-year coed Catholic college offering a traditional liberal arts undergraduate program, as well as accelerated undergraduate degrees, master's and doctoral programs. Since its inception, the College has offered a rigorous curriculum that provides students with a broad background in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. The goal of Chestnut Hill College has been to prepare students for life's challenges by helping them to grow intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and socially.

For the second consecutive year, Chestnut Hill College earned recognition as one of 26 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) institutions to receive the Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence. The Presidents' Award honors NCAA athletic programs with four-year academic success rates of 90 or greater.

The College has been rated by US News & World Report as among the best master's universities in the North, as among the best Northeastern colleges by The Princeton Review, and has been classified as selective by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.