Garrett Clark of Hingham, MA, graduates, earns top scholar-athlete award at Saint Michael's College

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Garrett Clark wins Keleher Award at Saint Michael's College

COLCHESTER, VT (05/22/2012)(readMedia)-- During Commencement Week activities May 11-14 at Saint Michael's College, Garrett Clark, son of Nancy Gunshanan of Hingham, MA and of William Clark of Scituate, MA, graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and accounting, Magna Cum Laude, and received the Roger F. Keleher Memorial Award, presented to the top male and female scholar-athletes in the class. They must be varsity letter winners who have maintained high scholastic averages. Roger Keleher '15 was an outstanding scholar and athlete from Springfield, MA.

In presenting the award, Director of Athletics Geri Knortz cited Clark's considerable achievements as a four-year member of the Purple Knights men's lacrosse team: Coming back from a serious injury, he became a key contributor on defense and a true team leader, she said. A double-major in accounting and business administration with a management minor, his cumulative grade point average of 3.708 earned him membership in Sigma Beta Delta national honor society and multi-year membership on the Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic Team and NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll. He also served in several leadership roles on campus including treasurer for the Class of 2012, Saint Michael's Orientation Board member and Leader and Unity Council representative. He also provided academic assistance to his peers as a peer tutor and teacher's assistant for accounting and finance. Active in the college 's volunteer service organization MOVE (Mobilization Of Volunteer Efforts), he completed the extended conservation service trip to Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, and served as a Big Buddy for a fifth-grader at St. Francis Xavier Catholic school in Winooski, VT. He was a coach with Little Sticks, an after school lacrosse program for Essex, VT, kids, and also volunteered as a youth coach in his hometown of Hingham, MA, during the summers. After graduation he is set to pursue his MBA at Boston College.

The Commencement speaker for Saint Michael's College this year was MTV media pioneer and humanitarian Tom Freston, a member of the Saint Michael's Class of 1967. He told the graduates that hard work is a key to their future. "My advice," he said, "is really to look for a career in fields that are on the ascent - social innovation - and bring an old-fashioned work ethic to them."

"There is great value and sustaining dignity in good old-fashioned hard work, whether that means crunching numbers or cleaning bathrooms," Freston said.

Some 478 students received bachelor's degrees and another 65 received master's degrees at the college's 105th commencement exercises, held May 14th in the college's Ross Sports Center. Some 4,000 people attended, including graduates and their families and friends, faculty and staff. Along with Freston, they heard excellent speeches from two students, the college president and the chairman of the board.

Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu. Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's College is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns. Identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nations Best 376 Colleges, and included in the 2012 Fiske Guide to Colleges, Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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