Katelyn Billings of St. Albans, Vt., Earns Top Scholar-Athlete Award, Graduates Saint Michael's, off to Yale

Related Media

Katelyn Billings with poster presentation of her chemistry research

COLCHESTER, VT (05/17/2010)(readMedia)-- Katelyn Jane Billings, daughter of Jonathan and Marilyn Billings of St. Albans, Vt., earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry, summa cum laude, from Saint Michael's College May 13, 2010, in ceremonies held on the campus of the liberal arts residential Catholic college located in the Burlington area of Vermont. Ms. Billings was also awarded the Roger F. Keleher Award for the top woman scholar-athlete of the year.

The graduates, wearing environmentally "green" commencement gowns, heard an address by Economics Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen of Harvard at the college's 103rd commencement. But before the renowned economist spoke, Jamie Gorton, class-selected senior speaker and summa cum laude graduate, gave an over-the-top Star Wars-themed speech, and then went even more over the top by proposing marriage from the dais before 3,000+ people to his girlfriend Rachel Roy, seated amongst the rest of the graduates.

KATELYN BILLINGS EARNS THE KELEHER AWARD & SUMMA HONORS & ENTRY TO YALE GRADUATE PROGRAM

Athletic Director Geri Knortz proclaimed Katelyn Billings "a selfless teammate who starred at both shortstop and in center field-wherever her team needed her most-and earned All-Northeast 10 Conference honors." Ms. Billings excelled in the classroom too where she maintained a 3.947 Grade Point Average (out of a possible 4.0), while majoring in chemistry with a minor in mathematics. She was named to three honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa. She was twice named an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America (District I), three times Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic Team, and four times NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll Gold Scholar. Ms. Billings also went on three volunteer extended service trips-to Selma, Ala., Big Thicket, Texas, and Slidell, La., and she has been a volunteer youth softball coach.

Ms. Billings will being pursuit of her Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Yale University in the fall.

NOBELIST AMARTYA SEN SPEAKS ABOUT MARKETS & REGULATIONS

Commencement speaker, Amartya Sen, advised Saint Michael's graduates that a market economy can reap disaster when unregulated. Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and until recently the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Dr. Sen was the first Indian academic to head an Oxbridge college. His works have profoundly changed the way we understand major aspects of economics, philosophy and the social sciences. He is in fact a transformative thinker of the 21st century.

"A well functioning market economy can, of course, make a huge contribution to the growth of incomes and living standards. And yet, in the absence of sensible regulations, the market can also yield a complete disaster," Professor Sen said. "What we have to work for now is to seek an appropriate combination of activities of the market and of the state."

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. It is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 371 Colleges, and will be included in the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Saint Michael's is one of only 270 colleges and universities nationwide, one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international 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 Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

-30-