Kendré Barnes of Omaha, Neb., Awarded 2013 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion

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Kendre Barnes

LEXINGTON, VA (05/24/2013)(readMedia)-- Kendré Barnes of Omaha, Neb., a 2013 graduate of Washington and Lee University, have been named one of two winners of the this year's Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion.

W&L has been awarding the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion continually since 1927. It is awarded by a vote of the faculty to a male and female in the graduating class who excel in high ideals of living, in spiritual qualities and in generous and disinterested service to others.

Barnes received a B.A. with majors in Spanish and in English. She has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Panama for next year. At W&L, she held the Henry Louis Smith scholarship and John Rugel Memorial scholarship and belonged to Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society. Barnes was a literacy tutor at Waddell Elementary School in Lexington and also in Rockbridge County, a peer counselor and was a member of the Chamber Singers and SAIL.

She served as co-chair of the Nabors Service League and received the Barritt-Williams Prize in Spanish, a Johnson Opportunity Grant and the Wornom Award for Distinguished Critical Writing from the English Department. Barnes was an immigration and refugee services intern for the Lutheran Family Services Inc. She also was a WLUR DJ, presenting "The Flamenco Hour."

Barnes participated in Green Dot Bystander training to help the campus lower the rate of sexual assaults. She lived in Buenos Aires during the summer of 2012 as a Shepherd Alliance Intern, assisting families who came to the city for medical treatment. She also taught English classes there to women and children.