Saint Michael's College Senior, Emily Dec of Ludow, awarded top English prize from U.S. District Judge Reiss

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Saint Michael's student Emily Dec, ctr., with Judge Christina Reiss, left, and Saint Michael's Professor, Dr. Joan Wry, as Ms. Dec gets an award.

COLCHESTER, VT (05/06/2013)(readMedia)-- Emily Dec, a Saint Michael's College senior majoring in both English and political science, was awarded a special gift as the top literature student for 2013. Every year U.S. District Court of Vermont Chief Judge Christina Reiss, herself a 1984 graduate of Saint Michael's College, awards a clock and a cash gift to a literature student, in honor of her father, the late Dr. John Reiss, a long-time professor of English at Saint Michael's.

"Every year my father said there were one or two students who really lit up the semester," Judge Reiss said. She was pleased to give the award to a student who, she learned, had done that for other professors.

Emily Dec, the daughter of Sharlene Dec and the late David Dec, of Ludow, Mass., was described by her professor, Dr. Will Marquess, as "smart, engaged, lively, strong, and very hard-working." Ms. Dec carried out an independent study of Virginia Woolf with Professor Marquess. He referenced a portion of Virginia Woolf's book To the Lighthouse in characterizing Ms. Dec: A character is trying to capture a vision in paint: "One wanted, she thought, dipping her brush deliberately, to be on a level with ordinary experience, to feel simply that's a chair, that's a table, and yet at the same time, it's a miracle, it's an ecstasy."

Ms. Dec was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in April. While a full-time student, she also works locally at Barnes & Noble, and, Professor Marquess said, "Makes wonderful book recommendations."

Saint Michael's College www.smcvt.edu  students are challenged to do their best, find their niche, take on opportunities to grow, and immerse themselves in academic pursuits. Intellectual rigor, compassion, teamwork, caring-these characterize a Saint Michael's experience. A residential Catholic college, Saint Michael's is steeped in the social justice spirit of its founding priests, the Edmundites. Saint Michael's is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top 10 college towns. Headed by President John J. Neuhauser, the college has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Identified by the Princeton Review, 2013 as one of the nation's Best 377 Colleges, and included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013, Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Goldwater, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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