COLCHESTER, VT (05/22/2012)(readMedia)-- During Commencement Week activities May 11-14 at Saint Michael's College, Samantha Steinmetz, daughter of Jenine Michaud and Paul Steinmetz of Washington, CT, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and in global studies, 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 Steinmetz's considerable achievements as a four-year member of the women's basketball team and team captain as a senior: A history and global studies major with a minor in Spanish, Steinmetz had an impressive 3.808 cumulative grade point average and holds membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Epsilon Sigma and Phi Alpha Theta national honor societies. She is a four-time Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic Team honoree and perennial member of the NE-10 commissioner's Honor Roll. Active in the college's volunteer service organization MOVE (Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts), she participated in a service trip to Hartford, CT and played a crucial role in the production of the Athletic Department's "It Gets Better" video in support of LBGTQ youth. Steinmetz made the most dramatic difference through her work with the Simply Smiles organization in Oaxaca, Mexico. Over the last four summers she spent nearly six months of time there volunteering to improve the lives of impoverished Mexican children and after graduation she will enter an 18-month Peace Corps-style position with Simply Smiles.
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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