Genevieve Gaede, a history major from La Habra, won the American history prize for her presentation: "The Contribution of Mennonite Women to Civilian Public Service During World War II." Michaelynne Whitsitt won the Regional Prize, a scholarship for her senior year of undergraduate study, and was selected as alternate for a national undergraduate grant. Whitsitt, a history major from Fresno, presented "Annui Magistratus Imperiaque Legum Potentiora Quam Hominum: Livy's Use of Libertas in his First Pentad."
More than 400 college and university students from across the nation attended the convention in Baltimore March 22-24. Of those, 200 made scholarly, creative or artistic presentationsand 29 won prizes.
Other FPU students making presentations were:
- Joshua Blagaila (Sacramento, history major)—"King Alfred's Proto-chivalrous Goals"
- Laura Dinges (Pasadena, psychology major) and Kara Linkowski (Fresno, psychology major)—"The Implications of Eyeglasses on Human Mate Selection"
- Brennen Henry (Sanger, English major) –"The Rhetoric of Paul"
- Jodi Roseberry (Bakersfield, history major)—"The Master of Baroque Sculpture: Gian Lorenzo Bernini"
- Yun Shin (Soul, South Korea, philosophy major)—"You are Fat: An Observation of American Obesity by a Foreigner"
In other honors, Blagaila was elected student representative for Region VII (Western U.S.) to the Alpha Chi National Council; Fay Nielsen, Ph.D., FPU associate dean of retention, completed her term as president of Region VII; and the chapter received its sixth consecutive Star Chapter Award. Nielsen is the sponsor of the California Zeta chapter. Co-sponsors are W. Marshall Johnston, Ph.D., assistant professor of history; Ruth Dahlquist, assistant professor of biology; and Nathan Smith, assistant professor of finance and economics.
Alpha Chi has chapters at 300 colleges and universities in almost every U.S. state, as well as Puerto Rico. The society admits no more than the top 10 percent of juniors, seniors and graduate students, registering about 11,000 new members each year.
Pictured from left are Nielsen, Henry, Marshall Johnston, Shin, Pamela Johnston (assistant professor of history/classics), Blagaila, Gaede and Whitsitt.