Warner and Taylor awards for outstanding seniors announced

Click here to download in PDF format UD’s “2004 Honors Day” booklet, which includes listings of all University Awards and new honor society members. Note: Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded free from Adobe’s web site, will be required to read the document.

Charles Collins-Chase and Patricia Cordes

10:14 a.m., May 7, 2004--Patricia Cordes of Silver Spring, Md., has received the Emalea Pusey Warner Award as the outstanding senior woman, and Charles Collins-Chase of Sykesville Md., has received the Alexander J. Taylor Sr. Award as the outstanding senior man, both given by the University of Delaware Alumni Association.

The $2,000 awards honor leadership, academic success and community service as exemplified by Mrs. Warner and Mr. Taylor. In addition, those considered for the awards must have a cumulative grade point index of 3.0 or better at the end of the first semester of their senior year.

In addition to being recognized at Honors Day on May 7, the two seniors will lead the alumni delegates’ procession at Commencement on May 29.

Patricia Cordes

Cordes is a Eugene du Pont Scholar, one of UD’s most prestigious scholarships, and she is earning two honors degrees, a bachelor of science in economics and a bachelor of arts in political science.

In a letter nominating Cordes, Katharine Kerrane, senior associate director of the University Honors Program, wrote that what makes Cordes’ “academic record even more impressive is that she combines it with significant leadership and service to others on campus.”

Cordes has served for two years as a Writing Fellow, providing peer tutoring in writing to students in first-year honors courses and also volunteered as a Senior Fellow in the Honors Program, living with honors freshmen in student housing, mentoring and planning activities. In addition, she served as a Blue Hen Ambassador, giving tours to prospective students.

With other Du Pont Scholars, Cordes was instrumental in initiating a successful lecture series on campus, which brought such prominent speakers to campus as Pulitzer Prize-winner Linda Greenhouse of The New York Times.

Cordes also has been active with the Thomas More Oratory, organizing visits to the Little Sisters of the Poor Nursing Home and teaching religion to children.

Cordes participated in a Study Abroad Program in Italy in 2002, directed by James Magee, chairperson of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, and also served as an undergraduate teaching assistant and writing fellow for courses he taught. Magee wrote that Cordes “is clearly one of the University of Delaware’s finest students. She is extremely intelligent, highly motivated, unusually mature and has a wonderful, refreshingly honest personality....I am certain that she is one of the very best students whom I have ever taught.”

Cordes served as an internal consulting services intern for J.P. Morgan Chase last summer and a policy research intern with the U.S. Sentencing Commission in Washington, D.C., from the summer of 2001 to the winter of 2003.

At UD, Cordes is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, received the Seitz Award for displaying unusual traits of fine character, the Hutchinson Scholar Award from the economics department, the Dolan Scholar Award from the political science department and was named a University Woman of Promise.

After graduation, Cordes plans to participate in Teach for America, a two-year program that places college graduates in low-income rural or urban schools while they work for certification. She has been assigned to Camden, N.J.

The Emalea Pusey Warner Award honors the late Mrs. Warner (1853-1948) who is remembered as a champion of education. In 1911, she became chairperson of the State Federation of Women’s Clubs’ Committee on Education, working diligently toward establishing a state-supported women’s college in Delaware. She later became the first woman member of the Delaware College Board of Trustees. Both Warner Hall on the UD campus and Warner Elementary School in Wilmington are named in her honor.

Charles Collins-Chase

Also a Eugene du Pont Scholar, Collins-Chase majored in chemical engineering and will graduate with an honors degree with distinction, earned by only 1 percent of UD graduates. A research intern at UD’s Center for Composite Materials, Collins-Chase wrote his thesis on synthesizing polymers from renewable resources, such as soybean oil, as an alternative to polymers derived from petroleum.

At UD, Collins-Chase received the Robert L. Pigford Undergraduate Award in chemical engineering, the Volunteer Service Award from Newark and the Jo Anne J. Trow Undergraduate Scholarship, and he is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Omega Chi Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi and the Golden Key honor societies. He served as president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers student chapter and was president and founder of the Delaware Students of Conscience. He also was a Blue Hen Ambassador, giving tours to prospective students.

Collins-Chase was president of Alpha Lambda Delta honor society in 2001-02 and cochaired its Battle for Life program, which helped raise funds and organize a service abroad trip to South Africa during Winter Session to volunteer at the Tumelong Haven for orphans who lost families to AIDS and at the Mohau Clinic for children with AIDS.

In January 2003, Collins-Chase worked as an intern at the Sierra Club, researching issues related to diesel and alternative fuels. He helped design a program to decrease school bus emissions and reduce asthma in school-aged children.

He also has worked at Clifton E. French Regional Park and Cedar Creek Natural Resource Area in Minnesota and received an Honorable Mention from the Udall Scholarship Foundation last year for his commitment to the environment.

In addition, Collins-Chase served as equipment editor for Cross Country Skier Magazine, testing and reviewing new products for the sport.

Collins-Chase has been accepted into a joint master of philosophy in engineering for sustainable development program at Cambridge University, a joint project with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to study the relationship between science and environmental issues.

Kerrane wrote in her letter of recommendation that Collins-Chase “has demonstrated the intellectual excellence, leadership and character that are the hallmarks of the Taylor Award. With his background in chemical engineering and postgraduate work at Cambridge University in sustainable development, Chuck will be perfectly positioned to make critical contributions to global environmental policyŠ.”

Valedictorian of the Class of 1893 with a degree in civil engineering, Alexander J. Taylor Sr. (1875-1940) was an active alumnus who was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1927, 1932 and 1938, serving on the Grounds and Buildings Committee, the Executive Committee and chairing the Finance Committee. Taylor Hall was named in his honor.

Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.