UD Honors Program recognizes students for exceptional academic achievements

12:20 p.m., May 25, 2013--The University of Delaware Honors Program held its annual honors breakfast on Friday, May 24, in the Trabant University Center, celebrating the academic excellence of UD's highest achieving students.

An audience of several hundred students, family and friends joined UD faculty, staff and administrators to recognize 48 students receiving the honors degree with distinction and 192 students receiving the honors degree at the University's 164th Commencement on Saturday.

Campus Stories

From graduates, faculty

As it neared time for the processional to open the University of Delaware Commencement ceremonies, graduating students and faculty members shared their feelings about what the event means to them.

Doctoral hooding

It was a day of triumph, cheers and collective relief as more than 160 students from 21 nations participated in the University of Delaware's Doctoral Hooding Convocation held Friday morning on The Green.

• Doctoral hooding
• Old Swedes
• Summer SAT, ACT prep
• 'Opus 13' pre-sale

Honors degree recipients satisfy all the coursework and grade point average requirements of the Honors Program. Honors degree with distinction recipients meet honors requirements and also complete and defend an honors thesis.

Michael Arnold, Honors Program director and professor of economics, welcomed honorees and their guests to the breakfast, which was part of a range of Commencement weekend activities.

University President Patrick Harker congratulated the honors graduates, saying he counts it a privilege to address the select group of students who have “made the most of their time at UD” by challenging themselves on a daily basis and pursuing interests and passions with great enthusiasm.

He said the students will faces challenges and competition as they move on to the next phase of their lives. “You’re going to need to prove yourselves again and again. That’s what life’s about,” he said, adding, “But if you didn’t want the challenge, you never would have enrolled in the Honors Program in the first place.”

Harker encouraged the Honors Program students to apply their “curiosity and drive and hard, hard work.”

Harker thanked members of the faculty who have worked with the students, guiding them and cheering them on along the way, and the families who set the stage for their success.

“If this degree says a lot about these graduates, and it does, it also says a lot about the households they grew up in, and the families that loved them along the way,” he said. “You gave them space and time and license to explore their interests, discover their passions and accomplish remarkable things.”

Photos by Ambre Alexander