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Outstanding Senior Award - 4 Year Program

Winners of the 2008 Outstanding Senior Award (4-year program):

 Megan Baker

 Megan Baker
 

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources was fortunate to recruit a student of Megan Baker’s talent, leadership and enthusiasm. While maintaining a 3.4 grade point average in Agricultural and Resource Economics, Megan has excelled out of the classroom and helped propel AGNR students into the spotlight of campus activities.

Megan demonstrated her dedication to leadership for the college by serving as a founding member of the re-organized Collegiate 4-H Chapter. She accepted the role of vice president in the fall of her sophomore year and was elected President the following spring. Under her leadership, membership in Collegiate 4-H continues to grow from a beginning membership of 5 to more than 15. She set up regular meeting times, made adjustments in meeting locations and established a Yahoo list serve to expedite communications and meet the needs of active members. She created an opportunity for Collegiate 4-H and Sigma Alpha, the professional-social sorority of agriculture, to work together on a service project that also resulted in new members for each organization.

She willingly distributes information from county and state 4-H offices and sends requests for judges, interviewers and volunteer instructors out to members. She and another member conducted a workshop on extemporaneous public speaking at the 2008 Youth Program at the Maryland Dairy Industry Convention. She has also worked closely with 4-H’s Operation: Military Kids providing Collegiate 4-H members the opportunity to learn about the program and collaborate to support the outreach work of OMK. She attended the National Collegiate 4-H Conference and accepted the responsibility of serving as the president of the Northeast Regional Collegiate 4-H Chapters.

Amazingly, Collegiate 4-H has not been Megan’s only civic engagement and leadership activity on campus! She serves as the president of Sigma Alpha, and has been active in Ag Day / Maryland Day activities. She represented AGNR as a legislator in SGA and served two years as a resident assistant. She interned with Maryland Farm Bureau during the 2007 Legislative Session, and has worked as a real estate attorney’s assistant in Frederick. She received numerous AGNR scholarships, served as an AGNR Student Ambassador and counselor for the USDA and AGNR Ag-Discovery, a career exploration program.

Thea Nielsen

 
Thea Nielsen 
 Thea Nielsen will graduate in May 2008 with a double degree in Agricultural and Resource Economics (AREC) and Government and Politics in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS). Her 4.0 grade point average does not reflect that 12 of her A’s are A-plusses, a feat that her undergraduate advisor has never witnessed before on a transcript. It is particularly noteworthy that she earned A+ in challenging upper level AREC classes dealing with intermediate macroeconomics and economics statistics.

Thea has shown a great deal of initiative in putting together a program that will allow her to combine her interests in international affairs with her interest in economics policy analysis. Her College Park Scholars specialization in international students, her Spanish lanuage courses, her Government and Politics course in international studies politics and her Honors seminar in Terrorism and in  Understanding India, all demonstrate her commitment to take full advantage of the
opportunities at College Park. In addition, she has met all the requirements to btain a certificate in International Agriculture through AGNR. She has added ourses in calculus and econometrics to be better prepared for graduate study in
economics and applied economics.

Thea’s course work has been supplemented by undergraduate research in international Extension under the leadership of Professor William Rivera and in agricultural marketing supply chains in Mexico for the Center of Latin American Rural Development.

She was selected as an intern to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service in the U.S. Embassy in Sofia Bulgaria. Regrettably, bureaucratic red tape during the summer did not allow Thea’s security clearance to be approved in a timely fashion for her to participate in this highly competitive internship.

Not surprisingly, Thea Neilson’s honors are numerous. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar at UMCP and received the College Park Scholars Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Studies. Graduate school abroad awaits Thea following graduation.

Award Details

This recognition is given to a graduating student who has: Provided outstanding service to the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Demonstrated dedicated leadership to College of Agriculture and Natural Resources student organizations; Exhibited high standards of citizenship and fellowship; Maintained an above average academic record; Conducted themselves in a manner which reflects positively on their fellow students, the College of Agriculture and Natural resources and the University of Maryland System. Each academic program is asked to make a nomination supported by a record of the student's activities and achievements.


Previous Recipients...

Beginning in 2004, 4- and 2-year program awards are separated. The following list of recipients includes all who received the combined "Outstanding Senior" Award through 2003:

For more information, contact Gail Yeiser

Last updated: 03/12/2009