Undergraduate Awards for 2010 Announced

Congratulations to all of our graduating seniors!

Joseph W. Houppert Memorial Shakespeare Prize

2010 Houppert Awardee: Peter Lawrence Kramer

This prize was named for Joseph Houppert, a Shakespeare expert, scholar of the English renaissance and distinguished member of this department from 1963 until his death in 1979. Professor Houppert was always particularly concerned for the teaching of undergraduate students; consequently his colleagues established this competition in his memory, with a prize to be awarded annually to the undergraduate who has written the best essay on Shakespeare during the academic year.

Sandy Mack Award for the Outstanding English Honors Thesis

2010 Mack Awardee: TBA

English Honors is a selective program within the English major, in which students develop a lengthy critical thesis or creative work over the course of the academic year. All the students graduating with honors have completed a rigorous course of study and we are proud of their extraordinary accomplishments. This award is named for the faculty member who developed the English Honors Program and guided it for many years. It is given each year to the student with the most outstanding overall record in English Honors.

Henrietta Spiegel Creative Writing Award

2010 Spiegel Awardee: Anna K. Haraseyko and Steven B. Yenzer

Henrietta Spiegel was the widow of a University of Maryland faculty member who, following her husband’s death, completed her B.A. in English here in 1989 at the age of 85 with a G.P.A. of 3.9. She died in 1996 at the age of 92. She remains the oldest person ever to complete an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland and, according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not, the oldest woman ever inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Upon the completion of her degree, she established this award to honor undergraduate work in creative writing judged by the creative writing faculty to be the most outstanding.

Joyce Taylor Horrell Award

2010 Horrell Awardees: Stephanie Wolf

This special award was established in 1989 by Joseph Horrell in memory of his wife Joyce Tayloe Horrell, an Honors graduate student, Henry James scholar, and master teacher in the English Department from 1960 until 1967. Ms. Horrell is remembered as a brilliant member of the department, who contributed importantly to the lives of her students, friends and colleagues. The Horrell Award is conferred annually on the English major who has demonstrated the highest academic achievement among the graduating class.

Sara Ann Soper Undergraduate Service Award

2010 Soper Awardee: Ashley Timara Guest

The Sara Ann Soper English Undergraduate Service Award was established by Shannon Altman, who graduated in 1999 with a double degree in English and Education. While she was an undergraduate, Shannon designed and implemented an undergraduate tutoring service at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Two years after she graduated, she gave the department a significant gift to endow the Sara Ann Soper English Undergraduate Service Award to honor a graduating senior who has volunteered time, energy, and commitment to community service. Shannon named the award after her mother, as a testimony to her achievements. Shannon’s own words say the most about the link between the service award and the high regard she had for her mother: “She was my role model, my inspiration, my hero.”

Mike Angel Award

2010 Mike Angel Award: Joshua Bruce Winskowski

The Mike Angel award recognizes a student who has faced extreme hardship in completing his or her degree and demonstrated distinction, extraordinary merit, and perseverance as an English major. It was established by faculty and students in 1984 to honor the achievements of Mike Angel.

Academic Excellence Awards 

John Barkmeyer, Brian Anthony Cognato, Kaitlyn M. Curtis, Alyssa Luanne Dubov, Emily Feldman, Talia Shoshana Goldman, Daniel Marcus Greene, Laura Ann Hoffmaster, Sophia Delima Iem, Amali Kumari Liyanarachi, Zachary John Perret, Matthew John Phillips, Walter Andrew Shephard, Julie Christine Smith, Dale Catherine Trumbore, Rebecca Zahradnik

The English Department Academic Excellence Awards are presented each term to students graduating in English with the most outstanding academic records in their course work in the major. The English Department Academic Excellence Awards are presented each term to students graduating in English with the most outstanding academic records in their course work in the major. Winners receive a certificate and a signed book from the department; this year the book is Old Heart by Stanley Plumly.

Congratulations to all of our award winners!