Two students to receive writing awards at Spring Honors Medallion Ceremony

Two Florida State University students have been selected to receive university awards for writing excellence among undergraduates who complete an honors thesis while participating in the university’s Honors in the Major Program.

Michael Graziano, a senior majoring in social science and history whose family lives in Severn, Md., and John J. Walsh, a senior from Palmetto, Fla., who is majoring in chemical and biomedical engineering, were both selected to receive the university’s 2010 Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Undergraduate Writing Award. The annual award, which is given for exceptional writing in an honors thesis and requires faculty nomination, was adjudicated by a faculty committee.

Both Graziano and Walsh will receive a plaque and a $2,000 cash award, to be presented by the university’s Honors Office director, Helen Burke, at this year’s Spring Honors Medallion Ceremony. The ceremony will take place:

TUESDAY, APRIL 20

5:30 P.M.

GRAND BALLROOM, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY ALUMNI CENTER

1030 W. TENNESSEE ST.

Graziano’s honors thesis was titled “The Unspeakable Visions of the Individual: The Beat Generation and the Affirmative Apocalypse.” It was written under the direction of Neil Jumonville, the William Warren Rogers Professor of History and chairman of the history department. Graziano will graduate with honors in history.

Walsh’s honors thesis was “Single Cell Analysis of Osmosis as Assessed by High-Field 1H and 23Na Magnetic Resonance Imaging.” It was written under the direction of Samuel C. Grant, an assistant professor of chemical engineering in the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering and researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

Both Graziano and Walsh also represented Florida State this past weekend at the Fifth Annual ACC Meeting of the Minds Undergraduate Research Conference at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Florida State’s University Honors Program admits approximately 10 percent of the incoming freshman class each year on the basis of their superior high school records and test scores. These students have the opportunity to take special honors classes and seminars throughout their undergraduate career. In their junior and senior years, eligible students may apply to enter the Honors in the Major program, in which they complete an independent research or creative project under the guidance of a faculty committee. Completion of 18 hours of honors coursework and/or an honors thesis qualifies a student to receive an honors medallion.