3 outstanding graduates

Outstanding seniors were recognized at Honors Day, May 3, with the awarding of the Alexander J. Taylor Award to David Kovara and the Emalea P. Warner Award to Monica Marchetta and Natalie Miller.

The Alexander J. Taylor Award is $2,000 awarded by the UD Alumni Association to the outstanding senior man who has demonstrated the qualities of scholarship, leadership, citizenship and character exemplified by the late Mr. Taylor, a dedicated and loyal friend of UD.

The Emalea P. Warner Award is $2,000 awarded by the UD Alumni Association to the outstanding senior woman who has demonstrated the qualities of scholarship, leadership, citizenship and character exemplified by the late Mrs. Warner, a champion of education in the state of Delaware.

The recipients' names will be inscribed on plaques located near the Alumni Room in the Perkins Student Center and in Alumni Hall, and the three students led the procession of alumni delegates into Delaware Stadium at UD's 153rd Commencement.

David Kovara

Kovara, of Flemington, N.J., was recently named a Rhodes Scholar and will study Christian ethics and international human rights laws at Oxford University. He graduated from UD with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree in liberal studies.

He also was named to USA Today's All-USA College Academic First Team earlier this year, and in 2001, he received the prestigious Truman Scholarship. Kovara maintained a 3.9 grade point average (G.P.A.), while working as a volunteer both here and abroad.

He interned at Doctors without Borders in Austria, lived in a monastery in Greece and volunteered at an orphanage and medical clinic in India. He also worked in Kenya and Uganda and established a child protection agency for abused children–the Children's Legal Action Network (CLAN). He has presented his work at a conference in Istanbul and will present his work to a conference in Finland.

Locally, he has been involved with the Spina Bifida Assocation of the Tri-State Region.

Monica Marchetta

Marchetta, of Milton, Mass., maintained a 3.95 G.P.A. and is a letter-winner in both cross country and track and field. A dean's scholar, she received her degree in human development and family processes.

She has developed a personalized academic program of studies focusing on adult development and aging, working for the past six summers at an adult day care center in Cambridge, Mass. She has studied how young adults plan to provide assistance to an elderly parent who can no longer live alone and how they perceive their obligations of care.

For her honor's thesis, Marchetta carried out a comparative study on future reciprocity between U.S. and Panama students and their parents, interviewing 120 college students in Spanish at the University of Panama.

Natalie Miller

Miller, of Allentown, Pa., maintained a 3.95 G.P.A. and completed a degree in animal science while taking a wide variety of honors courses in other disciplines.

She has been an ambassador and representative on the Student Council of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Two years ago, she organized a benefit for AgriAbility, a branch of Easter Seals that helps handicapped farmers. The proceeds went to make a farm wheelchair accessible for a Delaware alumnus who opened up his farm to urban children to raise animals for 4-H and other projects.

Miller's research involves the p53 gene product, which plays a pivotal role in the regulation of cellular growth.

A Girl Scout leader to a troop of special needs girls at Newark High School, Miller has been active in the Collegiate Future Farmers of America, the E-52 Student Theatre and the Animal Science Club. Among her awards are the American Society of Animal Science Scholar Award and the Milton L. Draper Alumni-Student Relations Award.

Photo by Eric Crossan