| Department of Classics | University of Colorado at Boulder | May 2003 |
Table of Contents
Wink Jaffee Donates Magnificent Roman Coin Collection to Department
Published by:
Department of Classics
University of Colorado at Boulder
HUMN 340
248 UCB
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0248
Nichols Awards Granted
Winners of Nichols Fellowships, Kelly Lewis, Megan Lillie, Tiernan Doyle, and Richard Payne (left to right), assemble in the Classics Library.
The Department of Classics has selected four continuing students and one entering student as Nichols Scholars for 2003-04. The five awards will be funded through a generous donation from CU alumna and classics major Ann Nichols. Although it is always difficult to make choices among the large pool of excellent students we are privileged to call Classics majors, the Undergraduate Committee (Susan Prince, Beth Dusinberre, and Barbara Hill) was confronted with a difficult choice in selecting only four students from our impressive pool of thirteen students, who shared among them a GPA of 3.55. Next year’s Nichols Scholars share the extremely impressive GPA of 3.93 overall and 3.983 in Classics Department courses.
The Herodotus Travel Grant will go to junior Megan Lillie, who plans to attend the Program of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. Megan was selected for her achievement in Classics and Ancient History and for the clear advantages that a semester at the Centro offers to her education and professional plans. She has worked extensively with Prof. Bob Hohlfelder of the History Department in marine archaeology and intends to complete an Honors Thesis on a related topic. Ultimately she plans to become a professional ancient historian.
Three continuing students will receive Distinguished Undergraduate Fellowships to fund their study here at CU in 2003-04. Sophomore Tiernan Doyle, who focuses on Latin and Greek language and literature, was praised by one faculty member for her language skills, writing, and participation in class. “But what really set her apart,” continues our colleague, “was her thoughts and observations about the poems. At the end of the term, she had a complete set of extremely articulate, insightful mini-essays that would have done credit to just about any of our graduate students.” Tiernan hopes eventually to pursue graduate study in Classics and Linguistics, including also hieroglyphics and other fine “dead” languages.
Sophomore Kelly Lewis will receive a Distinguished Undergraduate Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding performance and enthusiasm in courses across the curriculum, and especially in the ancient history and literature in translation courses she has taken in the Classics Department. Kelly, who as a high school student looked forward to majoring in Classics in college, is now completing her second year of Latin with high A’s in every Latin class and is about to begin Greek in the fall. In Classics courses in translation, where graded projects tend to be subjective and plentiful, and the material extensive and diverse, she has routinely turned in course grades above 95, always either top in the class or very close to it. Her enthusiasm is apparent always, as for instance in her choice to take courses this summer instead of working, since her fellowship will cover portions of her budget for the next academic year that she would otherwise cover from summer employment. Kelly has a double major in U.S. history and intends to teach Latin and history in high school.
Freshman Richard Payne will receive a Distinguished Undergraduate Fellowship in recognition of his tremendous skills and ambitions as a late-antique historian and as a recent but awesomely impressive student of Greek and Latin. Richard has picked up Greek this year in the normal way, by taking the introductory Greek sequence CLAS 1013-1023— where his test scores are always top in the class, and often perfect ... before the extra credit. But his Latin is, at the elementary level, self-taught: he started over the December holidays and is now holding his own, and indeed excelling, in simultaneous adventures in 3rd- and 4th-semester Latin, CLAS 2114 and 2124. He recently entered the department translation competitions in both languages, which were intended to target third-year students, and put himself in contention for each of the prizes. But perhaps his greatest accomplishment so far at CU has been in a course in the history of late antiquity, where his instructor reported, “Among the 300 students I have instructed both at Princeton and here at Boulder, Richard is the best student I have ever taught.” Richard hopes to become a scholar of Byzantium.
Last but not least, the Ann Nichols Fellowship for an incoming Classics major from a Colorado high school will go to Caitlyn Sawyer of the Denver University High School. Caitlyn is a fourth-year Latin student of CU’s own MAT alumnus Josh Watson. She excels in Latin and has been on the honor role for her broader academic accomplishments, and she hopes to continue her studies in Classics and eventually focus on classical archaeology.
We congratulate our fellowship winners and give public thanks to our generous benefactor, who inspires all our students by making these awards possible.
