Gold Key Society inducts 83 students

Eighty-three students, along with faculty members Bethany Nelson and Robb Eason, were honored during the Gold Key Honor Society ceremony April 22 at the Semel Theater.

Students inducted into Gold Key are juniors who are graded in the top 5 percent of their class, and seniors who are in the top 10 percent.

Nelson, senior theatre educator-in-residence in the Performing Arts Department, and Eason, part-time faculty member in the Communication Studies Department, received the Helaine and Stanley Miller Award for Outstanding Teaching, and the Alan L. Stanzler Award for Excellence in Teaching, respectively.

Helaine Miller ’55 presented the awards during the ceremony, along with President Lee Pelton and Chief Academic Officer Michaele Whelan.

“Without teaching there is no government, no Internet, no literature. Teaching changes the world,” Nelson said while accepting her award. “I love young people, especially my students. They learn from me and I learn from them.”

Each academic year, the Gold Key Honor Society selects two faculty members—one who is full-time and another who is part-time—who consistently receive high Teacher/Course Evaluation ratings. Nelson and Eason were also selected based on the number of nominations and other positive feedback by student officers of the Gold Key National Honor Society and Whelan.

In keeping with Gold Key’s standards of high academic achievement, an important criterion for selection is the high academic standards established by the faculty members.

The Miller award comes with a $1,500 stipend, and the Stanzler award comes with a $1,000 stipend.

Miller served as an Emerson Trustee from 1982-1988, and has been very active in the Alumni Association, especially in the 1970s. In 2001, Miller established the Helaine and Stanley Miller Award for Outstanding Teaching, and was instrumental in helping establish in 2005 the Kenneth C. Crannell Sr. Scholarship in Speech Communication and Public Leadership.

Donor Alan L. Stanzler is a former Trustee and Overseer of the College. The award was created in honor of his father, Harold Stanzler, who for many years was a part-time faculty member at the University of Rhode Island.

Below is a list of students inducted into Gold Key.

Seniors

Juliet Albin

Kathryn Barnes

Elissa Bernstein

James Blaszko

Vanessa Boss

Laura Brincat

Kathryn Caldwell

Margaret Clark

Olivia Connors

Dana Cornelius

Mario Delgado

Alison DeStefano

Andrew Doerfler

Hilary Donoghue

Brian Dratch

Tess Fabeck

Erin Farley

Harshil Gagoomal

Andrea Garza Erdmann

Jonathon Goldberg

Yohanes Joenoes

Kwon Sun Jung

Kyle Koslick

Meredith Lataille

Angelica Lavine

Abigail Ledoux

Edward Ledwith

Sienna Mintz

Olivia Moriarty

Julie Musbach

Jessica Nicholson

Alison Puzio

Juliane Radermarcher

Petra Raposo

Mary Rochford

Cara Rotschafer

Tess Ryan

Erin St. Pierre

Ryann Tagle

Kurtis Theorin

Rebecca Vickers

Dustin Wlodkowski

Juniors

Janella Angeles

Erin Arata

Rebekah Brinkerhoff

Anna Buckley

Adam Burnier

Blake Campbell

Leah Casselman

Loretta Donelan

Kathy Dorn

Wendy Eaton

Laurel Elfenbein

Shantal Erlich

Christopher Gavin

Nicole Gibson

Christopher Gillespie

Natalie Hamil

Genesis Henriquez

Brighton Hernandez

Elizabeth Isenberg

Ashley Kane

Lyndsey Kemph

Henry Krause

August Lah

Isabel Mader

Michael Mahin

Zoe Matthews

Lindsey McFadden

Melanie McFadyen

Alison Meikle

Lindsay Miller

Dinesh Mohnani

Matthew Pierleoni

Rebecca Ring

Katherine Rushlau

Matthew Searle

Maggie Smolka

Sydney Stachyra

Samantha Starkey

Kaitlyn Sullivan

Abigail Thompson

Rebecca Todaro