Students, Faculty Honored for Academic Excellence

President Lee Pelton on Monday reminded everyone gathered inside the Semel Theater for the 2017 Gold Key Honor Society Induction Ceremony that “excellence is not an act, but a habit.”

The ceremony recognized the academic achievements of Emerson students and the teaching excellence of three faculty members.

Assistant Professor of Writing, Literature and Publishing Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann was awarded the Helaine and Stanley Miller Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Seligmann, who teaches modern Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. literature, said in her acceptance speech that she approaches her role as an instructor as guiding both her students and herself to decode “the parts of society that don’t make any sense.”

Ian Blaustein, affiliated faculty in the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, was awarded the Alan L. Stanzler Award for Excellence in Teaching.

True to his field of ethics and philosophy, he meditated upon whether one should be ashamed, humbled, or proud of standing in front of an audience for recognition of their teaching, when that very time could be spent teaching another class, thus continuing the very practice that they were recognized for.

Associate Professor of Writing, Literature and Publishing Jabari Asim was awarded the Emerson College Alumni Award for Teaching Innovation.

He described the “torturous joy” of seeing students’ written works come into existence, viewing his role as not an authority on the journey, but as a “knowledgeable escort.”

Membership in the Gold Key Honor Society is extended to juniors in the top 5 percent and seniors in the top 10 percent of their class who have earned at least 48 credits at the institution.

Speaking after the event, Kelsey Aijala ’17, a Marketing Communications major and one of this year’s inductees, reflected on the ceremony.

“As a student, I was reminded of the work I did in order to simply be here through the words of the professors and what they had to say to the students,” Aijala said.

Juniors inducted into the Gold Key Honor Society are:

Elissa Bazylewicz

Lauren Bennett

Caroline Bialas

Devon Broecking-Knowlton

Michaela Buccini

Natalie Busch

Amelia Channin

Georgina Coffey

Matthew Couture

Jacqueline DeFusco

Kendall Edwards

Christian Engle

Tyler Ericson

Talia Frank-Stempel

Stephen Furda

John Geary

Hannah Gluckman

Joseph Green

Lincoln Griswold

Gemma Guerrazzi

Rebecca Hankins

Kelly Hills

Katherine Hoelzl

Stephanie Ibarra

Victoria Jamieson

Megan Jensen

Arden Jurskis

Alex LaRosa

Isabelle Liu

Kyle Madigan

Anne Makielski

Madeleine Moderhack

Kristina Modica

Elizabeth Morier

Samantha Mustari

Medelene Nieman

Emma Nigut

Allison Rassmann

Brian Roth

Bruno Rubeiz

Ariela Rudy Zaltzman

Fiona Ryan

Sophia Schoenfeld

Marissa Secreto

Katherine Shaver

Madison St. Amour

Henri Thibault

Bradley Trumpfheller

 

Seniors inducted into the Gold Key Honor Society are:

Kelsey Aijala

Riley Auskelis

Jacob Carozza

Shelly Dorf

Nicole Eng

Daniela Fanelli

Dominic Farello

Madison Gallup

Milo Goodman

Amanda Gutierrez

Bin Li

Lloyd Mallison

Casey Mohla

Jenna Montefiore

Alexandra Nikolaidis

Bridget Nolan

Lindsey Norden

Lindsey Paradis

Megan Roy

Eliza Sanchez

Darrin Smith

Savannah Strange

Mariah Terry

Massiel Torres

Cornelia Tzana

Cassidy Vogel

Richard Wheelock

Olivia Woollett \

Jinghan Zhu

Luke Zvara