07-18-2001
Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College will hold its first summer medals ceremony for approximately 40 graduating seniors on Friday, August 3, at 7 p.m. in the Nittany Lion Inn Ballroom.

Rhodes Scholar Zachary Battles, who is graduating with three academic degrees, will be among the medal recipients. Battles won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England for the next two or three years.

The honors graduates will receive a medallion designed by John A. Cook, professor emeritus of art in the College of Arts and Architecture. The medallion is given as a distinction of successful completion of requirements to graduate with honors from Penn State.  President Graham B. Spanier will present the medals, assisted by Rodney Erickson, executive vice president and provost, and Cheryl Achterberg, dean of the Schreyer Honors College. 

Until now, the Schreyer Honors College has only held medals ceremonies for the fall and spring semesters. The summer ceremony has been introduced to honor graduates in a timely fashion.

The Honors College was named for its benefactors, William A. Schreyer and his wife Joan, The Schreyer's $30 million donation allowed for the transformation of the former University Scholars Program into a multidisciplinary center of undergraduate work which has been recognized as one of the top honors programs in the country.