Twenty incoming students win $60,000 Medallion Scholarships

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Twenty freshmen have won coveted Medallion Scholarships to begin their studies at Western Michigan University this fall.

Medallion Scholarships are the highest merit-based award WMU can bestow on an incoming freshman. Valued at $60,000 each over four years, they constitute one of the largest merit-based awards in American higher education.

Some of this year's incoming scholars received a WMU Presidential Medallion Scholarship, while others received awards that bear the names of their scholarships' donors or the individuals for whom the scholarships were established. One recipient has yet to confirm acceptance of the award.

The students were selected after competing for the awards in the 33rd annual Medallion Scholarship Program event held during two January sessions at WMU. Invitations to compete were based on a combination of high grade point averages and ACT scores, and were extended to students who had applied to WMU by Dec. 4, 2015.

About the scholarship competition

A total of 786 seniors from across Michigan and the United States participated in this year's competition. The daylong event included essay writing and a group problem-solving activity for the students as well as activities for the participants' parents and families.

The 52 top-performing competitors returned to campus and were interviewed as finalists for the Medallion Scholarship, with 20 ultimately being selected to receive the honor.

In addition to the $60,000 monetary award, Medallion Scholars become members of WMU's Lee Honors College. The college, one of the oldest honors programs in the nation, enhances the undergraduate learning experience by providing such benefits as smaller class sizes, individualized academic advising and a freshman mentoring program.

The finalists not awarded Medallion Scholarships were offered a top-tier Dean's Scholarship worth $6,000 over two years, and all of the remaining competitors were offered the Dean's Scholarship, an award worth $3,000 for their freshman year.

About the scholarship recipients

This year's Medallion Scholars have an average ACT score of 31 and a grade point average of 4.15. Six of them come from underrepresented or minority groups. They will begin their studies at WMU in the fall and are scheduled to graduate during the 2019-20 academic year.

Megan Callaghan

Megan Callaghan, of Kentwood, will graduate from East Kentwood High School and plans to major in nursing at WMU. She was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Callaghan has earned numerous accolades. They include being named a regional finalist for National History Day, an Advanced Placement Scholar with Distinction in 2015 and a member of the East Kentwood All-Academic Team for four years. She has been in leadership positions on the student council all four years of high school, serving as president this year, her class president for four years and student representative to the Board of Education for one year. Callaghan has been starting at third base on the varsity softball team throughout high school and received an all-conference honorable mention her sophomore year. In addition, she played volleyball for two years and most recently, participated in a high-intensity weightlifting group workout.

She has been active as a volunteer, and through her student government roles has organized homecoming festivals as well as programs for mentors with English Language Learning Students, students at Southwood Elementary School and police and fire department personnel. Callaghan also accumulated more than 200 volunteer hours through the National Honor Society during her junior and senior years, doing tutoring and working with organizations such as St. Mary Magdalen Church, the Dutton Food Pantry and an elementary school. She also is involved with her church youth group, including as a senior leader.

Katie DeHaan

Katie DeHaan, of Byron Center, will graduate from South Christian High School and plans to major in interior design at WMU. She was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. DeHaan served as marshal her junior year at senior graduation by virtue of being in the top 10 of her class academically and has been on the honor roll her entire high school career. She participated in soccer all four years and organized and ran an indoor soccer team in the off-season during her junior year. She ran on the varsity cross country team her senior year and served as a senior leader, with the team going to the state finals and earning the 10th spot in Division 2 competition. She also participated in band as a freshman and has been involved in the visual arts the past three years.

DeHaan has spent four years in Campaigners, a before-school Bible Study Group organized by Young Life, and has participated for two years in Connections Lunch Partners, which sets up lunch partners for special-needs students. She is a five-year member of the Friendship Christian Reformed Church youth group and has taken on such projects as buying presents for single parents and their children, making meals for cancer patients, doing lawn work, painting houses, and working at a thrift store and food bank. DeHaan has volunteered for numerous other community organizations and churches, as well. Her activities have included working with food pantries, delivering Christmas baskets to needy families, and volunteering in the dementia unit at Byron Manner retirement home. In addition, she visited Guatemala in 2014 through the Christian Reformed Church to build greenhouses to help combat malnutrition in children. She has worked extensively to save money to pay her entire college tuition.

Mason Gordon

Mason Gordon, of Gobles, will graduate from Gobles High School and although he has not decided on a specific major at WMU, plans to go into a business field. He was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. Gordon has been on the honor roll every year since ninth grade, and achieved Most Outstanding honors in Spanish and English in 2013. At GHS, he has participated in quiz bowl, a group version of Jeopardy, for five years. In addition, he has played in the marching band since the eighth grade and in the concert band since the sixth grade, serving as a leader in the pit percussion section from his freshman to senior year.

Gordon, who loves to entertain people, built his own instrument out of PVC piping and wood and has performed with it in front of a large audience. The idea to build his own instrument stemmed from seeing someone on You Tube mimic the Blue Man Group.

Doni Graham

Doni Graham, of Bloomfield Hills, will graduate from Bloomfield Hills High School and plans to major in industrial and entrepreneurial engineering at WMU. She was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A National Honor Society member, Graham received a Big Ten Award in 2015 at the Michigan State University Performing Arts Camp for color guard in recognition of her skill and hard work. She was a member of the BHHS Marching Band color guard all four years of high school. She wrote and taught routines to 15 other girls and participated in both the fall color guard, which she serves as senior captain, and the winter guard, which she serves as rifle soloist and sabre soloist. Graham has been active in the visual arts since her sophomore year, when she took a photography class and learned how to work with both film and digital photography. As a junior, she joined the IB program and learned drawing and painting, then continued her studies over the summer by taking a charcoal drawing at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center. In her 12th grade IB art class she has been experimenting with caustic works and will have an art show of her works at BHHS. Her other artistic activities have included singing alto for the Knightingales.

Graham also was a member of SOS for one year and the Link Crew for one year, serving as link leader. She has been involved in several community service projects through the National Honor Society, which she is serving as small-group leader this year. Among other activities as small-group leader, she created a group volunteer project at Sunrise of Troy, an assisted living home, to record residents' memories, put them on CDs and share them with family members. Outside of school, she has taught teachers in Eastover Elementary how to set up hydroponics and care for the plants as well as educated students there about the environment. In addition, Graham has worked at Twist N Dip in Auburn for three summers and has managed the store with other workers, logging about 40 hours a week.

Lindsay M. Gubow

Lindsay M. Gubow, of Wixom, will graduate from Walled Lake Western High School in Commerce Township and plans to major in chemical engineering at WMU. She was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Gubow earned numerous academic and athletic accolades, including being listed on the highest honor roll three times and being named a Kensington Lakes Activities Association Scholar Athlete her sophomore and junior years. She participated in band throughout high school, becoming a clarinet section leader in the marching band and playing the baritone saxophone in the jazz band. In addition, she took part in the Spartan Youth Wind Symphony as well as Blue Lake Fine Arts camps for two years and went on a month-long tour of Germany, France and the Netherlands with the Blue Lake Fine Arts International Program's Southern Winds Band.

Gubow also was involved in robotics for three years, earning a varsity letter her junior year and serving as electrical team leader her senior year; the KLAA Math and Science Olympics for two years; and the G.E.T. IT Club for two years, serving as co-president her senior year. An athlete, she played soccer for two years as a goalie and was a member of the varsity bowling team for four years, earning Freshman Bowler of the Year honors. Her volunteer activities have included serving as a teaching assistant throughout high school for the Temple Israel Religious School and working with Housing the Homeless. Gubow also has been involved with Relay For Life and in 2015, did lobbying on social issues in Washington D.C. through the L'Taken seminar program offered by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Benjamin Hahn

Benjamin "Ben" Hahn, of West Olive, will graduate from West Ottawa High School and plans to major in music performance at WMU. He was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Hahn has received numerous academic accolades, including placing 13th in the national Moody's Math Competition and being nominated one year as one of just 4,000 distinguished high school graduates in the country to be recognized as a U.S. Presidential Scholars Program candidate. He has been heavily involved in Science Olympiad competitions the past three years and has earned 10 medals for finishing among the top six competitors in various events at the state competitions.

Hahn also took first place both years he competed in a regional math challenge for freshmen and sophomores, and is a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, national Advanced Placement Scholar of Distinction and Cornell Junior Award of Excellence recipient. He has been involved in band throughout high school, and is a longtime first-chair trombonist and section leader for the symphony, pep and marching bands. He also is a first-chair trombonist in the jazz I band and the recipient of numerous regional and state music awards. He plans to go with the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony in June to Austria and the Czech Republic, where the group will perform concerts in Salzburg, Austria; Vienna; and Prague. Hahn is an Eagle Scout and has volunteered for his church as well as local organizations such as the Holland Area Arts Council, Toys-for-Tots and Community Action House. In addition, he has worked as a counselor at Cub Scout camp and assembling parts at Lornic Design Inc.

Alexander Hufford

Alexander "Alex" Hufford, of Portage, will graduate from Portage Central High School and plans to major in athletic training at WMU. He was awarded a Harold and Beulah McKee Endowed Medallion Scholarship. Hufford received the Mustang Gold Award three consecutive years for maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. Involved in band throughout high school, he attained the rank of principal saxophone player one of the three years he was a member of the concert band and also took part in the parade marching band for two years. A varsity hockey player the past three years, he earned letters all three years as well as served as goalie on the all-tournament team as a senior and was named to the league's all-academic team as a sophomore and junior.

Hufford, who is an Eagle Scout, delivered an essay during the Portage Central International Baccalaureate Extended Essay Presentations and is a former member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. His community service activities have been extensive and include volunteering for the Boys & Girls Club and Centerpoint Church. His most meaningful endeavor to date is a fundraising campaign Hufford planned and executed with a friend during 2014-15. Called Four Great Lakes, One Great Cause, the project raised $6,000 for the construction of a well in Poi-Pet, Cambodia. It entailed biking more than 1,000 miles over 13 days and gathering water from four of the Great Lakes. The duo raised awareness of the need for clean water, participated in small-group discussions along the trail and were interviewed by numerous TV stations and newspapers. Hufford has been an umpire for area Little League baseball and softball teams throughout high school and was a Little League World Series Regional Qualifier Umpire last year as well as a Michigan District 2 Umpire in baseball twice. In addition, he was a Little League assistant softball coach for three years and served a travel hockey program as a goalie coach this year.

Leyanna Jordan-Brown

Leyanna Jordan-Brown, of Norton Shores, will graduate from Mona Shores High School and is undecided about her WMU major. She was awarded a Merze Tate Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Jordan-Brown has a passion for learning new languages. She is proficient in Spanish and is learning three other languages. She played tennis throughout high school as well as worked for three years on the school newspaper, choosing to be a staff writer so as to have the freedom to write for multiple sections of interest. She also was in the school knitting club for three years and participated in dance one year.

Jordan-Brown does tutoring after school through the National Honor Society, as well as assists with society events such as blood drives, craft shows and the Senior Celebration prom at a local nursing home. In addition to volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, she has worked with Kids Food Basket, which gave her the opportunity to help out families in a nearby school district; Kids Involved in Caring for Kids, a volunteer organization for children in the community; and Interact, the high school branch of Rotary International. Jordan-Brown participated in a 2015 service trip with Rotary International to El Salvador. The group helped build concrete houses in the village of Talnique and donated clothing, hygiene products, toys and bedding while interacting with local community members. She spends most of her free time helping out with family responsibilities.

Katie Kozlowski

Katie Kozlowski, of Sterling Heights, will graduate from Adlai E. Stevenson High School and plans to major in anthropology at WMU. She was awarded the Roy and Beulah Kendall Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of National Honor Society, Kozlowski earned the gold medal for an artistic poster in the 2015 Michigan Social Studies Olympiad. She has been a member of both the concert and marching bands all four years of high school. Her musical talents have earned her three second division medals at Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association solo and ensemble competitions and the marching band has received first division ratings during her tenure with the group.

Kozlowski has been involved in the visual arts the past two years, was a member of the school swim team for two years and ran track one year. She also is a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society and is involved in its volunteer projects. In addition, she has been employed as a seasonal employee at Michaels Craft Stores and remains committed to funding the majority of her college education herself.

Kenneth E. Kressin

Kenneth "Kenny" E. Kressin, of Orange, California, will graduate from Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, California, and plans to major in aviation flight science at WMU. He was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Kressin already has accomplished much in the aviation arena. He earned a private pilots' license in 2015 and has received such accolades as multiple glider pilot badges from the Soaring Society of America, a Career Achievement Award from Learning for Life and the Matt Goodshaw Award from Aviation Explorers. His other accolades include placing third in the 2015 state VOCE music performance competition, receiving a 2013 Young Artist Award from LAPAI and receiving a 2014 Young American Award from Learning for Life.

Kressin, who has played the cello since he was 4 years old, was member of OCSA's top orchestra, the symphony orchestra, throughout high school. He rose to third cellist and was active on the symphony board. He also was a three-year member the OCSA Quartet, the school's premier quartet, and played with a cello ensemble. He served two years as a board member of the Music to Heal Club and as a senior, was a member of his school leadership team board. Although engaged in school or conservatory classes weekdays from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., he also has been president of Aviation Explorer Post 445 since 2013, and was a member of Orange County's Junior Chamber Music organization for three years. An Eagle Scout, Kressin has held numerous leadership positions with his local troop, as well as participated in a variety of community service activities in and out of school through the troop, National Honor Society, his church, and aviation and musical organizations.

Lauren LaLonde

Lauren LaLonde, of Portage, will graduate from Portage Northern High School and plans to major in biochemistry at WMU. She was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, LaLonde has been on PNHS' highest honor roll all four years. She was active in theatre, choir and forensics throughout high school. In theatre, she has played large and small roles in her school's musicals and been a leader during rehearsals, most recently earning the Legendary Leader award in 2015-16 for her outstanding contributions. Her choir activities have included being a member of Songleaders, the top choir ensemble, for the past two years and being selected as a section leader for the past three years.

LaLonde's love of the performing arts has continued outside of school. She has taken numerous acting classes at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre, participated in the Kalamazoo Kids on Stage summer camp for four years and was a member of the Kalamazoo Children's Chorus for eight years. In 2012, she performed across Italy for 10 days with the children's chorus. LaLonde has been captain of the informative speaking event for the forensics team, and she has twice placed third in the state in this event as well as placed in the top three in this event at many regular season tournaments. She is a member of the environmental club and interact club, which does community outreach and for which she led the the Lunches for Lives and Adopt-a-Family programs. She also was a two-year member of Student Senate, and helped to organize events such as the spring talent show, school dances and fundraisers, and Breadlift for the March of Dimes. Outside of school, she is an active volunteer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and her church youth group.

Ryan Leja

Ryan Leja, of Livonia, will graduate from Adlai E. Stevenson High School and plans to major in general business at WMU. He was awarded a Harold and Beulah McKee Endowed Medallion Scholarship. Leja has been involved with the Livonia Stevenson DECA chapter for two years, including as vice president. He has competed at the district and state levels for DECA, which prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. He was on the football team the first two years of high school and also participated on the track team during those years. The past two years, he was a member and co-captain of the Livonia Outlaws, a city league rugby team.

Leja led a project with alumni of the DECA program that donated more than 2,000 pairs of socks to homeless people in Detroit. A member of his church youth group, he regularly tends to yards of the parish's senior members. He traveled with a Global Education program for two weeks in summer 2015, visiting Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Switzerland and learning the cultures of these areas. He has worked with a factory called Motown CPL and has helped a neighbor with garden remodeling and other yard work. Leja also spends his time helping his family members, including supporting his two adopted siblings and driving a pregnant sister to doctor appointments.

Catherine Lemus

Catherine Lemus, of Plainwell, will graduate from Plainwell High School and plans to major in biomedical sciences at WMU. She was awarded a Merze Tate Endowed Medallion Scholarship. Lemus received highest honors at PHS all four years and as a senior, is serving the Dwight B. Waldo chapter of the National Honor Society as secretary. She has participated in theatre throughout her high school career. In addition to appearing on stage in each year's musical productions, she served as a principal dancer her freshman and sophomore years and has been in supporting and lead roles her junior and senior years. This year, she is serving as cast captain.

Lemus also has been involved in vocal music throughout high school and has been her school's auditioned concert choir for the past three years. Her other activities include two years of membership on the student council, which she served as public relations officer while a junior, and on the golf team. Although she had not played golf before, she earned the most improved player title after finishing fourth on the school's varsity team. Lemus mentors a sixth-grade girl for Big Brothers Big Sisters, helping with homework and serving as a role model. She also helped coach a local all-star cheerleading team her freshman year. Her travels took her to Mexico in June 2003 to visit family, and she expects to return this summer. Also this summer, she plans to attend a mission trip to Pittsburg with her church.

Payton May

Payton May, of Port Huron, will graduate from Marysville High School and plans to major in nursing at WMU. She was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, May received an Outstanding Academic Achievement Award for attaining a 3.5 or higher grade point average all four years of high school as well as earned Outstanding Achievement Recognition in 2014-15 for going above and beyond in the classroom. Her other accolades include receiving the National Honor Society Award the past three years for maintaining a 3.5 or higher GPA and participating in community service.

Throughout high school, she has served on the steering committee for her class, helping to provide guidance and governance. May also was a member of the student council for two years as well as the environmental club for two years. Her freshman and sophomore years, she was an outside hitter and defensive specialist for the volleyball team. She joined the theatre program her senior year and was cast as the lead in the MHS senior play. She also has participated in vocal music, performing on stage and in statewide music festivals. Outside of school, May has been the assistant coach for the Marysville Middle School cheerleading squads the past four years. This academic year, she also has been helping to create murals at local senior centers.

Adrian Pollard

Adrian Pollard, of Kalamazoo, will graduate from Kalamazoo Central High School and plans to major in mechanical engineering at WMU. He was awarded the Harold H. Holland Memorial Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Pollard has been deeply involved in the organization and holds a leadership position that includes creating programs at KCHS, coordinating volunteer opportunities and sponsorships, finding funding support and forming partnerships with community businesses. He earned the Award for High Honors in Academic Achievement twice as well as three Advanced Placement Scholar awards. Pollard has played soccer nearly all his life and participated in the sport throughout high school, playing varsity for three years and serving as team captain for one. He has long been passionate about art, and he was involved in debate and forensics, creating speeches, moderating and structuring debates, and working to draft debate legislation.

In addition, Pollard has been a part of the Link Crew program at his high school for two years, mentoring and providing aid for freshmen. He volunteered with production teams for plays shown at Miller Auditorium, helping to set up lights, sound and design. He currently holds a seat on the Youth Service Council of Volunteer Kalamazoo and works to organize community service opportunities and sponsorships. He has volunteered with several organizations throughout Kalamazoo, spending hundreds of hours raising money and serving food for the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission and volunteering through his church. Pollard was a student ambassador to California in 2014 through People to People, cleaning trash and hazardous materials from Santa Monica beach.

Sruthi Rameshkumar

Sruthi Rameshkumar, of Naperville, Illinois, will graduate from Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville and plans to major in psychology at WMU. She was awarded the Emeriti Endowed Medallion Scholarship. A three-year member of the Tri-M Music Honors Society, Rameshkumar has earned a variety of accolades. They include placing 13th in the "Le Grand Concours" national French contest as a freshman and placing third in the individual events competition at the Illinois High School Association regional speech tournament as a junior. She also received first- and second-semester NVHS academic awards three consecutive years and a Neuqua Honors for Service and Civics Award.

Rameshkumar participated in a two-week internship in 2014 through the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She worked in U of M's Department of Educational Psychology and at the Gillette Children's Hospital doing hands-on behavioral analysis work and learning about research facilities related to children with developmental disabilities. She also volunteered throughout high school with Best Buddies and Special Olympics and during summers with the Giant Steps School for Children with Autism. Her other major activities have centered around forensics and the fine arts. Rameshkumar was captain of the speech team her senior year and a member of the varsity debate and forensics team for three years. With the latter team, she has served as the category leader for prose reading and dramatic duet acting, and has been the regional representative for both of these categories. She also was involved for four years in vocal music, dance and theatre, participating mostly in the Monologue Show and various musicals. She has sung with her school's highest choir ensemble as well as numerous other vocal groups in and out of school. In addition, she has completed her Bharathanatyam Arangetram studies at the Nrithya Sangeeth School of Performing Arts and can now professionally perform Indian classical dance. She also has been studying Indian classic vocal music for seven years and was a Mawi Leadership Academy mentor and leader her junior year.

Kathryn Ross

Kathryn "Katy" Ross, of Ann Arbor, will graduate from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School and plans to major in computer science at WMU. She was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. Ross won third prize in the 2013 Michigan Japanese Language Speech Contest sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit, was a second round qualifier in the 2016 Michigan Math Prize Competition and came in seventh in the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning Special Interest Group for Computer Science Coding Competition at Eastern Michigan University. She participated in band throughout high school, earning principal and co-principal player positions. She was placed in the symphony band and joined the jazz band as a freshman.

Ross also was a member of the marching band and attended band camp all four years. She participated in the 2015 Michigan Youth Arts Festival at WMU as part of a brass quintet and took part in the Music Seminar summer program at WMU in 2013. She demonstrated her artistic talents in theatre as an actor and dancer, as well as the lead trumpet player for the pit orchestra through 11th grade. During her freshman year, she participated in volleyball and shared the captain duties. An orientation guide in 2014-15, Ross volunteered at various school events, including eighth and ninth grade orientations and weekend tutoring. In addition, she was a Trailblazer in 2015-16, working one-on-one with elementary school children for an entire school year. She also has participated in her church youth group and volunteered at Breakfast at St. Andrew's, which serves breakfasts to the homeless. She has provided child care at her church and privately and worked as a summer camp counselor from 2012 to 2015, serving as head counselor in 2015.

Joseph M. Stinson

Joseph M. Stinson, of Plymouth, Minnesota, will graduate from Wayzata High School in Plymouth and plans to major in aviation flight science at WMU. He was awarded a Presidential Endowed Medallion Scholarship. Stinson was named an Advanced Placement Scholar in 2015, the same year he earned his private pilot's license. He has continued to fly on a regular basis, volunteered at an Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association regional fly-in last year, and works for Executive Aviation/Aviation Charter as a customer service representative. He also has been active in music and sports at WHS. Stinson was involved in the concert band all four years of high school, serving as a section leader his sophomore year and playing in the wind ensemble, the school's top ensemble, the past two years. He is a three-year member of the marching band and held the position of rank lieutenant as a junior and senior, plus was a member of the jazz band for two years.

Stinson participated in cross country and track throughout high school, serving as team manager for both squads his sophomore year. In addition, he served as an elected representative for his freshman class and visited several countries while participating in the Minnesota Ambassadors of Music European Tour. A Boy Scout since the fifth grade, Stinson was on track to be named an Eagle Scout this winter. He has served in all of the top Boy Scout troop leadership positions, and was a senior patrol leader for an extended term as well as a junior assistant scoutmaster. He attended a week-long National Youth Leadership Training camp run by the Boy Scouts and was twice selected to return as an unpaid staff member. His community service activities have included volunteer projects at school and through Scouting, as well as participating in the Passion Play at his church four times, playing the lead role as a freshman and returning as a student director for the past three years.

Theodore R. Wampuszyc

Theodore R. Wampuszyc, of White Lake Township, will graduate from Walled Lake Northern High School and plans to major in theatre at WMU. He was awarded the Art and Marti Hearron Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Wampuszyc earned several accolades in high school, including an art achievement award at the district level and an Advanced Placement Scholar With Honor award for exemplary college-level achievement on AP Program examinations. He participated for four years in band, serving as a melodic percussion section leader and cymbal line squad leader for the marching band and the second-chair percussionist in WLNHS' highest-level concert band his senior year. Wampuszyc also exhibited his artistic talents during his five years of involvement with Michigan's Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp as a musical theatre major and four years of participation in school musicals. For the musicals, he helped with set construction as well as periodically played intermediate and leading roles and served as a chorus member.

In addition, he was affiliated for two years with the glee club and French club, served as French National Honors Society historian, and was involved in art, photography and computer graphics. Outside of school, Wampuszyc was a senior member of the White Lake Library's Board of Library Teens, for which he organized library and community-centric volunteer events as well as teen summer reading program events. He also was involved in a variety of school service activities through his membership in the National Honor Society.

Marisa Weller

Marisa Weller, of Macomb, will graduate from Dakota High School and plans to major in history at WMU. She was awarded the Dr. H. Nicholas Hamner Medallion Scholarship. A member of the National Honor Society, Weller has participated in several local and regional Model United Nations conferences, including as the group's vice president for two years. She was a varsity runner on the cross country team all four years of high school and was a member of the varsity track team for three years.

Weller was involved in art as a sophomore and junior and has had pieces of her ceramic work accepted in district art shows. In addition, she has been a member of the National Art Honor Society for the past two years was a member of the quiz bowl team for one year. Her community service activities have included being a regular volunteer at the American House Senior Living home, where she usually calls Bingo numbers for residents.

For more information about the Medallion Scholarship Program, visit wmich.edu/medallion or contact WMU's Erin Leigh at erin.leigh@wmich.edu or (269) 387-2920.

For more news, arts and events, visit wmich.edu/news.