Katie Hite Honored

Biology Department Senior Katie Hite awarded the Lanford Presidential Prize

Kathleen M. Hite, a biology major from Lakewood, N.Y., whose career at Fredonia has encompassed numerous leadership positions, extraordinary service and many individual honors, will receive the 2009 Lanford Presidential Prize.

The honor, considered the top recognition awarded by the university to a member of its senior class, is funded by the Oscar and Esther Lanford Endowment of the Fredonia College Foundation. It recognizes a graduating senior who has exhibited balanced achievement and exemplified Fredonia’s ideals. A high degree of personal honesty and integrity, substantial intellectual growth and exemplary service to Fredonia, including participation in more than one aspect of university life, are among the criteria for the honor, created and endowed by the late President Emeritus Oscar E. Lanford and his wife.

Ms. Hite will graduate summa cum laude this spring with a degree in Biology. She intends to pursue a higher education degree in Biology, continue her efforts in conservation, and become an educator. The award will be bestowed upon her during the university’s morning Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 16.

Ms. Hite has received numerous honors and awards during her Fredonia career, including the Herbert Clark Mackie and Marion C. Mackie Award, Wal-Mart Scholarship, Foundation Freshman Award, Winch International Student Scholarship, Foundation Academic Scholarship, Archer and Mabel Fox Memorial Scholarship, and February 2009 Student of the Month.

“Our campus is very fortunate to have so many students with the extraordinary backgrounds of those nominated for this year’s award,” President Dennis Hefner said of this year’s candidates. “Each nominee has contributed greatly to this campus and our surrounding community in so many unique ways, and this year’s selection process was as difficult as any we’ve ever experienced. I have no doubt that all of the students considered for this year’s Lanford prize will go on to enrich their communities in very meaningful ways.”

Among her many campus activities, Ms. Hite has been a member of the Biology Club and served as its president. She has been a resident assistant, an admissions campus host and a member of the Residence Hall Council. She has been inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society and studied abroad at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. She has served as a staff photographer for The Leader, played intramural sports, been a member of the Chemistry Club, University Choir and Figure Skating Club, and participated in the Out of the Darkness Walk to benefit suicide prevention efforts on campus.

She is also the fifth of five siblings, in addition to her mother, Margaret (Guertin) Hite, ’64, to earn a degree from Fredonia.

(Information taken from Campus Report, April 6, 2009)

The faculty and staff of the Biology Department are very proud of Katie and her many accomplishments!