The following awards or scholarships are presented on Awards and Scholarship Day:
- Recognition of Mortar Board Members
- Recognition of Gamma Sigma Members
- Recognition of Alpha Lambda Delta
- Chemistry, including the CRC Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award, and the American Chemical Society Outstanding Senior Award
- Theatre, including Excellence in Theatre Awards
- Dance, including Excellence in Dance Awards, dedication and outstanding newcomer
- Recognition for Alpha Psi Omega
-
Music:
- Pi Kappa Lambda Initiates
- Pi Kappa Lambda Awards
- Delta Omicron
- Hardy-McAlpine Award
- Presser Scholar - Literary Awards:
- Genevieve Parkhill Lykes Creative Writing Prize for Best Fiction
- Agnes Petty Pringle Award: a scholarship awarded on the basis of academic merit to a rising senior majoring in English - Art (Excellence in Art Studio, History, Education, and Interior Design)
- Political Science:
- The James F. Byrnes American Government Award (to politics student demonstrating aptitude, interest, and excellent achievement in the field of political science).
- Model League of Arab States Awards - Special Education:
- Bill Halligan Award (to outstanding graduating senior in Elementary /Early Childhood Education. Presented in honor of Dr. William W. Halligan, Jr., former Chair of the Education Department and former Registrar of Converse University.)
- Josephine Prall Award (to the outstanding graduating senior in the Deaf Education Program. Sponsored by Converse alumnae of the Deaf Education Program.)
- Charles Lea Center Award (to the outstanding Special Education major in the senior class, with a major in either Learning Disabilities or Mental Retardation. Recipient chosen by the Charles Lea Center on recommendation of the Converse faculty.)
- Close Foundation Deaf Education Scholarship - Social Sciences, recognition of new members of Pi Gamma Mu
- Religion, recognition of new members of Theta Alpha Kappa
- American Legion Award
- Faculty Memorial Scholarship (Selected by Faculty Awards Committee and typically given in memory of recently deceased and/or retired members or the academic community and/or staff.)
The Chair of the Awards Committee obtains from the Registrar a list of the top 5% rising juniors and 5% rising seniors. The Chair will then give the list to the Associate Vice President for Student Financial Services who will determine the financial need of students on the list. The list will then be returned to the Chair of the Awards Committee whose committee members will then choose the rising junior recipient and award the winner from the previous year if she or he still has financial need. If the need is no longer there for the rising senior, the committee will choose a new recipient. The amount of money will be split between the rising junior and the rising senior for the following academic year. The names of the recipients will be sent to the Provost, the Senate President and the Associate Vice President for Student Financial Services. The Faculty Senate President will present the awards at Awards Day. The deadline for obtaining the information is April 1.
- Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities
- Education
- Phi Sigma Iota, International Foreign Language Honor Society Inductees
- Strom Thurmond/Holly Richardson Scholarship
- J. Lacy McLean Award
- Henry Edmund Ravenel Scholarship - Philosophy and Religion Department Awards
The following awards are presented at Commencement or another appropriate occasion:
Mary Mildred Sullivan Award to a citizen
Nominations for the Mary Mildred Sullivan are solicited by the Awards and Honorary Degrees Committee. The citizen recipient of the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award is decided by the Committee on Trustees of the Board of Trustees before April 1st.
Mary Mildred Sullivan Award to a senior
Nominations for the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award are solicited by the Awards and Honorary Degrees Committee. The Committee’s recommendation is made to the Provost. Selection is made by the Provost, the Deans of the Academic Schools, the President of the Faculty Senate, and the President.
Gamma Sigma Award, in memory of Dr. Elford C. Morgan
Presented to the student with the highest academic achievement in the School of Humanities and Sciences over a four-year period
Pi Kappa Lambda Award
Given to the senior with the highest scholastic record in the Petrie School of Music
The Curriculum Innovation Award
Nominations for the Curriculum Innovation Award are solicited by the Provost. Selection is made by the Provost, the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Dean of the School of Business and Data Science, the Dean of the School of the Arts, the Dean of the Graduate School, the President of the Faculty Senate, and the President.
The Duke Faculty Award
Established Spring 2019 to be given to a member of the Converse faculty to recognize outstanding achievements in the scholarly and creative lives of its faculty members. Excellence in higher education requires eager and curious students teamed with energetic and well-prepared faculty. Dynamic teachers who are also professionally active give our students both the best education and enduring model of the value of that education.
Nominations and supporting documentation are welcome from Converse’s faculty, staff, and students and should be sent to the Provost. Selection is made by the Provost, the Deans and the President of the Faculty Senate and the President of the University.
The O’Herron Award
Nominations for the O’Herron Award are solicited by the President. Selection is made by the Provost, the Deans, the President of the Faculty Senate, and the President.
The Kathryne Amelia Brown Award
Nominations for the Brown Award are solicited by the Awards and Honorary Degrees Committee. The Committee’s recommendation is made to the Provost. Selection is made by the Provost, the Academic Deans, and the President of the Faculty Senate.
The Nancy Breard Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching
The Nancy Breard Award was established by the Division of Graduate Studies in 2023 to recognized outstanding teaching and service to Graduate Education at Converse University. As other established teaching awards at Converse are tailored to undergraduate faculty, the Breard Award is limited to nominees from among those full-time faculty members for whom the majority of their work involves graduate students. This work may include teaching, advising, research, program coordination, and/or supervision of graduate students. The award will be presented by the Dean of the Graduate School at Graduate Commencement, starting in May 2023, and a plaque with the winner’s name will hang in the graduate school. The award includes a citation and a $500 cash award.
Nominations for the Breard Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching are made in the spring by Converse faculty or staff, and nominations should include ONE letter that states why the nominee should receive the award. Letters should be sent to the Dean of the Graduate School via email. The deadline for nominations is typically 5:00 p.m. on March 1. The Graduate Dean, the Provost, and the Registrar constitute the awards committee.
Cato Award for Faculty Excellence
The Cato Award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates excellence in undergraduate teaching, advising, and mentorship. Examples of such activity include:
- fostering international study for students;
- directing undergraduate student research or endeavors in the visual or performing arts;
- supporting students seeking prestigious external awards;
- providing guidance for students who plan to attend graduate or professional school;
- promoting internship and service-learning experiences for students;
- preparing students to be productive, contributing members of their communities and society as a whole; and
- encouraging student recognition of the role of personal responsibility in their lives.
Nominations (i.e., a formal nomination letter) should include detailed documentation of the nominee’s accomplishments in inspiring and encouraging undergraduate student achievement in the academic realm. Nominations and supporting documentation are welcome from Converse’s faculty, staff, and students. Please send your nomination via email to Joe.Wilferth@converse.edu no later than March 1 at 5:00 p.m.
The Gamma Sigma Society
The Gamma Sigma Society is the honorary scholarship society of the University of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Converse University, was organized on April 23, 1923, by faculty members of Phi Beta Kappa. The purpose of the society is to encourage scholarship among the students of Converse University and to honor by election to membership in the society those seniors, not to exceed ten percent of the graduating class, who have demonstrated superior scholastic attainment throughout their entire University course.
They must have taken 3/4 of their course work in the liberal arts and must have attained a minimum grade point ratio of 3.1. Faculty and staff members are eligible for election to membership if they belong to Phi Beta Kappa or Sigma XI.
The administration of the Society, including election to membership, is directed by members who have active faculty or staff status and the President of the Gamma Sigma Society: Student members are recognized at Award’s Day.
Procedures:
- The citizen recipient of the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award is decided by the Committee on Trustees of the Board of Trustees before April 1st.
- For the purpose of selecting the recipients of the American Legion Award and the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award (student), the incumbent Executive Board of the Student Government Association joins the Awards and Honorary Degrees Committee as voting members. The selection should fall after the annual Student Government elections.
- The nomination committee, plus the faculty adviser in the case of student groups, is responsible for the financing, purchasing, engraving, and presenting of the awards.
- The Provost, the Deans, the President of the Faculty Senate, and the President are responsible for the groups accomplishing their tasks.