Washington and Lee Graduate Receives ODK Leader of the Year in Athletics Award
Jillian Katterhagen, a 2015 graduate of Washington and Lee University from The Woodlands, Texas, has been named Omicron Delta Kappa’s (ODK) Leader of the Year in Athletics.
Katterhagen’s award is part of the national leadership honor society’s 2015 General Russell E. Dougherty National Leader of the Year competition. She will receive a $1,000 graduate scholarship, and W&L’s ODK Circle, or chapter, will receive a $300 grant. She will enter law school at Stanford University this fall.
ODK, founded in 1914 at Washington and Lee, recognizes not only academic achievement, but also campus leadership in five areas of campus life: scholarship; athletics; campus or community service, social or religious activities and campus government; journalism, speech and the mass media; and creative and performing arts. It has some 285 circles at colleges and universities across the country.
Katterhagen was a four-year letter winner and captain her senior season of the women’s track and field team. She received the Marjorie Berkley Award as the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s (ODAC) top female scholar-athlete and is ODAC’s 2015 nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, to be announced in September. She also is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and served as a peer tutor.
“My undergraduate study of history and politics and my chance to see our political system at work for two summers while working for Congress have exposed me to the very real shortcomings of this system and the effects that it has on citizens in this country,” Katterhagen said. “I hope to one day be in a position to affect the sort of change in the lives of my fellow citizens, whether in an elected office, working in our political system, or in any other career that might have the kind of meaningful impact to inspire students to use their talents to change the world.”
