W&L Graduate Awarded Prestigious ODK Scholarship The scholarship is named after Kenneth Ruscio ’76, Washington and Lee University president emeritus and ODK’s national president from 2002-06.

By Erica Turman
July 23, 2019

Teresa  Aires de Sousa Rodrigues ’19 has received a post-graduate scholarship from the National Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society. The scholarship is named after Kenneth Ruscio ’76, Washington and Lee University president emeritus and ODK’s national president from 2002-06. The award provides funding for post-baccalaureate studies to a member of the Alpha Circle.

Throughout her four years on the W&L campus, Rodrigues was an active part of the campus community. She was a tour guide, vice president of the Ski and Snowboard Club and a peer counselor. As a student assistant, she was involved with the Admissions Office, helping recruit and commit an incoming class, and she was also a member of the Strategic Committee for Admissions and Financial Aid.

In March of 2019, she represented Washington and Lee at the 2019 ODK Conclave in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she and other delegates from around the nation reviewed discussed and voted on essential governance changes.

She graduated cum laude from W&L in May 2019, with a double major in business administration and sociology and “a growing passion for organizational behavior.”

“In September, I will start my master’s in work and organizational psychology at Maastricht University, in the Netherlands,” said Rodrigues. “While I’m incredibly grateful for this scholarship both for the recognition and funding, I am even more thankful to all the people who made it possible. Not only to those who donated so we could be awarded these scholarships, but also to my tremendous professors and mentors at Washington and Lee who made my four years a spectacular journey and facilitated and inspired immense personal and professional growth.”

Omicron Delta Kappa Society, the National Leadership Honor Society, was founded at Washington and Lee University on Dec. 3, 1914. A group of 15 students and faculty members established the society to recognize and encourage leadership at the collegiate level. The founders created the ODK Idea, the concept that individuals representing all phases of collegiate life should collaborate with faculty and others to support the campus and community. ODK’s mission is to honor and develop leaders; encourage collaboration among students, faculty, staff and alumni; and promote ODK’s ideals of scholarship, service, integrity, character and fellowship on college and university campuses throughout North America.