W&L Phi Beta Kappa Chapter Welcomes Poet, Professor and Novelist Lucinda Roy
The Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Washington and Lee University will induct new members into the prestigious academic honor society at the Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation on Thursday, March 13, at 11:45 a.m. in Lee Chapel.
The convocation, which is free and open to the public, will recognize and honor 49 members of the junior and senior classes and eight graduates from the Class of 2013, all of whom were accepted into Phi Beta Kappa based on their exceptional academic achievements.
The event will feature Lucinda Roy, Alumni Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at Virginia Tech, who will give the keynote talk, “Lifelong Learning as a Fountain of Youth: A Writer-Teacher’s Curious, Cross-Cultural Journey toward Creativity.”
Roy, who is a poet and a novelist, teaches poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction at Virginia Tech. She earned her B.A. from King’s College, London, and her M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arkansas. In 2000, she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Richmond.
Roy has won many writing and teaching awards, including the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award and Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers Award. She served as chair of the English department at Virginia Tech from 2002 to 2006. Roy’s books include the novel “Lady Moses,” the poetry collection “The Humming Birds” and a memoir-critique entitled “No Right to Remain Silent: What We’ve Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech.” She is working on her next poetry collection, a novel series for young adults and a series of oil paintings depicting the Middle Passage.
Roy has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, and her work has been widely published and anthologized. She gives keynotes and presentations around the country on campus safety, creativity, diversity and higher education reform.
The chapter will induct as an honorary member Douglas R. Rendleman, the Robert E.R. Huntley Professor of Law at Washington and Lee, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the professions of law and teaching.
The chapter will induct Lucinda Roy as an honorary member as well.
Also at the convocation, the chapter will announce the winner of the Phi Beta Kappa J. Brown Goehring Sophomore Award. The award goes to the student with the highest cumulative scholastic average through the end of the fall term of his or her sophomore year. It is named in honor of J. Brown Goehring, a retired chemistry professor at W&L. During his 38 years at the University, he spent 22 years as secretary-treasurer of the Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary. Its motto is “Love of learning is the guide of life.”
Class of 2013 Initiates:
Kendre S. Barnes (Thomasville, Ala.), Elizabeth Brassfield (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Audrey Anne Kerr (Dallas), Stephanie N. Malaska (Redmond, Wash.), Mary E. Rodriguez (Arlington, Texas), Benjamin Z. Ruffel (Wilton, Conn.), Rachel Urban (Opelousas, La.) and Nora S. Wallenius (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Class of 2014 Initiates:
Katharine Anne Armstrong (Atlanta), Thomas William Bowen (Fredericksburg, Va.), Mihai Ovidiu Cirstea (Lawrenceville, Ga.), Monica Elizabeth Devlin (Bronxville, N.Y.), Shaun Kelley Devlin (Canton, Ill.), David Neil Fishman (Westfield, N.J.), William Michael Fulwider (Columbus, Ohio), Robert Clark Gerbo (Morgantown, W.Va.), Jena Catherine Glavy (Stafford, Va.), Nicole Samara Gunawansa (Portsmouth, Va.), Douglas Richard Hilbert (Whippany, N.J.), Lauren Nicolle Howry (Menlo Park, Calif.), Brandie Leigh Huffman (Warrenton, Va.), Sophia Kearney-Lederman (New York, N.Y.), Vincent Kim (Grand Blanc, Mich.), Chelsea Burton Kowalchuk (Charlotte, N.C.), James Lewis (Tampa, Fla.), Richard Marmorstein (Aberdeen, S.D.), Isabella Martin (Scottsburg, Va.), Colleen O’Meara Paxton (Paducah, Ky.), Zain Raza (Edmond, Okla.), Kingsley Manning Schroeder (Dayton, Ohio), Wenda Tu (Wuhan, Hubei, China), Victoria Hart Van Natten (Towson, Md.) and Virginia Young (Richmond, Va.).
Class of 2015 Initiates:
Bipeen Acharya (Sunakothi, Lalitpur, Nepal), Syed Ali (Shrewsbury, Mass.), James Burkhardt Biemiller (Lancaster, Pa.), Liza Boldrick (San Antonio, Texas), Michael Vogel Bronstein (Canton, Mass.), Scott Nickle Gould (Nashville, Tenn.), Wilson McGehee Hallett (Charlotte, N.C.), Cort Blake Hammond (Seattle, Wash.), Christopher Hu (Ridgewood, N.J.), Ho Yee Cynthia Lam (Westfield, N.J.), Katherine Helen LeMasters (Abilene, Texas), Shannon Elizabeth Marwitz (Midlothian, Va.), James McCullum (Hallowell, Maine), Garland Neal (Charlotte, N.C.), Caroline Nixon (Atlanta), Alexander Jerome Organ (St. Paul, Minn.), Daniel James Raubolt (Acworth, Ga.), Eric Michael Schwen (Cottage Grove, Minn.), Andrea Valentina Siso (Houston), Haley Smith (Lynchburg, Va.), Scott Anthony Sugden (Circle Pines, Minn.), Patrick Smith Wellborn (Watkinsville, Ga.), Ellen Anka Wiencek (Medina, Ohio) and Lauren Elizabeth Williams (Roanoke, Va.).
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