Barlow Trophy Recognizes Student Achievement
Alma College seniors Kelsey Allen of Bay City, Rachel Burckhardt of Waterford and Chelsea Duff of Marlette are the 2013 nominees for the Barlow Trophy, Alma’s most prestigious award for a graduating senior.
Established in 1949 by Dr. Joel Barlow, a 1929 honors graduate of Alma College, the award will be announced on Honors Day April 4 and presented at the senior dinner on April 19.
The award recognizes academic achievement for students in the top 10 percent of their class as well as contributions to campus and community. The Barlow winner is determined by a vote of Alma’s Student Congress and faculty.
The Barlow Trophy
Kelsey Allen served in numerous leadership roles, including president of the Literacy Beyond Borders student organization, vice president of Student Congress, student representative on the Board of Trustees’ Planning and Evaluation committee and member of the Sodexo Student Board of Directors while also participating in Center for Responsible Leadership activities. A graduate of John Glenn High School, he is the son of Timothy and Lisa Allen.
His four-year involvement with Literacy Beyond Borders included a service trip during the summer after his freshman year to Ghana, where he worked to continue the group’s mission to raise money and resources to stock a library. As president, he helped other members apply for funding and coordinate their own trips to Ghana.
As an officer with Student Congress, Allen provided counsel and guidance to more than 10 new campus organizations that sought and achieved official recognition by Student Congress. He also represented the interests of the student body as a member of the portal steering, student life, educational policy and campus judicial committees.
During his freshman and sophomore years, Allen participated on the Model United Nations team and as a mentor to first-year team members. He also was a member of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, Chinese Club and College Democrats and was admitted to the Phi Alpha Theta history honorary and the Pi Sigma Alpha political science honorary.
Rachel Burckhardt founded an interfaith student organization on campus, conducted and promoted independent biology research and was an active participant in the national service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega. A graduate of Our Lady of the Lakes High School, she is the daughter of Roger and Charlotte Burckhardt.
As founder and president of the Interfaith Council, Burckhardt promoted broader religious understanding and tolerance on campus by offering experiences with non-Christian religions. During her presidency, the Interfaith Council sponsored campus speakers, organized field trips to Jewish and Sikh temples, and supported interfaith presentations for students.
Her science research included a study of the environmental effects of local large scale feeding operations on the microbial community of a drainage ditch, in which she sampled sediment in the field and extracted DNA in the laboratory. Besides straight research, she encouraged first-year students to consider science careers through her involvement as a mentor with the PRISM program (Positive Routes in Science and Mathematics).
She also served the campus and Alma community through a variety of service activities, including painting a senior center, working with local Boys and Girls scouts, boxing food for the First Presbyterian Food Pantry and raising money for Relay for Life. In addition, she spent a week in Louisville working at childcare centers, soup kitchens and retail shops as part of an urban poverty Alternative Break experience.
Chelsea Duff served local and global communities in multiple ways while pursuing an elementary education major. She promoted reading at a local elementary school, organized campus activities for foster children and collaborated with other elementary education majors as members of Kappa Delta Pi, the education honorary. A graduate of Marlette High School, she is the daughter of Roger and Kimberly Duff.
As vice president of the student organization Forgotten Children of Eastern Europe, Duff worked to enrich the lives of foster children through presentations and fundraisers. During a service trip to Ukraine, she volunteered with a family of 10 orphans and promoted local adoption in order to reduce the population at public orphanages in the Eastern European country.
Her participation with the Center for Responsible Leadership enabled her to assist with the planning for the annual Alma Fall Festival, which brings campus organizations and downtown businesses together, and attend the Ghost Ranch leadership summit in New Mexico. Grants from the CRL made it possible for her to enroll in Spring Term courses in Peru, where she worked in low-income kindergarten classrooms, and across Europe, where she studied global approaches to sustainability.
She also served as a resident assistant for two years, cared for ill and abused children during Alternative Break service opportunities, participated in Chapel activities and led campus tours for the Admissions Office.
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Posted: Thu, February 28th, 2013 at 4:07PM
