President Dan Mahony recognized Kathryn Taylor Burt of Wilmington, North Carolina,
in the morning ceremony, held for the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the
College of Arts and Sciences. In the afternoon ceremony, Mahony called to the stage Abigail Grace Steele, Candace
Michelle Silva, Shaily Prarthan Shah and Morganne Sara Guinther during the ceremony
for the College of Business Administration and Richard W. Riley College of Education.
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Five Winthrop University students received the President's Award for Academic Excellence for having the highest GPA at the May 5 undergraduate Commencement ceremonies at
Winthrop Coliseum.
President Dan Mahony recognized Kathryn Taylor Burt of Wilmington, North Carolina, in the morning ceremony, held for the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the College of Arts and Sciences. An English major and Honors program graduate, Burt will attend North Carolina State
to earn her master's degree in rhetoric and composition, and aspires to get her Ph.D.
She wants to become a professor and evolve into the next generation of her Winthrop
mentor, Gloria Jones, a professor Burt described as one of nicest and fiercest people
she knows.
In the afternoon ceremony, Mahony called to the stage Abigail Grace Steele, Candace Michelle Silva, Shaily Prarthan Shah and Morganne Sara Guinther during the ceremony for the College of Business Administration and Richard W. Riley College of Education.
Steele, a Rock Hill resident, has been an active member of Winthrop's chapter of the Society
for Human Resource Management for two years, participating in mock interviews and
helping other students clean and compile resumes to be sent out to human resource
professionals. Steele has started taking classes to work on her realtor's license.
Her plans after graduation are to work for Keller Williams Realty in Fort Mill as
an assistant while she finishes her realtor's license.
Silva majored in exercise science and received the Hellams Award, the highest award given
to a graduating senior from the Department of Physical Education, Sport and Human
Performance. A graduate of the Honors program, Silva wrote her thesis on the influence
of music on occupational therapy. She has worked for the Division of University Advancement
and plays the violin with Wellmore of Tega Cay. Silva plans to attend the University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to pursue a master's degree in occupational therapy.
Shah is a member of the South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program and has served as a classroom
assistant, a supervisor in an afterschool program and a summer camp counselor. She
was a servant leader intern for Freedom Schools during the summer of 2016. Created
by the Children's Defense Fund, Freedom Schools engage children in grades K-12 in
a six or seven-week summer program designed to prevent the "learning loss" that students
typically experience over the months when school is not in session. She will be attending
UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall pursuing an M.Ed. in school counseling. A Lexington, South
Carolina, resident, Shah wants to work in S.C. public schools.
Guinther of Indian Trail, North Carolina, is a National Merit Scholar who brought 60 credits
to Winthrop and completed her degree in two years. Her honors thesis focused on Cost,
Quality, and Access Issues relating to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
She will attend UNC-Charlotte on an Everett Foundation Fellowship to pursue a Master
in Health Administration degree with the goal of becoming a healthcare manager at
a children's hospital.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404 or e-mail her at longshawj@winthrop.edu.
