Sandy Tran is 2014 Recipient of DePauw's Walker Cup

April 28, 2014

Sandy Tran is the 2014 recipient of DePauw's Walker Cup, which is awarded to the senior who has contributed the most to the University community during his or her four years on campus. Tran was presented the award by President Brian W. Casey at tonight’s Academic Awards Convocation, which took place in the Green Center for the Performing Arts' Kresge Auditorium.

Tran, a conflict studies major from Chicago, is a Posse Scholar and Honor Scholar and first generation college student. She has served in a number of roles outside of the classroom, among them: she has been a Presidential Ambasssador, a First-Year Mentor, a trained mediator for the Restorative Justice Associate, and member educator for Sigma Lambda Gamma. She also contributed more than 1,500 hours of service as a Bonner Scholar and led campus conversations about race, privilege and sexism.

"The best way to describe Sandy is to say that she's a person who creates space," noted President Casey tonight. "Sandy creates room for conversation, LGL 2158 for discussion, for debate, for disagreement, and for reconciliation."

Dr. Casey added, "She saw a need for a conversation that hadn't happened here, and she created space for that conversation to happen. She changed DePauw this year and she's going to change many things in her life, and she's going to create that change through her palpable grace and her welcoming intelligence."

Olivia Flores and Ben Hazen were the other finalists for the Walker Cup.

As a result of winning the award, Tran will speak on behalf of the senior class at DePauw’s 175th annual commencement on Sunday, May 18, at 10:30 a.m. in Holton Memorial Quadrangle.

Also at tonight’s convocation, Samantha M. Anderson was awarded the inaugural Ferid Murad Medal, awarded for the first time this year to the senior who has had the most significant scholarly or artistic achievements during his or her time at DePauw.

Anderson, a biochemistry major from Wonder Lake, Ill., is graduating in three years as both a Rector Scholar and Science Research Fellow. In addition to her work as a teaching assistant in the chemistry and biochemistry department, a tutor in the Quantitative Reasoning Center and peer mentor for the Women in Science organization, Anderson has worked on five research projects while a student at DePauw. During one project, she worked to create a drought resistant plant that could make its own water. Based on this work, combined with extraordinary classroom performance, the biochemistry department awarded Anderson the Wylie-Condit Science Scholarship for promising science students. (photo: Anderson receives the Murad Medal from Larry Stimpert, vice president for academic affairs)

Dr. Murad, a 1958 graduate of DePauw, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 and is a professor at George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

LGL 1841 Tonight’s event also featured a speech by Chinonye Chukwu, a 2007 DePauw graduate, a filmmaker who was a 2009 recipient of the Princess Grace Award and a regional finalist for the 2010 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Student Academy Awards. Her most recent project, A Long Walk, is an adaptation of a short story by Samuel Autman, assistant professor of English at the University.