Potter College News
Three Students Honored at the Potter College of Arts and Letters Awards Banquet
- Thursday, April 17th, 2014
This past Friday, Paige Settles, Vannessa Albright, and Major Stephen S. Trotter were all presented awards at the Potter College Awards banquet.
As a recipient of the Outstanding Student in Political Science Award, Paige Settles is easily in the top five percent of her class. While Forensics eats up a lot of her time she consistently catches up and surpasses her classmates.
Paige is a FUSE student and has presented at the Southern Political Science Association, Kentucky Political Science Association and the WKU REACH conference. Her research on Congressional tweet retraction will certainly be published in a peer reviewed journal by the end of the year. In fact, it wouldn't surprise us if she graduated with more than one peer reviewed publication. If we were to bet on a student that would excel in graduate school, it would be Paige.
Paige is a FUSE student and has presented at the Southern Political Science Association, Kentucky Political Science Association and the WKU REACH conference. Her research on Congressional tweet retraction will certainly be published in a peer reviewed journal by the end of the year. In fact, it wouldn't surprise us if she graduated with more than one peer reviewed publication. If we were to bet on a student that would excel in graduate school, it would be Paige.
Selected as the Outstanding Student in International Affairs, Vannessa Allbright’s mentor, Dr. Timothy Rich, says that Vanessa is one of the most reliable, self-motivated students he’s had here at WKU. As a non-traditional student, she's clearly making up for what she herself has said was a rough younger life. Another mentor, Dr. Sol Kiasatpour, says “Vannessa is always ready to discuss key concepts and answer questions. She does not shy away from looking into alternative explanations as well”.
Her senior project was a well-developed research paper on self-immolation as a means of protest in Tibet. She's very interested in East Asian and Middle East studies, has studied Arabic, and is interested in either graduate school or relevant international work. Dr. Rich says, “If I could clone her, I would in a heartbeat.”
Major Stephen S. Trotter recipient of the Outstanding Student in Public Administration, has a graduate GPA of 4.0. His paper “The Annexation of America’s Mayberry” was selected as the 2013 Outstanding Masters of Public Administration Paper Dr. Victoria Gordon, Director of the MPA program, commented on Stephen’s excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and note that his preparation for class routinely surpasses his peers.
What makes Stephen’s academic performance even more impressive is that it is achieved while building a remarkable career as an officer in the US Army. Major Trotter is currently assigned as a Psychological Operations Assignments and Career Management Officer at Human Resources Command. On the job he manages the world-assignment of PO captains, majors and lieutenant colonels.