Sara Hatzenbuhler, Bismarck, and Rachel Stumpf, Mandan, earn 2010 co-Outstanding Senior Award at University of Mary: Sarah J. Hatzenbuhler and Rachel A. Stumpf were recognized with the University of Mary Alumni Association’s Outstanding Senior Award for 2010 at America’s Leadership University’s annual President’s Recognition Breakfast, Saturday, May 1. Each year, the U-Mary teaching faculty nominates members of the graduating class for this prestigious award, based on their academic achievement, community service and service to the University of Mary. The Alumni Council Board then selects the recipient from these nominees. This year is only the third time since the initiation of the award in 1979 that there have been co-recipients. “We are thrilled that this year’s nominees were of so high a caliber as to make the choice of the recipient as difficult as it was,” said Alumni Council President Todd Klee, '95 & '07. “All the nominees are outstanding individuals whose academic achievements, service and leadership exemplify the University of Mary’s emphasis on educating the whole person.” Sarah J. Hatzenbuhler is a native of Bismarck who majored in clinical laboratory science with minors in biology and chemistry. An outstanding student with a 4.0 cumulative average, she interned at the Mayo Clinic spring semester 2010 and will receive a Certificate in Clinical Laboratory Science from the Mayo School of Health Sciences this May. While attending U-Mary, Hatzenbuhler worked as a laboratory technician assistant level II at Northern Plains Laboratory, and was a member of the Health PR (Peers Reaching Out) team. A dean’s list student, cited by nominating faculty as “an accomplished researcher” with outstanding laboratory and interpretive skills, and a model for future students, she received an American Society for Clinical Pathology Scholarship, the University of Mary Teaching Faculty Scholarship, and the Sister Thomas Welder Leadership Award, and was named Outstanding Freshman Chemistry Student. Rachel A. Stumpf of Mandan, ND, majored in English and elementary education, and also earned a Middle School Endorsement. An outstanding student with a 3.98 cumulative and 4.0 major average, and member of the Harold Schafer Emerging Leader Academy, she presented a paper at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference in Ogden, UT, in spring 2009. She also presented at the Institute for Education Leadership at U-Mary in both 2009 and 2010 and was selected by the education faculty to be a Student-Guided Instructional Assessment Evaluator in 2008. Stumpf complemented her classroom experience with student teaching experiences in a number of area elementary and middle schools, most recently at Simle Middle School and Lewis and Clark Elementary School. In addition, she served as a youth leader in a Jeannette Myhre Elementary School summer program and as an academic mentor leading reading and math activities at Pioneer Elementary School. (Monday, May 3, 2010)

Video: Tom Ackerman