Founder's Medalists honored during Commencement exercises May 11

Photo by Jonathan Rodgers

The Founder's Medalists from the Class of 2001 are (left to right) Ben Cook, School of Engineering; Kathryn Joy Greenslade, Peabody College; Joel William McGlothlin, College of Arts and Science; Leah Akers-Bell, School of Nursing; Krista Elizabeth Hughes, Divinity School; Kristina Marie Lobenhofer, Blair School of Music; Jeremy Daniel Kernodle, School of Law; Samir Mukund Parikh, School of Medicine; Pradeep Parameswaran, Owen Graduate School of Management.

by Princine Lewis

The top scholars in nine undergraduate and professional schools received Founder's Medals during the University's May 11 Commencement exercises.

Since 1877, a gold medal has been awarded to the student graduating with first honors from each school. These gold medals are called "Founder's Medals" because Cornelius Vanderbilt made a specific contribution to endow the awards in their first year.

Chancellor Gordon Gee presented the Founder's Medals to the following students:

Kristina Marie Lobenhofer, of Ada, Ohio, Founder's Medalist for the Blair School of Music, graduated with a bachelor's degree in piano and a 3.97 GPA, the highest cumulative GPA ever at Blair. A high school valedictorian, she won the Ohio Regional Buckeye Competition in piano. While at Vanderbilt, she has been considered one of the top pianists in the history of the Blair School and has received numerous honors. She twice won the David Rabin Prize for excellence in performance; was named to five honor societies; earned the S.S. and I.M.F. Marsden Award in Musical Scholarship for an outstanding paper by a Blair undergraduate and received the Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholarship. Lobenhofer also received the Margaret Founders1 Branscomb Prize that is awarded to the Blair freshman judged by the entire faculty to have musical and personal qualities that best exemplify the spirit and standards of the school. The award was established in the memory of Margaret Branscomb, wife of the late Vanderbilt Chancellor Emeritus Harvie Branscomb. With her minor instrument, the clarinet, Lobenhofer also performed with the Vanderbilt Opera Orchestra, the Vanderbilt Wind Ensemble and the Vanderbilt Marching Band.

Lobenhofer will attend the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University for a master's of music in piano.

Joel William McGlothlin, of Kingsport, Tenn., Founder's Medalist for the College of Arts and Science, graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology. He is an evolutionary biologist whose research has been published. He has spent the past two years at Vanderbilt studying the populations genetics of the Silene alba plant. McGlothlin is also an accomplished guitarist, and he helped design "Rhyme and Reason," an introduction to poetry as play for Nashville elementary school students. He will continue his study of ecology and evolutionary biology at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Krista Elizabeth Hughes, of Beaufort, S.C., Founder's Medalist for the Divinity School, graduated with a master of divinity. She also received a certificate of completion for the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality that was established in 1995 with a $2.5 million grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. After receiving her master of arts in history from Vanderbilt in 1998, Hughes entered the Master of Divinity Program on a full Carpenter Scholarship.

She was awarded the William A. Newcomb Prize that is given to the graduating senior who has received a grade of "honors" on the senior project that best represents the ideal of minister-theologian. Hughes also received the Umphrey Lee Dean's Award for having exemplified the broader vision of the Divinity School. During her years at Vanderbilt, Hughes was co-coordinator for the Office of Women's Concerns in the Divinity School; participated in the peer education program for Project Safe, an initiative of the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center designed to combat violence against women on campus; and worked as a graduate assistant at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies' Center for Mental Health Policy. She has been involved with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and is currently serving on the Synod Council of the Southeastern Synod of the Lutheran Church.

Ben Cook, of Princeton, Ky., Founder's Medalist for the School of Engineering, graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering. He has a double major in electrical engineering and mathematics. Cook, who is also a licensed private pilot, worked with his father and brother on their farm in rural Kentucky from age 8 until his sophomore year at Vanderbilt. He used his earnings from his work on the farm to finance his education at Vanderbilt. Cook is currently conducting research under Vanderbilt professor Ron Schrimpf in the Electrical Engineering Department's Radiation Effects on Semiconductors Laboratory.

Next year, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. His primary research interest is in developing organic electronic devices.

Jeremy Daniel Kernodle, of Searcy, Ark., Founder's Medalist for the Vanderbilt School of Law, received the Archie B. Martin and Robert F. Jackson Memorial Prizes for earning the highest grade point average through the end of his first and second years in law school. He served as articles editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review and was active in the Christian Legal Society and the Legal Aid Society, an organization that provides stipends to law students who are investing their summers in doing work in the public interest [see May 720, 2001 Register, page 4]. Kernodle did his undergraduate studies at Harding University. Prior to attending Vanderbilt, he was an honors intern for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C.

Kernodle will clerk in the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals before pursuing his career with the firm Haynes & Boone in Dallas, Texas.

Samir Mukund Parikh, of Jersey City, N.J., Founder's Medalist for the School of Medicine, graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's of science degree in chemistry from Harvard University, prior to entering Vanderbilt 's School of Medicine in 1997. At Vanderbilt, he earned straight "A's" in the required courses of the first two years and had a top score on Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. In recognition of his achievements, Parikh has received the Oldham Scholarship and was selected for membership in Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society and the Microbes and Defense Academic Society. He served as co-president of Vanderbilt's chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha. He has participated in numerous volunteer activities, including helping develop teaching cases and an interactive computer-based tool for a first-year elective course, visiting AIDS patients as part of the Companion Program of Nashville CARES and assisting with free community health screenings. He is an active member of the International Medicine Committee.

Parikh will do his internship in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Leah Akers-Bell, of Washington, Ind., Founder's Medalist for the School of Nursing, entered Vanderbilt's nursing program with a master of divinity degree in Old Testament and Hebrew from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Now, in addition to being a Presbyterian minister, she is a certified nurse midwife.

This spring, she will begin a nurse-midwifery position at a nurse-run family clinic in rural eastern Indiana. The clinic serves those patients who are without insurance or are underinsured, providing them with perinatal and well-woman services. She also plans to do volunteer and international service through the American College of Nurse Midwives and the medical missions program of the Presbyterian Church and the Medical Benevolence Foundation.

Pradeep Parameswaran, of Bombay, India, Founder's Medalist for the Owen Graduate School of Management, graduated with an MBA in telecommunications/electronic commerce and operations management. While at Owen, he received the William E. Chope Scholarship, was vice president of the Owen Management Consulting Club and captained the first-place Owen team at the Babcock MBA Case Competition. Parameswaran earned his bachelor of engineering degree and his master of management studies from Bombay University before coming to Vanderbilt.

Parameswaran will work in strategic consulting in the Atlanta office of McKinsey and Company.

Kathryn Joy Greenslade, of Scottsdale, Ariz., Founder's Medalist for Peabody College, graduated with a triple major in special education, mathematics and secondary education. She has a minor in cognitive studies. She has served as a student representative for the Council on Teacher Education, twice received the Jere Phillips scholarship and is a member of the honorary education fraternity Kappa Delta Epsilon. Through her coursework at Vanderbilt, Greenslade volunteered 20 to 60 hours per semester on a number of education projects, including working at a summer camp for adults and children with autism, and working with students in the classroom.

Greenslade is pursuing teaching positions in the Nashville and Philadelphia areas.