On April 13th a momentous occasion took place in the Haid Ballroom: the 30th Annual Academic Awards ceremony,led by our President, Dr. Thierfelder. One of the awards given out was the Adrian Award for Teaching Excellence, which was established in 1984 with the support of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Adrian to recognize and reward outstanding teaching performance by faculty members at Belmont Abbey College. This year’s recipient of the award is Dr. Mike McLeod, Professor of Biology, who has been widely described as caring, hard-working and tough. Dr. McLeod is now a two-time winner of this prestigious award, with his first award received in 2005.
After he received his award this year, McLeod gave an enlightening and humorous lecture to the audience, speaking about his experience here at the Abbey and how he has seen it grow. He explained that in his time here, the position of the President had changed 12-14 times. However, “one thing that has remained the same is that our mission in 1978 was to educate students, and that still remains the mission at Belmont Abbey College.” He went on to tell stories of his 43 year long tenure here. In addition to the Adrian Award, there were also a variety of other awards handed out. Honorable mentions include Charles Daniel – Outstanding Biology Student Award, Abigail Houseal – Top Economics Student Award, Krystal Welsh –Academic Excellence in the Department of Mathematics, Maria Kuhlman as the Outstanding Senior Student-Athlete, along with many others.
Though this school year was challenging, encompassed many changes and was surrounded by caution, it was a blessing to still be able to see so many Abbey students, athletes and professors excelling as never before. Read the full list of award winners and make sure to congratulate these outstanding scholars! And if you were not able to attend in person, the livestream is available for you to watch.