Top Health and Human Sciences students to be recognized during 2019 commencement

Purdue University will honor some of its highest academic-achieving graduating seniors on Sunday, May 12. Four students from the College of Health and Human Sciences will receive five awards during the Spring 2019 commencement ceremony.

The university’s top female student is Olivia R. Glowacki from the College of Health and Human Sciences. The top male student is Justin L. Couetil from the College of Agriculture and the Honors College.

Flora Roberts Award

Olivia Glowacki of Michigan City, Indiana, who majored in human services, has received the 2019 Flora Roberts Award. This award is presented annually to an outstanding senior woman for her scholarship, leadership, character and service to the university community. The award is made possible through a bequest from Flora Roberts, a member of the Purdue class of 1887. The recipient receives a $2,000 award, a medallion and her name inscribed on the award marker on Purdue Mall.

Olivia Glowacki also received the 2019 Outstanding Senior award in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies

Glowacki and Couetil, along with the following student award recipients, will be recognized at the May 2019 commencement ceremonies.

Charles O. McGaughey Leadership Awards

Two of the 13 students who were awarded the Charles O. McGaughey Leadership Awards are from the College of Health and Human Sciences:

  • Natalie K. Boger, of Indianapolis, who majored in accelerated nursing
  • Jennifer M. Booher, of Fishers, who majored in hospitality and tourism management

McGaughey, a 1939 Purdue graduate, established the awards to honor students for leadership potential. To be eligible for these awards, students must have completed a minimum of two years of full-time study at Purdue and achieved at least a 3.0 graduation index. Recipients are selected on the basis of their contributions to Purdue and the community. Each honoree receives $3,345 as an acknowledgement of their superior leadership abilities, scholarship and appreciation of basic American values.

Amelia Earhart Scholarship

Two of the five students who received the Amelia Earhart Scholarship are from the College of Health and Human Sciences—Farhat Alucozai, of West Lafayette, who majored in accelerated nursing in the College of Health and Human Sciences; Olivia Glowacki, of Michigan City, who majored in human services in the College of Health and Human Sciences

This scholarship was reinstituted in 1999 after Doreen Buranich Simmons, a 1971 Purdue graduate, committed to see the scholarship return to Purdue after learning of its demise in the 1970s. Her gift became a catalyst for Joan Russell Dudding to honor the university and Amelia Earhart by funding the scholarship on an ongoing basis. The Amelia Earhart Scholarship is awarded to a junior or senior with a minimum 3.2 grade point average who demonstrates leadership, determination, ability and the potential in academic and/or community activities.