Spears School recognizes outstanding students and faculty at 58th Annual Awards and Honors Banquet

Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business recognized student and faculty excellence at the college’s 58th annual Awards and Honors Banquet on March 31, 2011. The event was sponsored by Business Student Council and the Spears School of Business.

The 2010 Raymond D. Thomas Award was presented to Amalia Deines. This award is named after former Spears School dean, Raymond D. Thomas, and is given to one of the Spears School Outstanding Senior Award recipients. The honoree is selected by a faculty committee and is awarded based on the recipient’s organizational leadership, citizenship and scholarship. The honoree receives a $750 lifetime membership to the OSU Alumni Association.

During the banquet, 11 students received the 2011 Spears School Outstanding Senior Award. The award recognizes seniors who have demonstrated a strong academic record, leadership, and campus and community involvement, and it is jointly sponsored by Business Student Council and the Spears School. Students selected for the 2011 award included Emily Cole, Amalia Deines, Katie Fuchs, Samantha Garrison, Sarah Johnson, Chelsey Johnston, Krystal Krug, Allison Lyons, Mark McClure, David McKellips and Elizabeth Pitcock.

Ten Spears School students were recognized for being selected at OSU Seniors of Significance by the OSU Alumni Association. Those selected included Emily Cole, Haley Cosner, Amalia Deines, Jessica DeLong, Katie Fuchs, Andrew Henry, Blair Kirkpatrick, Allison Lyons, David McKellips and Devin Stanfield. Cole, Deines and Stanfield also were selected as OSU Outstanding Seniors by the OSU Alumni Association.

The Gold Key Award, which is presented to graduating seniors with the highest grade point average, was presented to Andrea Byrd, Anna Davis, Katie Fuchs, Chelsey Johnston and Logan McAlister for achieving a 4.0 point average. The award is sponsored by Delta Sigma Pi, a professional business fraternity.

Thirty-seven students were inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, a scholastic honor society established to encourage and honor academic achievement in the study of business and to foster personal and professional excellence among its members. Membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest national recognition a student in business can receive. To be eligible for membership, students must rank in the upper 7 percent of their class for junior inductees or upper 10 percent of their class for senior inductees. 2011 OSU Beta Gamma Sigma inductees included John Bristol, Steven Carlile, Ryan Corrigan, Darcy Cramer, Blain Culver, Charles Cutler, Jillian Davis, Taylor Degraffenreid, Fash Fadaei, Kinsey Freeman, Shane Gibson, Matthew Griffin, Stephen Higginbotham, James Holland, Meaghan Hoose, Stephen Hulrbut, Michelle Ingold, Katelyn Ingram, James Inskeep, Caroline Kirschner, Viktoriya Kotkova, Jacob Lopez, Elizabeth Madden, Lauren Martin, Kathryn Moore, Tyler Nicholas, Hillary Nolan, Jordan Pace, Andrew Parrack, Kayla Rochelle, Stacy Schauvliege, Peter Shipley, Cory Sloan, Margaret Sokolosky, Emily Strickler, Jeffery Veteto and Liying Zeng.

In addition, several Spears School faculty members were recognized for their contributions. The Greiner Teaching Award was presented to Laurie Lucas, assistant professor of legal studies, and lecturer Charles Gray received the Best Practices Award for Distance Learning Teaching from the Oklahoma Distance Learning Association. Debra Nelson, professor of management, was awarded the OSU Outreach Faculty Excellence Award, and Lee Manzer, professor of marketing, was recognized for his induction into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.

This year the Spears School received several honors for its dedication to OSU and its students. It was recognized as OSU Homecoming’s Most Spirited College. Also, the Entrepreneurship Club was named one of the “Top 50 Entrepreneurship Clubs” by FledgeWing, an organization that provides aspiring student entrepreneurs with the framework they need to develop, build and launch innovative new companies. The Entrepreneurship Club was chosen for its feature-rich website and excellent integration of social networking.

Other awards presented at the banquet included the Outstanding Business Organization award, which was presented to the Spears School Ambassadors. In addition, one member from each Spears School student organization was recognized as the organization’s outstanding member. Honorees included:

Thai Armstrong, African American Business Association
Rachel Dunlap, Association of Information Technology Professionals
Elizabeth Pitcock, Beta Alpha Psi
Kyle Buthod, Business Student Council
Chris Lillja, Economics Society
Fash Fadaei, Entrepreneurship Club
Katie Fielding, Financial Management Association
Shaw Minor, Human Resource Management Association
Whitney Manning, Marketing Club
Mark Fiegener, Phi Beta Lambda
Mark Fiegener, Spears School Ambassadors
Jeremiah Cole, Students in Free Enterprise