By Bridger Warlick

Students, faculty, staff and administration gathered April 18 in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Theatre and McFarlin Auditorium to recognize and award outstanding members of the SMU community at the Hilltop Excellence Awards and Honors Convocation.

Frederick Chang, director of SMU’s Darwin Deason Institute for Cyber Security, gave the address at the Honors Convocation. Provost Steven Currall also spoke at the convocation.

“Our honors convocation is a special event that annually brings students, faculty, administrators, trustees, alumni, donors and parents of many awardees together in a festive atmosphere to celebrate the accomplishments of SMU’s very finest students. We will recognize those special students whose intelligence, dedication and hard work have contributed greatly to the life of this University,” Currall said in his provost message.

The Hilltop Excellence Awards following the Honors Convocation recognized those who have left a lasting and positive impact during their time at SMU. The highest recognition, the “M” award, was presented to students and faculty who are “an inspiration to others, giving unselfishly of their time and talents in order to make the university, and indeed the world, a better place,” according to the SMU website.

Student recipients of the award included Carlton Adams, Max Agadoni, D’Marquis Allen, Jacob Conway, Tien Dang, Emily Dombrowski, Jamie Hinz, Justin Mueller, J. Barrett “JB” Stockslager and Charlie Weber. The faculty and staff recipients included Charles Curran, Michael Hogan, Robert Krout, Stephen Rankin and Martha Starke. Peers and members of the SMU community nominated the recipients.

Awards at the Honors Convocation included new member inductions into honor societies, school and department awards, national fellowships, and distinguished scholarships. For a full list of award recipients click here.