College of Engineering Hosts Honors Convocation Ceremony and Barbecue
The academic achievements of 380 engineering students were recognized Sept. 23 at the UA College of Engineering's annual honors convocation. Students with grade point averages greater than 3.5 received academic honors, and a further 27 students were awarded department honors.
"Honors convocation is one of the few times that, as faculty and staff, we have the chance to celebrate the success of our better students," said Jim Baygents, the College of Engineering's associate dean for academic affairs. The students honored represent 18 percent of the engineering student body.
Following the honors convocation, students and their friends and family headed to the second annual College of Engineering family weekend cookout in the courtyard of the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Building for burgers, beans and hot dogs.
Freshmen engineering students and their friends and families were also invited to the cookout, resulting in about 200 people swarming to the courtyard and lining up for dinner off the grill. The College of Engineering academic affairs office and the college's various departments organized the day's events.
Chemical engineering freshman Sarah Battaglia attended the cookout with her parents, Kevin and Norma Battaglia. All three Battaglias were enthusiastic about UA engineering and the freshman program, Engineering 102. Sarah is interested in sustainability and said she wants to get into environmental engineering. "I liked Engineering 102," she said. "It was really interesting, and I learned a lot about engineering."
UA alumna Norma Battaglia was impressed by how responsive the UA Engineering faculty had been as Sarah pondered which major to select. "Faculty always return emails right away, which amazes me," said Norma. "Sarah got lots of great advice and direction about choosing a major."
After being awarded honors at the convocation, electrical engineering senior David Lester took his mom, Angela Lester, and cousin, Brandon Martin, to the cookout, where mom Angela said of David: "We're all very proud of him." In between bites of his burger, David remarked that UA is "a good school with a lot of good professors."