DATE: May 08, 2009

CONTACT: Joy Smith, 864-656-0471
joy@clemson.edu

WRITER: Angela Nixon, 864-656-0382
anixon@clemson.edu

Students, faculty receive awards at Clemson Commencement

CLEMSON — Several students and faculty were recognized Friday with awards for their outstanding service to Clemson University.

The Norris Medal was awarded to Christopher Pollock of Allentown, Pa., who received his degree in chemistry. Pollock is a member of Dixon Fellows and a Goldwater Scholar. He received several awards from the chemistry department, including the Mark Bernhard Hardin Prize in Chemistry. He also received the Houghton Mifflin/ICUC Award for Achievement in Chemistry and two American Chemical Society Awards.

Pollock served as president of the Student Affiliate of the American Chemical Society and Gamma Sigma Epsilon chemistry honor society. He also was a member of the Clemson Animal Welfare Society and volunteered at the Foothills Humane Society. He served as an ambassador for the Calhoun Honors College, worked as a tutor with student-athletes in Vickery Hall and was a tutor for the PEER and WISE programs in the College of Engineering and Science. Pollock will attend Cornell University in the fall as he pursues a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry.

The Norris Medal was established under the terms of the will of the Honorable D.K. Norris, a life trustee of Clemson. The medal is given each year to the graduating student who is judged to be the best all-around by the university scholarships and awards committee.

The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award is given annually “in recognition of the recipient's influence for good, excellence in maintaining high ideals of living and genuine and disinterested service to others.” The award, named in honor of the first president of the New York Southern Society, was established by an agreement between the society and Clemson University. This year’s student recipients were Eric Giles of North Potomac, Md., who earned degrees in economics and political science, and Lindsey Sporrer of Easley, who graduated with a management degree.

Giles is a member of several honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, Blue Key, Omicron Delta Kappa and Golden Key. He graduated with both departmental and general honors. He was active in student government and served as president of the Student Senate in 2007-2008. He worked as a tutor to student-athletes and held internships with U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and with the Institute for Policy Studies.

Sporrer was elected Clemson’s Homecoming Queen in 2007. A student in the Calhoun Honors College, she is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. She is a Palmetto Fellows Scholar, a Sonoco Scholar and a Frank A. Burtner Scholar. Sporrer is an active member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and received the Nick Lomax Rising Star Award from the Division of Student Affairs in 2007. She also was a member of Student Senate. She has volunteered for Relay for Life, St. Jude’s Up Til Dawn, Anderson Interfaith Ministries, Ronald McDonald House and Clemson Child Development Center.

The Algernon Sydney Sullivan non-student recipient was Dr. Roger Troutman of Rock Hill. Troutman, a Clemson alumnus, is the founder of an eight-doctor veterinary practice in Rock Hill and has served as president of the S.C. Association of Veterinarians and as chairman of the S.C. Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. Troutman has volunteered his veterinary skills as one of 35 trail veterinarians in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska, providing a myriad of services required to keep the dogs healthy along the 1,100-mile route. Troutman and his wife Kathy, who also graduated from Clemson, have made regular gifts to the Clemson Fund for the past 32 years. He is a charter member of the Presidents Club for major gift donors, a member of IPTAY since 1974 and an IPTAY representative for the past 20 years. He is past president of the York County Clemson Club and has served on the Alumni National Council. He was a Super Tiger recipient in 2006. He also is involved in his community as a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary. He has led the Catawba School Athletic Booster Club and has served as a scout leader.

William Fisk, chairman of the faculty of teacher education in Clemson’s Eugene T. Moore School of Education, received the Alumni Master Teacher Award.

The Alumni Master Teacher Award is presented for outstanding undergraduate classroom instruction to a faculty member nominated by the student body and selected by the Student Alumni Council. Fisk received a $2,500 stipend and bronze plaque.