SOU's Dankook Award Winners Exemplify Scholarship
July 01, 2007
by Christi Courian
The Southern Oregon University (SOU) Dankook Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Students honors the thirty-year relationship that the university has with its sister school, Dankook University in Korea. SOU is one of 23 schools worldwide that have established an academic and cultural relationship with Dankook University.
The Dankook award is given to one woman and one man at the annual June commencement. "It recognizes outstanding scholarship, contributions to campus life by playing a leadership role, and evidence of citizenship and character over the course of the recipients college career," says Jonathan Eldridge, SOU's Vice President for Student Affairs.
The 2006-2007 Dankook award recipients are Sharon Bywater of the Department of Geology and German and Garrett Liggett of the Department of Theatre Arts.Sharon Bywater, a native of Medford, Ore., completed a double major in Geology and German with a 3.99 grade point average. She has had a lifelong interest in the natural history of southern Oregon and a passion for language. As a high school student, she lived in the former East Germany as an exchange student and became fluent in the language within a year.
Bywater's capstone in German focused on the little-known history of ethnic cleansing and forced relocations of Germans in the Sudetenland region after World War II. Her research project in Geology shed new light on the tectonic history of southwestern Oregon and the northern Klamath Mountains.
In addition to her academic work, Bywater has also been active in a number of organizations and service projects relating to her dual degrees. She is the current President of the SOU Geology Club.
Among Bywater's academic honors are the National Park Service Outstanding Performance Award and American Association of University Women Outstanding Graduate Award. She is also the recipient of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Field Course Scholarship, Crater Rock Museum Field Camp Scholarship, Marie and Harlan Bosworth Scholarship, Gerhard Heiter Scholarship, John and Marjory Culver Scholarship, and Ida Crawford Scholarship.
"Sharon is actively engaged in the community, and in my opinion is the best undergraduate student that I have seen in the geology program," notes Bill Elliott, Assistant Professor of Geology. "She has worked with and inspired many of her fellow students in the classroom, laboratory, and field. She was most recently awarded a grant from the Northern California Geological Society to support her research project on sandstones of the Hornbrook Formation."
"I found a science that incorporated all the things that had always interested me, and the faculty to support my success," says Bywater. "I knew I enjoyed science, math, chemistry and physics, but was unsure of what field I wanted to focus on. After just a year, the geology faculty made it apparent to me that I could do anything, and if I wanted, I could do anything in geology."
Bywater will attend the University of Wyoming in fall 2007, working toward an M.S. in Sedimentary Geology, with a full tuition waiver and a teaching assistantship in the Department of Geology.
Garrett Liggett, from Simi Valley, Calif., completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with an emphasis on acting, with a 3.98 grade point average. He completed an Associates degree in psychology at Moorpark College in Moorpark, Calif.
His credits include "Richard III" and "King Lear" with Shakespeare in the Park Summer Theatre in California, a number of student and independent films, productions at Loyola Marymount University, USC, UCLA, Brook's Institute of Photography, and California State University Northridge, as well as with independent production companies.At SOU, Liggett acted in productions of "Romeo and Juliet," "Entertaining Strangers," "Big Love," "Twelfth Night," "Cowboy Mouth," "The Threepenny Opera," "Comic Potential," and "Toad of Toad Hall."
Liggett studied music composition, voice, accordion, piano and guitar and used his musical proficiency in his SOU roles in "Twelfth Night" and "Three Penny Opera." Department of Theatre Arts Chair Chris Sackett remarks that "Garrett Liggett is an outstanding student who has been an asset to the Department of Theatre Arts since he transferred to SOU in the fall of 2003. He is always supportive of his fellow students and focused on the project at hand, be it a performance or production responsibility." Liggett credits his accomplishments to "finding something fascinating in every topic of study. I always tried to make learning a challenge. To me, it's what can get you to move ahead."
"In his time with us, Garrett Liggett has proven himself to be both an exemplary theatre student and a talent worthy of recognition," said Professor Dennis Smith. "He has, from the beginning, approached his growth as a person and as an artist in the best spirit of a liberal arts education; and in so doing he has become recognized across the campus as an exceptional student."
Liggett plans to pursue an acting career in regional theatre and film.
