Two UA Students Awarded Senior Honor Citation at Honors Convocation Banquet

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Two University of Arkansas students were honored by the Arkansas Alumni Association during the 2005 UA Honors Banquet held at the Arkansas Union Ballroom, Friday, April 22. Seniors Rebecca Lynn Stubbs of Springdale and N. Wesley Hunt of Fordyce were each awarded the Senior Honor Citation, the association’s highest student honor.  

Established 40 years ago, the Senior Honor Citation is conferred annually to a senior man and woman in recognition of outstanding academic achievement, campus and community involvement, and leadership. The citation includes a $1,000 cash award and permanent recognition on the Honor Wall at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House. 

In addition to a sterling academic career, Rebecca Stubbs, who is to receive a degree in international business in May, broadened her educational experiences by participating in the Walton College Japan Study Abroad Program, and traveling in seven European countries, Guatemala and Honduras. “My experiences in international business have led me to believe that international travel is vital to understanding oneself and the larger world,” said Stubbs. To that end, upon graduation Stubbs will move to Shenzen, China, for one academic year in order to teach high school English, take intensive Mandarin Chinese lessons and travel throughout Asia. 

Stubbs has been in the Walton College Honors Program for the duration of her undergraduate studies and has been awarded numerous other scholarships and academic honors.

“Rebecca is among the top two or three students with whom I have worked in my 42 years in higher education,” stated Doyle Z. Williams, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Stubbs’ campus involvement has included service through the Dean’s Student Advisory Board, Greek Life Facilitators, Clubbe Economique, the Crisis Center on Campus, Emerging Leaders Program, and various campus committees. “As the university seeks to develop a service learning program for all students, Rebecca, because of her leadership and service, would serve as a great 'poster person’ for such an initiative,” said Williams.

“Being a University of Arkansas student has had an immeasurably positive impact on my life,” stated Stubbs. “Through dedication and involvement, our final legacy to the U of A can be much more meaningful than a name etched into the sidewalk - it will live on through the impact we make on others and the chain of influence that we create.”

A Chancellor’s Scholar and four-year Honors Scholar in Fulbright College, N. Wesley Hunt, a history major, is a recent recipient of an Honors College Undergraduate Research Grant. His senior honors thesis research pushes desegregation scholarship beyond the Little Rock Crisis by examining ways that other Arkansas school districts responded to integration mandates. “Mr. Hunt possesses a special ability to conceptualize in innovative ways,” said Charles F. Robinson II, associate professor and director of the African-American studies program at the U of A. “As a student in my honors colloquium, (he) not only answered questions that I posed to him with a great degree of enthusiasm and proficiency, he also raised questions that pushed the discussions to more profound levels.”

Hunt has served a two-year term as a senator in the Associated Student Government and as a member of the Student Fee Review Board. 

In April, Hunt was presented the Henry Woods Leadership Award by the University’s Student Affairs Division. This award is given to academically strong students who are engaged on campus and connected to the community. 

In service to the larger community, Hunt has been involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity and as a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Hunt has served as a congressional intern for U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, as intern for the William J. Clinton Foundation and as public policy assistant at Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, where he was charged with coordinating all local and national press operations for the grand opening of the Clinton Presidential Center and Park. Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Foundation, noted, “Not since Clinton have I met a young person with so much raw talent, natural ability and promise.” 

“My sites are now firmly set on law school, a new journey that I now feel confident taking,” said Hunt.

Candidates for the Arkansas Alumni Association’s Senior Honor Citation are nominated by UA faculty and administrators and are selected by a faculty committee representing each college and school.