Jones, Ratts, Bates and Davidson lead award winners at 83rd-annual Honors Convocation

Cambria Jones ’20 and Logan Ratts ’20 received Hanover College’s top student academic awards, while Jared Bates and Rachel Davidson earned top faculty awards during the 83rd-annual Honors Convocation. The event, celebrating the achievements of the College’s students and faculty, was presented April 28-May 1 through a video series on Hanover’s YouTube channel.

Jones, a double major in mathematics and Spanish, earned the Henry C. Long Citation for Scholarship and General Excellence as the outstanding senior female. She also received the Morse Mathematical Award and was the 2019 recipient of the Dr. John E. Yarnelle Mathematics Prize.

Jones, who also received certification for secondary education, has been an admissions ambassador, peer advisor and Gladish Center for Teaching and Learning tutor. She also served as a member of the Hanover Student Education Association, CRU Ministries, Teacher Education Committee and Seventh Grade Mentors.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program semifinalist also holds memberships in numerous honor societies, including Mortar Board, National Honor Society for College Seniors, Phi Sigma Iota, National Foreign Language Honors Society, Alpha Lambda Delta and The National Honor Society for First-Year Success.

Ratts, a biochemistry major with a minor in kinesiology, received the John Finley Crowe Citation for Scholarship and General Excellence as the outstanding senior male. He also earned the Alpha Lambda Delta Award.

A four-year member of Hanover’s basketball team, Ratts was a two-time academic all-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference honoree and was also named to the league’s sportsmanship team. The program’s freshman of the year as a newcomer, he later earned the program’s Marty Brennan Hustle Award and was named the squad’s defensive player of the year.

Ratts has been a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, Gamma Sigma Pi and Beta Beta Beta honor societies. He served Phi Gamma Delta fraternity as scholarship chair and held additional on-campus positions including peer advisor, peer mentor, resident assistant, learning center tutor and study group leader.

Bates, a professor of philosophy, earned the Arthur and Ilene Baynham Outstanding Teaching Award. Established by the College in 1969, the honoree is selected by a ballot of currently enrolled students and alumni from the past two graduating classes. To be eligible, a faculty member must be in at least the fourth year of teaching at the College. The winner receives a bronze medallion and a cash prize.

Bates teaches courses in foundational issues in philosophy, reason and belief, rational choices, formal logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and epistemology. Since coming to Hanover in 2005, he has also served the College as a member of nearly every major faculty committee, an elected faculty representative to the Board of Trustees and member of the Presidential Search Committee. He has also served in a variety of capacities with the Indiana Philosophical Association and reviewed manuscripts for numerous national and international journals, organizations and publishers.

Davidson, an assistant professor of communication, received the Daryl R. Karns Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity. The award, named for the biology professor who died in 2011, recognizes sustained scholarly or creative achievement. Faculty members nominate colleagues for the award, which are sent to three judges at liberal arts colleges similar to Hanover. The winner receives a bronze medallion and a cash prize.

Davidson, who joined the College’s faculty in 2015, was recognized for a research program that reaches both academic and non-academic audiences. Her in-depth look at the popular television series “The Gilmore Girls” explores the rhetorical construction of gender, sexuality, female empowerment, mothering and caregiving.