Canisius College

There are five awards given annually in the Honors Program, usually at the annual Honors banquet in the spring semester. The Honors director decides who wins these awards.

(a) Robert J. Butler Award for Leadership
Awarded to the student(s) who has made particularly significant contributions to the All-College Honors Program.

Dr. Robert J. Butler, a Professor of English, served for twenty-one years as director of the Canisius All-College Honors Program (1985-2006). During that pivotal period, he increased the size of the student body, raised admissions standards, and expanded the opportunities for cultural enrichment. He is a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and completed his formal education at St. Michael’s College and the University of Notre Dame. He is the author or coauthor of seven books on African American literature, and is an internationally known authority on the subject. A Kenneth L. Koessler Distinguished Professor, Butler is also renowned for his dedication to teaching, his unflagging commitment to a more just society, and his passions for bicycling and the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

(b) Kristin M. Brady Award for Excellence in Honors Thesis

Awarded to the student who has written the best thesis that year.

Kristin M. Brady graduated from Canisius College summa cum laude in 1970 as an English major and a member of the All-College Honors Program. She then served as a teacher in AmeriCorps and subsequently earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Toronto. She taught in the English department at the University of Western Ontario, becoming a distinguished professor who won teaching awards and published widely on 19th century English literature. Her book on novelist Thomas Hardy is regarded as a landmark study. While on sabbatical in France in 1998, she died tragically in an automobile crash. Kristin Brady represented the highest ideals at Jesuit education—intellectual excellence and service to others.

(c) Griffin Scholars

	Griffin Scholars recipients for 2011 -- Abby Fronckowiak (left), Arianna Opper (right)

The Griffin Scholarship program supports an All-College Honors student who assumes a year-long leadership role on campus and/or in the community. This award is particularly appropriate as a means of encouraging some of the best & brightest students at Canisius College to assume a leadership role. After all, Canisius is the college which espouses the mottos, “Where Leaders Are Made” and “Men and Women for and with Others.” Scholars receive a partial tuition waiver.



Griffin Scholar Abby Fronckowiak '14 (second row, far right) with students from St. Monica's middle school, one of the two Nativity Miguel Schools of Buffalo, cheering on the Griffs at a men's basketball game.

(d) Schoenl Family Scholarship
This scholarship helps students participate in overseas trips arranged by the college's Campus Ministry. The point of these immersion trips is to learn about and to help overseas people in dire need. In recent years, Campus Ministry has organized trips to Ecuador, El Salvador, India, Mexico, and Poland, among other places.



William & Linda Schoenl (pictured above) established the Schoenl Family Scholarship out of their firm conviction that the people of God must help the unfortunate worldwide. Dr. William Schoenl, who was a member of Canisius’ first All-College Honors class in 1963, is a professor of modern European history at Michigan State University, and has been very active in helping the poor.

Students and Canisius President John J. Hurley (far right) with Sister Marc who works at a school in the violent “Chacra” neighborhood of San Salvador.

Read an essay about the Schoenl Scholarship here (MS Word)
Click any thumbnail below to open a larger version of the picture.

(e) Honors Professor of the Year
Awarded to the professor (past or present) who has made exceptional contributions to the Honors Program in teaching, scholarship, and/or service. Winners are ineligible for a second award.

Winners

Robert J. Butler Award for Leadership
2012 -- Sandy Casey & Abby Fronckowiak
2011 -- Jonathan Beck, Sandra Casey, Alex Eadie
2010 -- Brittany Gray & Megan Hooks
2009 -- Joel Francia & Anne Marie Sweeney-Jones
2008 -- Colleen Hawkes
2007 -- Kristin Garcia, Gabrielle Paoletti, Adam Pendleton
2006 -- Jared Hojnacki & Nick Tober
2005 -- Jennifer Huer
2004 -- Ann Carapellotti, Laura Gellin, Michelle Kazmierczak
2003 -- Jennifer Schutte

Kristin M. Brady Award for Excellence in Honors Thesis
2012 -- Hannah Ball, Laura Jakiel, Caitie McAneney
2011 -- Hunter Dudkiewicz, Gabrielle Printz, Hannah Valdes
2010 -- Cara Cotter, Natalie Photiadis, Andrea Rozansky
2009 -- Chantel Bartels & Emily Caruana
2008 -- Lauren Fish, Rachael Morlock, Duyen Nguyen
2007 -- Karen Janiszewski, Katherine Liebner, Elizabeth Spavento
2006 -- Charles Hartney
2005 -- Victoria Kraft & Derek Weibel
2004 -- Julie Ann Golebiewski & Russell Sbriglia
2003 -- Shevaun Donelli & Kathy Riley
2002 -- Carlie Arnold & Lauren Koppmann
2001 -- Shannon Rohring & Jonathan Will
2000 -- Robert Haley & Marisa Loffredo
1999 -- Steven Seegel

Griffin Scholars
2011 -- Abby Fronckowiak, Arianna Opper

Schoenl Family Scholarship
2012 -- Kaitlyn Buehlmann, Sandy Casey, Tara Cicatello
2011 -- Alyssa Bachman, Laura Knab, Mary Mietlicki
2010 -- Adam Augustyn, Jacob Castiglia, Ashley McCartney
2009 -- Amina Benman & Joel Francia

Honors Professor of the Year

Peter Galie, PhD 2012		Paul Dowling, PhD 2011		Melvin Schroeder 2010
David Costello, PhD 2009		Robert Butler, PhD 2008