Annual Honors Convocation includes faculty, adviser, student accolades
LAWRENCE — For their outstanding contributions, several members of the University Honors Program community were recognized during the program’s Honors Convocation, this year held Aug. 17 at the Burge Union.
The event, which annually serves as the welcome for University of Kansas students new to the program, included the announcement of two faculty awards, as well as a celebration of the program’s outstanding student award recipient and an acclaimed honors adviser.
Bruce Lieberman, professor and senior curator in KU’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, was named 2025’s Outstanding Departmental Honors Course Instructor. Lieberman, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, was recognized for his instruction of BIOL 101: Principles of Biology, Honors.
“Dr. Lieberman has made this introductory course a must-take for students from a range of majors, particularly those in the social sciences and humanities,” said Sarah Crawford-Parker, the honors program’s director, adding a quote from Lieberman’s student nominator: “‘I have never felt so excited by a biology class, and that is owed to the ingenuity and support of Professor Lieberman.’”
Yvonnes Chen, a professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, received the 2025 Outstanding Honors Seminar Instructor award. Chen, who also serves as an Honors Faculty Fellow for the program, was nominated by members of her first-year honors seminar, “Mindfulness in the Modern World.”
In her remarks, Crawford-Parker referenced Chen’s ability to connect course content to students’ majors and lives, as well as her use of campus resources and cultural spaces in her seminar, which exposes first-year students to facets of the university they might otherwise not access.
The event also included a mention of the 2025 Advisor of the Year, a commendation given by Jayhawk Academic Advising. This year’s honoree, Jenny Hett, advises honors students in the School of Engineering. In her congratulations, Crawford-Parker connected Hett to the program’s long lineage of strong advising and highlighted Hett’s high level of involvement in KU Honors activities.
Preceding these announcements, Yash Prajapati, a senior in mathematics and economics from Vadodara, India, was announced as the 2025 recipient of the Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett Outstanding Student Award.
Named in honor of a KU psychology professor emeritus and former director of the honors program, the $1,000 award recognizes a student who, in the past year, demonstrated a high level of dedication to and engagement with the program.
Prajapati, who serves as an ambassador for both the university and the honors program, spoke to Honors Convocation attendees about his undergraduate experience, which yielded lessons he imparted to the incoming class.
“One thing I’ve learned through my time at KU and in the honors program is that there’s no single ‘right’ way to navigate college,” said Prajapati. “Your path doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s to be meaningful.”
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Executive Dean Arash Mafi provided the event’s keynote address for this fall's incoming class, the program’s 70th since the creation of the program in 1956 with the merger of the Summerfield and Watkins scholarship programs.
Part of the College since its creation, the University Honors Program pursues a mission to challenge students in any major and school to launch extraordinary lives through exceptional classes, advising and interdisciplinary opportunities.