Nearly 150 students were honored at the event including 65 students recognized for three consecutive honor semesters and 82 students for two consecutive honor semesters. The IVCC Student Academic Awards Ceremony was April 8 in the IVCC gymnasium.

Deborah Anderson, vice president of Academic Affairs, and Jerry Corcoran, president, presented the academic honor awards along with announcing Nicholas Bollis and Lillian Rodrigues as Phi Theta Kappa All-Illinois Academic Team members and the 12 Thomas J. McCormack Scholars.

The scholars include Shane Peek of Rutland; Morgan Phillips of Lostant; Bryar Lindenmeyer of Mendota; Nico Martinez, Nic Bollis, Shay Scheri and Lauren Giordano, all of Peru and Summer Hoagland-Abernathy, Mason Kannel and Hannah Miskell of Ottawa.

Nora Villarreal, English instructor, gave out the Richard Publow Memorial Awards to seven students.

This award is given to students who are enrolled in Basic Composition II, English Composition I and II. The essay must be in response to an assignment given by the instructor of the course.

Lauren Giordano, Honors Program student and a Thomas J. McCormack scholar, was one of the guest speakers at the event.

Her speech reflected her time here at IVCC and how the honors program has impacted her not only as an individual, but as a student and leader as well.

“Words cannot describe my deep appreciation towards IVCC and the Honors Program for all that they have done to benefit me and my future educational and career goals” Giordano says.

“In addition to the academic lessons that I have learned, the lessons learned from my teachers and peers have proved to be extremely beneficial in deciding the direction my future will take. . . I am convinced that the lessons I have learned throughout my time at IVCC and in the Honors Program will have a lasting impact on me and follow me far into the future.”

Mary Black, 2019 Stephan Charry Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence winner, spoke about “The F’s” that students should take with them after they finish IVCC: family and friends, faith, flexibility, fortitude and failures.

Ironically, Black mentioned that your failures are essential to understand where you should be focusing your time and energy. They are not to hinder your learning.

“There’s an acronym floating around that the letters in FAIL stand for first attempt in learning,” she said. “Take your failures and look at them the same way— what’s your takeaway? Where do you go from here? Use them as stepping stones and reminders of what you have learned and all that’s ahead for you to learn as you change and grow.”