Posted: March 3, 2010
Contact: Doug Anderson, doug.anderson@MinnState.edu, 651-201-1426
Forty state college students who make up the 2010 All-Minnesota Academic Team are being honored today for their academic achievements and community service.
The 40 students, ranging in age from 18 to 58, are the state’s nominees for the All-USA Academic Team for Community, Technical and Junior College Students, a program sponsored annually by Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges, USA Today and the American Association of Community Colleges. State academic teams were introduced in 1994 to provide scholarships and scholastic recognition to Phi Theta Kappa members.
All of the students attend one of the 25 community and technical colleges, which have about 170,000 students, in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
The students being honored at a luncheon in Eagan and their colleges are:
- Daneen Bellefeuille, Alexandria Technical College; Robert Daun and Angela Kealey, both from Anoka-Ramsey Community College;
- Corey Ferguson and Jacqueline Groves, both from Anoka Technical College;
- Patricia Dunlap and Susan Prom, both from Dakota County Technical College;
- Julia Nikrad and Maria Del Carmen Wong Guerrero, both from Inver Hills Community College;
- Robert Scott, Lake Superior College;
- Aaron Spiegel and Glade Woolstenhulme, both from Minneapolis Community and Technical College;
- April Ledebuhr, Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical;
- Genna Nelson and Rachel Pavelko, both from Minnesota West Community and Technical College;
- Mahmoud Hatab and Jessica Proskin, both from Normandale Community College;
- Rebecca Schultz, North Hennepin Community College;
- Jennifer Mehl, Northeast Higher Education District-Hibbing Community College;
- Carol Clancey and Deven Kelling, both from Northeast Higher Education District-Itasca Community College;
- Shelly Pauhu and Melanie Weston, both from Northeast Higher Education District-Mesabi Range Community and Technical College;
- Suksimarari Daaljit, Alyssa Novak, Michelle Stadstad and Juanita Watne, all both from Northland Community and Technical College;
- Samantha Calvin and Allan Noyes, both from Ridgewater College;
- Sergio Hernandez, Katherine Kirsch and Ivan Okhin, all from Riverland Community College;
- Jesse Buhl and Vlad Popescu, both from Rochester Community and Technical College;
- Brandon Rose and Michelle Waldorf, both from St. Cloud Technical and Community College;
- Darleen Tareeq, St. Paul College; and Travis Henderson, Peter Hunt and Fran Nelson, all from South Central College.
Students selected for the All-USA academic team receive stipends or plaques. The 2010 All-USA team members will be announced in April at the American Association of Community Colleges convention in Seattle.
To be nominated to the Minnesota team, a student must be currently enrolled at a Minnesota two-year college and expect to graduate during the 2009-2010 academic year, have completed at least 12 semester credits and a grade point average of at least 3.25 at a Minnesota two-year college.
Nominees were selected based on biographical information, letters of recommendation, academic performance, demonstration of leadership, and campus and community service. Applicants also wrote an essay describing a specific educational experience while attending a two-year college that has transformed the student’s thinking about learning or the future.
The Minnesota All-State Academic Team is sponsored by the Minn-Wi-Kota Region of Phi Theta Kappa; the participating colleges and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Office of the Chancellor.