Periclean Scholars for the Class of 2025 hold induction ceremony

They filled a questionnaire, wrote an essay, secured a letter of recommendation from a faculty or staff member at Elon and had an in-person interview with their Periclean faculty mentor. And in the end, their effort paid off.

Twelve Elon students were inducted as Periclean Scholars Class of 2025 during a ceremony held in McKinnon Hall, in the Moseley Center, on April 5 at 5:30 p.m.

After an introduction by Mat Gendle, director of the Periclean Program at Elon, and Vanessa Bravo, associate professor in the School of Communications, who serves as the Periclean faculty mentor of the Class of 2025, welcomed the scholars and their guests, and congratulated them on becoming part of this 18-credit, three-year-long academic program, which focuses on civic engagement, fair-trade learning and social justice.

After that, Bravo, along with Elon students Sidra Kennedy ’24 and Grace Ackerman ’24 (members of the Periclean Scholars Class of 2024) introduced each of the 12 students in the new cohort.

The Periclean Scholars Class of 2025 will focus on supporting projects both in Alamance County and Costa Rica. These are the 12 rising sophomores that were selected as Periclean Scholars in a competitive process as part of this cohort:

• Leslie Avilés Mendoza
  Hometown: Burlington, North Carolina
  Major/minor: Strategic communications major with minors in business administration and Latin American studies
  Other affiliations: Communications Fellow
• Tyra Duque
  Hometown: Graham, North Carolina
  Majors/minor: Spanish and political science major with a minor in Latin American studies
  Other affiliations: Odyssey Scholar, College of Arts and Sciences Senator
• Andrea (Andy) Flores Montero
  Hometown: Durham, North Carolina
  Major/minor: Anthropology and art history major with a minor in communications
• Lucy Hewitt
  Hometown: Arlington Heights, Illinois
  Major/minor: Spanish major with a minor in environmental and sustainability studies
  Other affiliations: member of the Outdoor Learning Community and the Yoga Club
• Daniela Maldonado
  Hometown: Winston- Salem, North Carolina
  Major/minor: Biology
• José Alex Reyes
  Hometown: Burlington, North Carolina
  Major/minor: Strategic communications and communication design major, with a minor in Spanish
  Other affiliations: Odyssey Scholar, Communications Fellow, tutor for It Takes a Village and mentor for the Elon Academy
• Eric Rich
  Hometown: Buffalo, New York
  Major/minor: Business analytics
• Eliza Shane
  Hometown: Wilmington, Delaware
  Major/minor: Environmental & ecological sciences major, with minors in leadership studies and economics
  Other affiliations: Leadership Fellow
• Jack Silk
  Hometown: Toledo, Ohio
  Major/minors: Undecided major on a pre-law track with a political science minor
  Other affiliations: Legal Professions Scholar
• Sadie Smith
  Hometown: San Diego, California
  Major/minor: Strategic communications and international & global studies
  Other affiliations: Elon Outdoors trip leader
• Skylar (RyAnne) Sykes
  Hometown: Elon, North Carolina
  Major/minor: Spanish major on a pre-dental track
  Other affiliations: Odyssey Scholar, member of the Polyglot Living and Learning Community.
• Jasmine Walker
  Hometown: Elon, North Carolina
  Major/minor: Human Service Studies major with minors in poverty & social justice and Spanish
  Other affiliations: Odyssey Scholar