The McKimmon Center played host to the annual N.C. State Founder’s Day dinner Monday night as hundreds of alumni and current students gathered to celebrate the University’s opening, which took place 123 years ago Sunday.
While nearly 400 guests finished their chocolate cake, Jay Dawkins, a senior in civil engineering, Shanna Rose, a senior in political science, walked onstage to receive the 2010 Mathews Medals, the highest non-scholastic award an N.C. State student can receive.
The award, based on the prestigious Watauga Medal and named after one of State’s first students, honors graduating seniors who have built a legacy based on leadership and significant contributions to the University.
Rose, whose lengthy resume includes the titles of former student senator, chair of the Student Government Leadership Development Committee, president of the Alumni Association Student Ambassadors and current co-chair of Service Raleigh, N.C.’s largest student-run service organization, said she and Dawkins were “humbled” by the experience.
“[Dawkins] and I will tell anyone who asks that some of the most important things we’ve learned in college have not been academic related,” Rose said. “It’s cool that they’re able to point that out and recognize the contributions we’ve made.”
Perhaps because most undergrads were scared away by the $75 price tag of dining with the Alumni Association, many of the few students that attended the event were Dawkins’ and Rose’s friends. Rose said bridging the gap between alumni and current students is crucial and that, in time, she hopes the Founder’s Day banquet will include a wider range of age and experience.
“These events are great. I wish there are more students here to provide that connection, but in the future, if there’s student recognition of what the award is, there might be more student and alum participation,” Rose said.
After speeches from current chancellor James Woodward and Chancellor-elect Randy Woodson, who will take office later this spring, Woodward and S. Lawrence Davenport, chair of the Board of Trustees, draped medals around the necks of Kenneth M. Bryant, Hou-Min Chang and H. Frank Grainger.
The Watauga Medal, first awarded in 1975, is given to a select group of men and women who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the University.
Chang, professor emeritus in the College of Natural Resources, where he began teaching in 1970, spoke of how welcome and honored he felt in the presence of former co-workers.
“To this moment, I have a hard time believing I’m being awarded this medal,” Chang said. “When I look at the past participants, it’s incredible. N.C. State may not be where my root began, but this is where my heart is.”
