College of Natural Resources and Environment announces Outstanding Graduating Senior award recipient
Holly Kays
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 11, 2011 – Virginia Tech has named Holly Kays of Fairplay, Md., as the Outstanding Graduating Senior in the College of Natural Resources and Environment for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Kays is expected to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science Degree in natural resources recreation from the College of Natural Resources and Environment and with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
Throughout her college career, Kays was involved as a writer for the College of Natural Resources and Environment Quarterly News Magazine and for the Virginia Tech Research magazine. Along with her writing, this outstanding senior has experience in community service.
Since 2008, Kays has been working with Common Ground Trailer Park Ministries where she participated in an ongoing community ministry and developed relationships with children through after-school activities. In 2010, Kays was a team leader in The Big Event, and as an alternative to a tropical spring break she helped organize and teach Bible School for more than 50 children for the Inner City Ministry in Mobile, Ala.
To add to her well roundedness, Kays has been a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honors society since 2009 and received the honor of AP Scholar with Distinction in 2007.
Kays is the daughter of Jonathan and Karen Kays of Fairplay, Md.
The Outstanding Senior Awards are presented at the Student Honors Day Banquet each spring. These awards are co-sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association and the senior class.
The purpose of the award is to recognize outstanding student performance in each college of the university. Students are selected on the basis of their grade point average (3.4 or higher on a 4.0 scale) and outstanding performance in several or all of the following areas: academic achievement, extracurricular activities, leadership positions, and contributions of service to the university and/or community.
The College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech consistently ranks among the top three programs of its kind in the nation. Faculty members stress both the technical and human elements of natural resources and the environment, and instill in students a sense of stewardship, land-use ethics, and large-scale systems problem solving. Areas of study include environmental resource management, fisheries and wildlife sciences, forestry, geospatial and environmental analysis, natural resource recreation, urban forestry, wood science and forest products, geography, and international development. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
Written by Tim Sweet. Sweet of Newtown, Pa., is a junior majoring in communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
- Virginia Tech News
- 540-231-5396
- vtnews@vt.edu
- Lynn Davis
- Comm Director, College of Natural Resources and Environment
- 540-231-6157
- davisl@vt.edu
