Rollins College's outstanding grads

Rollins Evening Program (Hamilton Holt School) Commencement ceremony will be held Saturday, May 12, at 10 a.m. in the Harold & Ted Alfond Sports Center. Bachelor’s or master’s degrees will be awarded to 281 graduates.

Rollins College will honor more than 307 graduates during the College of Arts & Sciences and College of Professional Studies Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 13, at 10 a.m. in the Warden Arena at the Harold & Ted Alfond Sports Center.

Rollins Evening Program (Hamilton Holt School) and College of Arts & Sciences and College of Professional Studies commencement ceremonies on May 12 and May 13 will honor nearly 600 students. Notable graduates include:

Women’s Golf standout Fabia Rothenfluh spent last summer in South Africa as part of an elite group of budding social entrepreneurs with the ThinkImpact organization, helping community members there create a bakery. She recently received the John R. Commons Award, recognizing seniors demonstrating excellence in Economics research, as well as the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Communication. She is planning on attending the master’s program at the London School of Economics.

Outstanding graduating senior Traci Campana was diagnosed with multiple disabilities as a child (including cerebral palsy, mild autism and multiple sclerosis). Her parents were told that she would never be able to attend mainstream classes or to graduate with a standard high school diploma because of her disabilities. However, with hard work and her family’s support, Traci not only attended mainstream classes but also graduated at the top of her class with a standard diploma. Despite a condition that sometimes has confined her to a wheelchair, Traci has been active as a community volunteer, participating in pet therapy in hospitals and training canine companions to assist children and adults with disabilities. A psychology major, Traci graduates from Rollins with a 4.0 GPA. She plans to pursue a master’s degree and hopes to work for the federal government as an epidemiologist.

Rollins’ oldest graduating student, Margie Pollock, is graduating from the MLS program at the age of 73.

Patty Hughes was told by a friend that going to college was not going to happen. It took her from 1974 to 1993 to finish her AA degree. Fourteen years later, after working to support her family and having raised her children, she went back to complete the second part of her dream – her BA degree. She finished her final semester with an internship at Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Patty graduates at the age of 62.

Aislynn Betancourt is one of five current Rollins students awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. Betancourt — a religious studies major and Jewish studies minor — plans to use her time in Malaysia to learn more about the country’s religious practices, focusing primarily on its three major religious groups — Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. She also recently received the Harriett Lake Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in Jewish Studies. Upon completion of the Fulbright program, Betancourt plans to pursue dual degrees in law and religious studies.

Ian Wallace, an international relations major and Asian students minor, was recently awarded the John Hersey Award for superior work in Asian Studies. The Cornell Scholar received a Fulbright to Nepal and hopes to learn some of the language, Nepali, and to build upon the work he participated in while visiting Nepal as part of a field study trip in 2010. Wallace recently interviewed with Teach for America, which he hopes to work for upon completing the Fulbright program.

Another Cornell Scholar, Physics major Aditya Mahara, has participated in several Student-Faculty Collaborative Scholarship projects during his time at Rollins, and was recently awarded for his Outstanding Academic Achievement in Physics. He will continue his studies at Dartmouth College. Mahara founded the Making Lives Better chapter at Rollins (which provides sources of clean drinking water to Nepal) and will spearhead the organization’s third trip to Nepal this summer.