Shruti Shankar ‘21
Each year, Denison chooses a select few to receive recognition as a President’s Medalist, Denison’s highest student honor. The preeminent criterion for receipt of a President’s Medal, established in 1985, is academic achievement. In addition, candidates must embody some combination of the following: service to the community, contribution to the arts, enlargement of the community’s global perspective, athletic fitness and achievement, leadership ability and contribution to community discourse.
Shruti Shankar, studio art major with a minor in art history and visual culture, was selected as a 2021 President’s Medalist. Her citation reads:
Shruti, while your nominators note how you are an A+ scholar, they highlight how when everyone else is in a state of panic, you know how to be a calm, centered presence. Their praise is for how you are there for everyone else in the classroom and at evaluation time, helping others set up and being present for people when the hard parts need to be unpacked. You have exemplified the Denison commitment to “working and communicating across differences” in so many interactions, both on and around as well as off-campus. Artistic excellence along with humane understanding have made you a valued part of the Studio Arts and Creative Connection community, which are already missing you. During the period of remote learning which challenged us all, you found ways to use the necessities of online communication to include communities in India who might be overlooked there, in person, but whose struggles as migrants you engaged with and supported from here in Ohio. Not only our campus, but our world is better for your having been a student at Denison, and why we present you with the President’s Medalist award.
