Denison University’s Academic Award Convocation is a crowning event of the academic year. Each April, the campus, including members of the Denison Board of Trustees, gathers to celebrate students and faculty and to highlight excellence in their work.

Faculty are recognized via Endowed Faculty Chairs, which are emblematic of the value Denison places on exceptional teaching, scholarship, and community service; the Charles and Nancy Brickman Distinguished Leadership Chair, which is given to a member of the faculty who models accomplished teaching, concern for students, and exemplary service to the community; the Charles A. Brickman Teaching Excellence Award, which is given to members of the faculty who are master craftsmen in the profession and models of dedication to students and to student learning; and the Bonar Family Mentoring and Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes exemplary in mentoring and teaching by a Denison faculty member.

Student inductees into Denison’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most established honorary society, are recognized. Denison has been a member of Phi Beta Kappa for more than 100 years, since 1910.

Denison students who have been awarded major prestigious national and international academic awards and scholarships also are announced. These scholarships, including Fulbright, Gilman, Rhodes and Cambridge, provide opportunities for Denison students and graduates to work and study abroad.

Finally, a few very accomplished students are chosen as President’s Medalists. Each year, four to eight students are selected for the honor, which was established in 1985 to for academically exceptional students who also 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, and/or leadership ability and contribution to community discourse.