2010 Outstanding Senior

Posted: May 18, 2011

Hannah Marie Atkins, Animal Science

Hannah Atkins of Lewistown, Pa., received the outstanding senior Award at the college's commencement ceremony in Eisenhower Auditorium on the University Park campus.

This award, sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences Alumni Society and the Coaly Society, honors the senior who best balances outstanding academics, extracurricular activities, work experience and communication skills. Candidates are selected based on resumes, grades, interviews and a short essay.

Atkins earned the association's Albin S. Johnson Memorial Scholarship. With plans to become an avian veterinarian, the junior from Lewistown has raised and shown poultry through 4-H and worked in Mifflin County as a volunteer poultry technician.

Atkins has worked in the Penn State Animal Diagnostic Laboratory and as a poultry research assistant in avian virologist Huaguang Lu's laboratory. She will spend the 2008-09 school year residing at the Penn State Poultry Education and Research Center, assisting the manager in caring for the center's experimental flocks.

After serving as treasurer and Webmaster for the Penn State Poultry Science Club from 2007 to 2008, Atkins was elected president of the club for 2008-09, while also holding the positions of vice president and Webmaster of the University's Earth House. She served as the Keystone State's 2007 Poultry Ambassador, acting as an official spokesperson for Pennsylvania's poultry industry.

Atkins was inducted into Penn State's Coaly Society in 2007. A talented painter, she currently works as an assistant graphic designer for the College of Agricultural Sciences, holds a gold belt in martial arts and raises exhibition poultry and pygmy goats.