FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

May 17, 2003

Shirley Melikian Armbruster or Tom Uribes

(559) 269-5261  (559) 250-8459                  

President’s Medal Awarded to Sabina Robinson at Commencement Ceremony Today (May 17)

18 Dean’s Medalists Named

Sabina Robinson, a graduate of Madera High School who finished a bachelor’s degree in Classical Studies in 3½ years, was awarded the Class of 2003 President’s Medal today (May 17) at the 92nd Commencement ceremonies for California State University, Fresno. 

Robinson is fluent in German, English, French and Danish, and is a top student in Latin and Greek at Fresno State.

Robinson, who represents the College of Arts and Humanities as the Dean’s Medalist, traveled to Fresno for Commencement from Denmark, where she spent the spring semester studying Classics – in Danish – at the University of Copenhagen.

Fresno State President John D. Welty presented her with the award as nearly 20,000 people in Bulldog Stadium watched. The President’s Medal winner is selected from the nine undergraduate Dean’s Medalists who represent the academic colleges and schools and the Division of Student Affairs.

Last night, Mary Silva of Fresno, the Graduate Dean’s Medalist from the College of Arts and Humanities, was awarded the University Graduate Medal during the Graduate Degree Hooding Ceremony for master’s and doctoral degree candidates. She was chosen from the nine Dean’s Graduate Medal winners.

The President’s Medal and the University Graduate Medal are the highest honors given by the university to a graduating student.  The medals are awarded on the basis of academic achievement, service to the school and contributions to the community.

Welty commended Robinson for her hard work and achievements.

“Sabina has overcome incredible obstacles as she completed her academic work,” said Welty. “She is a wonderful example of how higher education can transform the life of people.”

Robinson was raised by her grandparents in Germany and came to the United States midway through her high school years. She quickly mastered English and on the basis of superb high school grades and test scores was among 50 students selected for the first entering class in Fresno State’s highly competitive Smittcamp Family Honors College in 1999.

Her selection as the recipient of the 2003 President’s Medal takes on even greater significance since this commencement includes the first graduating class of the Smittcamp Honors College. 

“The Smittcamp Family Honors College is transforming the academic experience at Fresno State,” said President Welty.  “Sabina is a wonderful example of the positive impact the honors college is having in our university community.”

She began her college career with a major in physics, but quickly designed her own special Classics major.

In nominating Robinson for the Dean’s Medal for the School of Arts and Humanities, Classical Studies program coordinator Victor Davis Hanson wrote: “By the general consensus of the Classics program faculty, she is probably the most gifted undergraduate student we have had in our 20-year history.”

Stephen Rodemeyer, director of the Smittcamp Honors College, calls Robinson one of the “stars” of the university. “She is the ‘Renaissance woman,’ coming from Madera and Germany and doing well in Fresno and Copenhagen,” he said.

In April 2001, Robinson was selected to participate in the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, a 16-month program that prepares students from underrepresented groups for doctoral study. Her research paper during the program, “The Immortalized Plague: Thucydides’ Account of the Athenian Pestilence,” was included in the McNair Research Symposium journal.

Classics professor Honora H. Chapman, who previously taught at Stanford University, said Robinson ranks with the brightest of her former students. She noted that it is a “rare achievement” for any American undergraduate to study Classics in Danish, as Robinson did this spring.

“Perhaps because of her African-American and German backgrounds, Sabina has an enriched vision that informs her reading of Classical literature and history and inspires her to cross cultural boundaries so bravely,” Chapman said.

This spring, Robinson was chosen for the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanities Studies, which she will use for her doctoral studies at Princeton starting in the fall. She was the only student from the 23-campus California State University system named a 2003 Mellon Fellow.

She has traveled widely in Europe and throughout Greece, where she visited archaeological and topographical sites. She worked during her school years on campus and in the community to pay for her trips.

During today’s Commencement ceremonies, President Welty conferred 3,286 bachelor’s degrees and 680 master’s degrees. Doctoral degrees in educational leadership, offered jointly by Fresno State and the University of California, Davis, were conferred on 14 students.

President Welty also conferred emeritus status on 28 retiring faculty members in recognition of their years of service to the university. 

During the ceremony, the honorary degree of doctor of humane letters was conferred on longtime Valley pistachio grower Lajpat Rai Munger of Delano, recognition for his contributions to both his native homeland and his adopted community in the United States.

Charles Arokiasamy, professor of Counseling and Special Education and coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling program, was presented the Excellence in Teaching Award by Interim Provost Jeri Echeverria.

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