Virtual Honors Convocation Celebrates Academic Accomplishments

“This semester has been an unprecedented change for everyone,” said Linh Phuong Pham ’20 from the College of Business. “However, as those who are here being honored today are highly achieved students, I believe Lehigh has prepared us with all the skillsets to effectively adapt to this abrupt change. As a senior, for the past four years, Lehigh has not only provided me with an integrated education that challenged me to step out of my comfort zone, but also provided me with an invaluable network of professors, classmates and alumni, and especially the friendships that I will forever treasure.

“Those who are returning to campus can keep leveraging the opportunities and building memories at Lehigh,” she continued. “For those who are graduating, the world is changing every day with technological developments or with unexpected and impactful events like what we’re going through right now. But with a Lehigh education, we are ready to go out there, adapt to the ever-changing world and impact the world in different ways.”

After graduation, Linh will use the President's Scholarship to earn her masters in accounting information analysis from Lehigh, and then will begin a full-time position at Ernst & Young’s New York office.

Ashleigh Crawford ’20, who was a member of the Lehigh cross country and track and field teams, spoke on behalf of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, discussing the perspective she developed through the unusual learning environment of the semester. While it was difficult to have the athletic season cut short and to miss on-campus experiences, she said, she learned many lessons as a result of the pandemic’s impact.

“Those who are returning have gained an appreciation for in-person classes and office hours where you can talk to professors and get lunch with your friends after… I know this won’t be the last of the lessons I receive from Lehigh,” Crawford said. “I’m not sure I’ll ever stop learning from this place. But I do know I’m extremely appreciative of all of its lessons: to have grown to find resilience in frustration, to identify the importance in what feels lost and to know the dedication to honor those values.”

Crawford will begin a doctoral program in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins University this fall.

Eric Wolf ’20, an Eckardt Scholar from the College of Arts and Sciences who will be pursuing a doctoral program in physics at M.I.T. next year, spoke about how the academic experience can be likened to running a race—and instead of running away from something or to meet the next milestone, the experience of the race itself is what’s important.

“I believe a person might choose to run because they like the feeling of the road under their feet and the sweat rolling down their face,” Wolf said. “And likewise, I believe a person might go through all the work required to get here not because they have to but because they want to—because it helps them grow and teaches them about the world around them and makes them feel like a bigger, more complete, person.”