Local Classics Senior Wins National Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship

Anne Isabel McEnroe of Lawrence became eligible for the national fellowship when she received the $1,000 Blackiston Memorial Graduate Fellowship offered by the KU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.

McEnroe, a Lawrence senior majoring in classical languages and English, has won a national Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship providing $5,000 for graduate study. Anne is one of 60 students nationwide selected for a Phi Kappa Phi fellowship. She received the Alfred M. Wolfe Fellowship offered by Phi Kappa Phi honor society to a top-ranking nominee majoring in agriculture, classical Latin/ancient Greek, or English.

McEnroe plans to pursue a master’s degree in classics at the University of Bristol. McEnroe’s goals include teaching and helping classics students recognize links to recent history and contemporary life. As an undergraduate, McEnroe researched the influence of Virgil’s poetry on the writing of St. Augustine from his conversion to Christianity through old age. Her proposal received a J. Michael Young Award for one of the top research proposals in the humanities.

Last fall, McEnroe advanced to the regional level in the national competition for a Rhodes Scholarship. She is a National Merit Scholar, a KU Honors Program student and also a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society. At KU, she volunteers for Audio-Reader Network, a radio service for blind and print-disabled individuals and has volunteered as a Latin tutor. McEnroe was secretary for Sellards Scholarship Hall and vice president of the KU Classics Club.

She will be honored at the local chapter’s annual spring induction ceremony May 10 and is graduating this spring.

April 30, 2007