The award is named in honor of Alfred Nelson Ahnfeldt, North Park’s first college professor, and is given to the graduating senior with the highest overall grade point average.
In addition to participating in numerous school activities, Enquist was one of a group of students who bicycled cross-country last summer to bring awareness to social justice issues. Enquist recently completed a writing internship with the Department of Communication of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Enquist shared the honor with Matthew Kemp who, in addition to sharing the same first name and highest GPA (4.0), also was a double major in biblical and theological studies.
Classmate Riley Clark, a Spanish and business double major, was recognized for
winning a Fulbright Award from the Fulbright Garcia Robles Commission – click here for a previously published story. He is one of only 10 grantees nationwide who will have an opportunity to work at a bi-national company. He will begin studies and employment in Mexico this fall. Clark’s family attends Bethany Covenant Church in Bedford, New Hampshire.
Sarah Thontwa, the first undergraduate student from the Democratic Republic of Congo to attend North Park, was one of two students honored the week before commencement during the university’s annual Honors Convocation. Thontwa, a business and economics major, distinguished herself in many activities. She founded the African Student Organization as well as a nonprofit organization called Little Things, which provides funds to help educate marginalized women in Africa. Click here to read a previously published story.
Also receiving the honor was Marcus Simmons, one of Enquist’s companions on the cross-country bike trek.
During the undergraduate commencement proceedings on Saturday morning, an honorary doctorate of humane letters was presented to Phyllis Tickle for her numerous contributions in the field of Christian publishing. A former religion editor for Publishers Weekly, she is best known for writing Divine Hours, which has helped to spread the practice of fixed-hour prayer.
Tickle encouraged the graduating class with an abridged version of a historic prayer that dates back to the Reformation: “God be in your mind and in your thinking. God be in your heart and in your knowing.”
Nearly 400 undergraduate and graduate students received their degrees. Undergraduate ceremonies were held in the morning, and graduate ceremonies were held in the afternoon.
