English student wins University's highest honor, Mace Award

Allison Speicher, ’08, an English major from Queens, N.Y., was named the winner of the University of Richmond’s Mace Award, the University’s highest honor.

The award was established in 1947 with a gift in honor of Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman. Freeman, a noted historian, served as the University rector and a member of the Board of Trustees. The award was intended to honor one outstanding graduate per year for 100 years; each year, the honoree’s name is engraved on the University mace. Speicher’s name will join 59 names preceding hers, marking the 60th anniversary of the tradition.

Speicher, who graduated first in her class with a GPA of 4.0, also won the Margaret L. Ross Award, given to the outstanding senior Westhampton College English major. Her professors lauded her writing. As a first-year student, she won the University’s Core Essay Contest and as a senior, she wrote a first prize-winning essay for the University’s International Writing Contest, in addition to writing a senior honors thesis.

In addition to distinguishing herself at the University of Richmond, Speicher also completed a minor in education, which included working as a student teacher at Henrico County’s Highland Springs High School.

This fall, Speicher will begin a Ph.D. program in English at the University of Indiana, which awarded her the English department’s most prestigious first-year fellowship.

Posted May 20, 2008