Hope Wentzel of Alexandria, Virginia, received Virginia Tech’s 2015 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Senior Award.

Sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association and the senior class, the Outstanding Senior Award recognizes exceptional academic achievement and leadership by a graduating senior from each of the university’s eight colleges. Recipients have a minimum grade point average of 3.75 on a 4.0 scale and are selected by faculty and students within the respective colleges.

Wentzel will receive a bachelor’s degree in animal and poultry sciences with a minor in forestry during the University Commencement ceremony May 15 in Lane Stadium.

A dean’s list student, she is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Sigma, and Phi Beta Delta honor societies. A Pamplin Scholar, Wentzel received numerous scholarships including the C. Gordon Thornhill Animal and Poultry Sciences Merit Scholarship, the John Lee Pratt Study Abroad Scholarship, and a Phi Beta Delta Scholarship for study abroad.

She completed four agriculture-oriented trips abroad in Nicaragua, Nepal, Brazil, and Chile and plans to return to Chile after graduation.

She serves as a college ambassador, is the current president of Block and Bridle, and is on the Student Advisory Committee for the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors’ undergraduate representative.

She is president and founder of Ag for ECHO, a service organization providing agriculture and health education activities for an adult day services group through New River Valley Community Services.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

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