Friday, May 8, 2015
Westminster Choir College senior honored at Spring Convocation.
The 2015 President’s Award was presented to Westminster Choir College senior Katianne Janney at the 2015 Spring Convocation.
The President’s Award is presented to a graduating senior who has demonstrated an exemplary record of academic achievement, extra-curricular activity and service to the College. The highly competitive selection process is led by the dean of students and supported by faculty and staff.
“Katianne has achieved an extraordinary academic record with a double major in Music Education and Piano Performance/Pedagogy. Among her impressive achievements are a 3.989 GPA and a seven-time membership on the Dean’s List,” said Rider University President Mordechai Rozanski in announcing the award.
An Andrew J. Rider scholar, Janney has been named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges and has received numerous awards, including the Music Education Award, the Stephanie Polak Unsung Hero Residential Award and the Musicianship Award. She is president of the Collegiate National Association for Music Education, and during her presidency, the chapter doubled its membership. She is also the alto section leader of the Westminster Symphonic Choir and plays the erhu for the Chinese Music Ensemble.
She has been a Resident Advisor since 2012 and worked as a piano accompanist, bookstore assistant, Admissions ambassador, tutor, phone-a-thon worker and mailroom assistant at various times throughout the last four years.
Janney also volunteers her time serving the community. This past winter, she participated in a week-long service trip to Costa Rica where she helped frame out and paint a medical clinic waiting room and taught English to preschoolers. She also served as the bake-a-thon coordinator for the Cookies for Kids Cancer organization.
This semester, she has been student teaching at a school in Princeton, where she has helped students who lack a family support structure and basic necessities. Reflecting on the lives of her students, she has said, “I have a passion to teach music to children, not just so that they learn the rudiments of music theory or history, or mere facts, but so that together, we can overcome the poverty of the human spirit by making the artistic dreams of children come true. My Westminster Choir College education has given me, and will continue to give me, the tools and experience that will help my dreams become a reality one day."
When she graduates in May, Katianne plans to teach music in a public school setting.
“I have every confidence that given her exemplary record of academic achievement, extra-curricular activities and service to the College, she will realize all her aspirations,” President Rozanski concluded.