STUDENT NEWS
The Man and Woman of the Year award is the top honor a Sul Ross senior can receive.
Addie Bencomo
Monte Piper III
Bencomo, the daughter of Jimmy and Kathryn Bencomo, will graduate (in three years) cum laude in August with a B.A. degree in English and a 3.52 grade point average. She has received the President’s Endowed Scholarship from 2007 to the present and the Fort Davis Lions Club Scholarship. She has been named to the Dean’s List for five straight semesters. Bencomo graduated from Fort Davis High School in 2007. She plans to attend Bible college to become a youth minister. She will also be married in January. She intends to attend graduate school at a later date to earn a Master’s degree in English and pursue a dual career in teaching and the ministry. “I am incredibly honored to receive this award,” she said. “I love Sul Ross very much and believe that this school has been one of the best choices I have made. Having the honor to represent this school with this award is unbelievably amazing.” Bencomo received this year’s Outstanding Senior English Major Award and was the recipient of the WOW! (We’re On Our Way) Outstanding English Freshman student award in 2008. She was the 2009 Homecoming Queen runnerup, is active in the Sul Ross Theatre of the Big Bend, and was named best actress in a supporting role in 2008. She is also active in community theatre in Fort Davis and Missoula, Mont.; the Sul Ross Baptist Student Ministries and Wesley Foundation; and volunteers in a variety of community activities, including the Relay for Life, Fort Davis National Historic Site, Fort Davis Living History Re-enactor, Grand Companions Humane Society, and the Girl Scouts.
Piper, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Monte Piper Jr., graduated summa cum laude in May with a B.A. degree in History and a 3.97 grade point average. He plans to attend Officer Candidate School in the U.S. Army. He received the President’s Endowed Scholarship from 2006 to the present, the Alpha Chi Scholarship as the highest ranking junior and the 2009 History Excellence Scholarship. He has been named to the Dean’s List for seven consecutive semesters. Piper graduated from L.V. Hightower High School in Missouri City in 2006, and since coming to Sul Ross, has been active in numerous activities. He is a member and vice president of Alpha Chi, the national honor society; Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society; and Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, as well as the Sul Ross Honors Program. He was elected to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, served as a senator and president of the Student Government Association, student representative to the Athletic Committee, and the QEP Committee and received the Clifford B. Casey Book Award (2009) and the Outstanding History Major Award this year. Piper also played baseball for four years, has been named to the American Southwest Conference Academic AllConference team twice, and has been an ASC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete the past two years. Piper thanked Sul Ross faculty members for their assistance on his educational journey and singled out Dr. Barney Nelson “for being an outstanding professor.”
Lobo Legacy
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