Bates Prize and Mary Ward Lewis Prize awarded at Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation
Stephani Xiomara Portillo Ordoñez, a Self-Designed French Studies major and Political Science major specializing in International Studies, received The Mary Ward Lewis Prize, while Psychology major Dylan Elroy Hughes was awarded The Bates Prize. Both represent outstanding members of the graduating class.
The Bates Prize and the Mary Ward Lewis Prize were awarded on May 19 during McDaniel College’s Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation for the Class of 2023. Dean of Students Liz Towle presented both awards.
The Mary Ward Lewis Prize
The Mary Ward Lewis Prize recipient is Stephani Xiomara Portillo Ordoñez of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Portillo graduates magna cum laude with departmental honors for her Self-Designed French Studies major. She also majored in Political Science with a specialization in International Studies and completed a minor in European Studies. She also received The Frank and Margaret Malone Award for Excellence in a Foreign Language.
She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa national honor society and Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society. A Global Fellow, she studied abroad for a Jan Term in Ireland and Northern Ireland. She is a National Security Fellow and participated in McDaniel’s Model European Union and Model United Nations. At the second annual Academic Symposium, she presented on her original English translation of an excerpt from “La Mer et La Fille” by Pierre Thibaud.
She was highly involved in the campus community, joining the League of United Latin American Citizens, Palabras to Words, Hispano-Latinx Alliance, French Circle, CHAARG, InterVarsity, Student Alumni Council, and the college yearbook.
Portillo was a student worker in various campus offices during her time on the Hill, including the Admissions Office, Center for Experience and Opportunity, and Institutional Advancement.
A member of McDaniel’s Pre-Law Society, she interned with an immigration law firm in Gaithersburg, Maryland. After graduation, she will be working full-time for that same firm as a paralegal and plans to attend law school.
The Bates Prize
The Bates Prize is awarded to Dylan Elroy Hughes of Bowie, Maryland, who is graduating magna cum laude with a major in Psychology and a minor in Chemistry.
A pre-medical student, Hughes engaged in research and practiced hands-on skills in medicine. He participated in the Health Equity Summer Scholar Program with Nemours DuPont Pediatric Hospital. He was also one of 10 students chosen from a pool of over 300 for the Academy for Research, Clinical, and Health Equity Scholarship (ARCHES) Program with Georgetown University Medical School. At the second annual Academic Symposium, he presented on his experience in ARCHES and participated in a student panel on preparing for a career in health.
He also assisted doctors at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center during a Jan Term experience. He is the health and safety officer of the McDaniel chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and a member of Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society.
In his role as a Writing Center peer tutor, he regularly supported fellow students on the Hill, and he is graduating with a certification from the Association for the Coaching and Tutoring Profession.
Hughes founded the Chess Club to bring together students with a shared interest in chess. He is also an active member of the NAACP and volunteers as a middle-school math tutor at the Lee Arthur Johnson Center.
After graduation, Hughes plans to work as an emergency medical technician before attending medical school.
