Last week, Chancellor Cheek visited the senior Haslam Scholars seminar to inform Daniel Aycock, Blair Kuykendall, and Akshitha Yarrabothula that they have been selected for the prestigious Torchbearer award.

The Torchbearer is the highest honor the university awards to its students. Since 2007, between 5 and 8 students have received the Torchbearer, awarded for students who “have served their Alma Mater with excellence” and have improved the intellectual culture of the university.Last year, the first graduating class of Haslam Scholars also contained three Torchbearers. Read more about the Torchbearer and its recipients at the Chancellor’s Honors website.

Daniel, Blair, and Akshitha have each been vitally involved in improving the university in a variety of ways.

Daniel has served as president of the Honors council, vice president of the Honors Ambassadors program, and a Student Alumni Associate, all while learning Mandarin Chinese and excelling in his major of accounting. He has also studied abroad in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an in the People’s Republic of China and has interned at Pilot Flying J in Knoxville, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP in Atlanta, and will intern with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Atlanta after graduation.

As Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Beacon, Blair has transformed the campus newspaper into a relevant, controversial must-read for campus news and university reform. Majoring in economics and international business law, she is also active in several campus organizations and has studied abroad at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the London School of Economics. She plans to attend law school at either Georgetown or Cornell in the fall.

Akshitha has excelled at research in her field of Chemical and Bimolecular engineering, conducting graduate-level research in advanced bioengineering with direct impact on sustainable energy and worldwide health. She also has served as a Resident Assistant and founded the university’s Nourish International chapter, partnering with the University of Georgia to bring aid to the poor in rural Peru.

Join us in congratulating our 2013 Torchbearers!