Academic Highlights for some Local College Students

Let’s take a look back at some local college students’ academic achievements from this past spring semester.

At Kettering University, in Flint, the Engineering Honor Society welcomed 10 new members, including Jack Krugh of Chelsea. Kettering recently announced the spring 2025 induction of 10 exceptional students into Tau Beta Pi, the nation’s oldest and most respected engineering honor society founded in 1885 and dedicated to recognizing “distinguished scholarship and exemplary character.”

Kettering said membership eligibility is rigorous: only students in the top 1/8 of the junior class or top 1/5 of the senior class who also demonstrate integrity, adaptability, broad interests, and unselfish service are invited.

At the University of Iowa, Giuliana Rokke-Smith of Dexter was named to the Dean’s list for the 2025 spring semester. Rokke-Smith was among the more than 8,000 undergraduate students at the university named to the dean’s list for the 2025 spring semester.

Guidelines for inclusion on the list are: Degree seeking undergraduate students in the Carver College of Medicine, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Public Health, the Tippie College of Business, and University College who achieved a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.50 or higher on 12 semester hours or more of UI graded coursework during a given semester or summer session and who have no semester hours of “I” (incomplete) or “O” (no grade reported) during the same semester are recognized by inclusion on the dean’s list for that semester.

At the University of Alabama, a total of 14,289 students enrolled during spring semester 2025 at the university were named to the dean’s list with an academic record of 3.5 (or above) or the president’s list with an academic record of 4.0 (all A’s).

Local student(s) include: Avery Goodrich of Dexter was named to the President’s List and Jack Marshall of Grass Lake was named to the Dean’s List.

At Miami University students who are ranked in the top twenty percent of undergraduate students within each division for the 2025 spring semester have been named to the Dean’s list recognizing academic excellence. Locally, Dominic Sortor and Sarah Tuzinowski, both of Dexter, made the lost.

Also at Miami, Katie Leissner of Chelsea was named to the university’s spring 2025 President’s list. Miami University students ranked in the top three percent of undergraduate students within each division for the spring 2025 semester have been named to the President’s list recognizing academic excellence.

At Ohio University, College of Business student Mallory Brandt of Dexter was named to the spring 2025 Dean’s List. The list recognizes undergraduate students who complete a particular semester with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.999 with a minimum of 12 credit hours attempted for letter grades that are used to calculate GPA. In spring semester 2025, approximately 6,700 Ohio University undergraduate students qualified for the Dean’s List.

In Saginaw, more than 1,800 students from Saginaw Valley State University earned a spot on the winter 2025 semester Deans’ List. To be eligible for the Deans’ List, a student must take at least 12 credit hours and carry a semester GPA of 3.4 or better. Locally, Jacob Sisler of Chelsea and Clare McCormick of Dexter made it.

And finally, a few local students completed their degrees at Trine University students at the end of the spring 2025 term.

The following area students completed degrees: Jindong Wei of Dexter, majoring in Master of Science in Engineering Management; Shay Ohtonen of Dexter, majoring in Finance and Zachary Norris of Dexter, majoring in Mechanical Engineering.