Olivet honors Andrea Richardson with Crawford Award at 101st Commencement

2014 Jun 27

Andrea Richardson (double major in math education and information systems, Bloomington, Illinois) was honored during Olivet Nazarene University's 101st annual traditional undergraduate Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 10, 2014. She received the Maggie Sloan Crawford Award as the outstanding female graduate. She is the daughter of Mike and Kathy Richardson.

Graduating summa cum laude with Olivet's Class of 2014, Richardson was named to the dean's list each semester. Earlier this year, she was recognized by the Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges(R) program as one of Olivet's outstanding graduating seniors.

She is a member of Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honor society. While at Olivet, she was a teaching assistant in the mathematics and computer science departments.

A music minor, vocalist and pianist, she was a member of Orpheus Choir and Chrysalis women's choir. She also serves as an accompanist for the Department of Music. She was the two-time runner-up in Olivet's Nielson/Young piano competition.

Outside of the classroom, Richardson was a Sister-to-Sister mentor to incoming students. She also served on mission trips to Kenya; Swaziland; the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Washington, Illinois, in the aftermath of last spring's devastating tornadoes.

While an Olivet student, she completed two summer internships at State Farm's headquarters in Bloomington. As a technical analyst one summer, she enjoyed the manipulation of data, as well as the ways math and information systems worked together. As a data analyst the other summer, she worked on some of the company's top projects and learned the back-end structure of new smartphone apps that were in development.

"Andrea is a wonderful young lady, who has excelled academically and has been active both on campus and beyond," said Dr. Dale Hathaway, chair of Olivet's Department of Mathematics. "Her service to others has literally extended around the world."

Each year, the Maggie Sloan Crawford Award -- named after Olivet's first graduate -- is given to a female student who exemplifies the highest standard of excellence in character, scholarship achievement and contribution to extracurricular activities.