IUP's Sutton Chapter of Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society received a Gold Torch Award for overall excellence and a Project Excellence Award from the national organization at its July conference.
The IUP chapter president, Lindsey DePra, of Centerville, was elected to serve a two-year term as a national board student representative.
The Gold Torch Award is presented to fewer than thirty-five colleges and universities in the two-hundred-member national organization. Awards are given on the basis of a chapter's commitment to scholarship, leadership, and service.
The Project Excellence Award was given in recognition of the IUP chapter's contribution to the national Leading is Reading project. IUP's Sutton Chapter raised more than $3,100 for the Indiana County Head Start literacy program in partnership with the Indiana Starbucks.
DePra is a 2004 graduate of Middleborough High School. She is an art education and deaf education major with certification in elementary education. She is a dean's list student, a member of Kappa Delta Pi education honor society, a member of the SignIn American Sign Language Club, Intercollegiate American Sign Language Network Club, and Future Educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students. She was also a recipient of a Provost's Emerging Leader Scholarship.
Darla Barie, of Pittsburgh, the Sutton Chapter president in academic year 2008–2009, served as one of eight conference assistants and was awarded a graduate school fellowship from Mortar Board.
Barie, daughter of Dolly Barie, is a graduate of Cactus High School, Glendale, Ariz. She graduated in May 2009 from IUP with a degree in general studies with emphasis on support services for deaf survivors of domestic violence and is now a graduate student at IUP.
She is a 2007 graduate of the Community College of Allegheny County. While at CCAC, she was selected for the All-USA Academic Team 2007 for community college students and received the 2007 CCAC Super Star Award, the 2006–2007 Coca-Cola Scholars Award, and the 2005–2006 Outstanding Student Journalism Award.
At CCAC, she was president of Phi Theta Kappa's Alpha Lambda Nu chapter, the international honor society for two-year colleges. She was a writer and photographer for the North Campus Voice, the CCAC student newspaper, for three semesters.
In 2007, Barie raised more than $1,200 through Phi Theta Kappa for the Virginia Tech Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund with a ribbon sale.
She is the 2007–2008 recipient of the IUP President's Outstanding Transfer Scholar Award.
Mortar Board initiates college juniors each year who demonstrate excellence in scholarship, student leadership, and community service at their institutions. Participants continue as active Mortar Board members during their senior year. IUP's chapter, chartered in 1997, has fifty active members. Mortar Board members are engaged in many community service projects throughout the year.
Since its founding, Mortar Board at IUP has initiated five hundred undergraduate, alumni, and honorary members. In addition to the 2009 Gold Torch Award and Project Excellence Award and its 2008 and 2000 Silver Torch awards, IUP's chapter won the 1998 Outstanding Programming Award for work with Indiana's Center for Family Life and the 1999 Chapter of Excellence Award from the national organization.