Virginia Tech inducted six new doctoral graduates and four Ph.D. candidates into its chapter of the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society on June 1.
The national honor society, named for Edward A. Bouchet—the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1876—was founded in 2005 by Yale and Howard universities and aims to foster academic excellence, leadership, character, service, and advocacy among scholars. Virginia Tech is one of 19 university partners with chapters across the country.
This year’s inductees include Vinicius A. Cruz (Ph.D., animal sciences), Aran Garnett-Deakin (Ph.D., human development and family science), Dini Hajarrahmah (Ph.D., hospitality and tourism management), Mohammad H. Heydari (Ph.D. candidate, environmental design and planning), Blakely Lockhart (Ph.D. candidate, translational biology, medicine, and health), Olivia Ryan (Ph.D., engineering education), Erica S. Shafer (Ph.D. candidate, psychology), Jessica R. Spence (Ph.D. candidate, agricultural leadership and community education), Rebecca Steele (Ph.D., higher education program), and Josh Thompson (Ph.D., curriculum and instruction). The group represents a range of disciplines from agriculture to engineering to liberal arts.
The society holds an annual conference at Yale University for inductees each year as part of its mission to create supportive networks for underrepresented scholars in academia.
Several inductees have contributed to their fields through research focused on topics such as regenerative tourism systems; technological transformation in construction supply chains; neurodevelopmental trajectories influenced by nutrition; rural trans and queer adolescent literacies; experiences of neurodivergent medical school applicants; cognitive neuroscience; agricultural communications capacity building in Sub-Saharan Africa; mathematics-related curriculum structures in engineering education; service within graduate student organizations; international educational programs; social entrepreneurship initiatives abroad; and science communication outreach efforts such as Hokie Bug Fest or the 4-H Mobile Learning Labs.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences contributes to community development by nurturing future leaders through innovations in agriculture, food, and health initiatives on both local and global scales while maintaining more than 350 scientists along with extensive extension offices across Virginia, according to the official website.
