KALAMAZOO — Jessica Pence of Dowagiac is among 46 students in Western Michigan University’s 6,653-member senior class to be named a 2012 Presidential Scholar.
The annual Presidential Scholar designation is the highest academic honor WMU can bestow on an undergraduate.
The award goes to the most outstanding seniors in each of WMU’s academic schools, departments and specialty programs. Only the highest caliber of students receive the award. They are selected on the basis of their general academic excellence, academic and artistic excellence in their major, and intellectual and artistic promise.
Pence is the Presidential Scholar in sociology and a graduate of Dowagiac Union High School.
A member of WMU’s Lee Honors College, she is majoring in criminal justice as well as in psychology-behavioral science and expects to graduate in this month.
Following graduation, Pence plans to pursue a career in animal law enforcement and animal training. She conducted an internship at Kalamazoo Animal Law Enforcement and Services, helping train dogs to obey certain commands and to acquire other basic skills that would improve their chances of being adopted.
At that shelter, she also served as a teaching assistant, helping current students perform tasks and evaluating dogs to establish whether it was safe to work with the animals.
Pence is a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta national honor society, Sigma Alpha Lambda national honor society and Psi Chi international psychology honor society.
This year’s scholars were recognized March 22 during the 32nd annual Presidential Scholars Convocation on campus in the Fetzer Center.