The prestigious award is considered the world’s largest history prize, and winners receive $300,000 each to support their future endeavors. This year, Degroot is one of nine recipients of the award who are all in early and mid-stages of their careers.

In announcing the winners, the selection committee praised Degroot for his “innovative and timely research on climate history, that provides a novel emphasis on societal adaptation and survival under extreme conditions and successfully integrates insights from the humanities and the sciences, as well as by his commitment to conveying this work to the broader public.”

Degroot describes himself as an environmental historian who cares as much about the future as the past. His expertise includes climate change, space exploration and existential risk, and his research bridges the sciences and humanities to write histories that guide responses to today’s urgent challenges.

“The ������̳ of Arts & Sciences couldn’t be prouder of this recognition of Professor Dagomar Degroot’s scholarship,” said , the dean of the ������̳. “Professor Degroot’s work reflects the very best of the ������̳: cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research that speaks to real world challenges. By doing so, Professor Degroot inspires our entire community — students, faculty and staff.”

Unconventional Decisions

Degroot called the prize a “wonderful award to win” because it validates two unconventional decisions he’s taken in his work and made as part of the environmental history community at Georgetown.

First, he said, is that he’s decided to work closely with scientists and scientific data and methods. “It’s allowed me to ask questions about the past that haven’t been asked — or answered — before,” Degroot said. “To that end, I’ve learned from my colleagues , and , who are just as interdisciplinary as I am. Together, we’ve created a unique and, I think, world-leading concentration of historians who do science.”

Second, Degroot said, is that he’s chosen to publish his work in scientific journals, policy papers, newspapers, magazines, websites and podcasts in addition to history books and journals. Degroot created a multimedia project on the history and future of climate change that uses audio, video, text, maps and infographics and is available free online. 

“The prize goes a long way towards affirming my sometimes unconventional publishing strategies,” he said.

Degroot’s approach can be expensive, and so he plans to use the prize money to fund his projects. Creating high-quality audio files or videos for his website stories and podcasts episodes can be costly, he said, as well as publishing articles in open source journals. 

“This prize couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said.

Bridging History and Science

This year, Degroot is focusing on three new projects.

An author of two books, he is working on his third non-fiction book, Breach: Microbes, Moon Landings, and the Hidden Biosecurity Crisis of the Space Age.

The book, Degroot said, reimagines the first three decades of the Space Age as an early encounter with existential risk — a risk that threatens humanity as a whole. Breach follows efforts in the United States and the Soviet Union to prevent the contamination of other worlds with microbes from Earth, and of the Earth with microbes from the moon.

Degroot argues in the book that these efforts would have failed to protect Earth, had lunar microbes existed, and might have failed to protect the potential biospheres of Mars and Venus. He uses these failures to propose a set of policies that might help minimize existential risks today. That includes the risks associated with the rapid development of AI systems, Degroot said. 

He also plans on completing “The Climate Chronicles.” So far, Degroot has published 16 episodes, each with about 5,000 words of text that introduce audiences to the history of climate change, ranging from about 50 millions years ago to the emergence of the first complex societies that took place about 4,500 years ago. Degroot’s goal is to publish 42 episodes in total.

For another project, Degroot is working with McNeill, a professor in the School of Foreign Service and the Department of History, and Geoffrey Wallace, a cartographer, to create a global atlas of environmental history. The guide, Degroot said, will introduce about 75 environmental changes that have had profound influence on human history.

“I like to write big histories that trace global changes across thousands and even millions of years,” he said. “But I’m also passionate about microhistories that tell sweeping stories through the experiences of individuals in a very particular time and place.”

Three professors received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award: , and ; and two staff members received the Distinguished Staff Award: (G’11) and (M’89). 

received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award, received the Stevens Faculty Excellence Award and received the Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award. (G’91, G’95) received the Condé Nast Award.

“It’s important to recognize the great work that goes on in the ������̳ of Arts & Sciences in all areas,” said Dean . “We recognize the faculty for their teaching, research and service to this institution, for which we are all so grateful — especially the students, both undergrad and grad. We also recognize our staff. All of us who have been around Georgetown, around higher education institutions, know that it’s staff who are the glue in our institution and hold so much together and allow us to do the great work that we do on behalf of our students.”

Get to know the award recipients, their work at Georgetown and what makes them a proud member of the ������̳.

Kostadin Kushlev, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Kushlev, an associate professor in and director of the , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. 

His research examines how digital technologies — especially smartphones and social media — impact well-being, fragment attention and promote or undermine social connection. His work aims to identify ways technology can be designed to support happier and healthier lives.

Arik Levinson, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Levinson, at Georgetown University and a research associate at the , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award.  

He is currently of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate and Energy Economics at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. 

Levinson’s recent projects calculate the degree to which industrialized countries have been offshoring their most polluting economic activities, and evaluate the way some industries and the U.S. government have proposed to calculate carbon emissions caused by grid-connected electricity use.

Josiah Osgood, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Osgood, a professor in , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. 

Osgood has taught at Georgetown since 2002 and served as chair of the Classics department from 2016 to 2022.  He regularly offers classes in Roman history and in Latin language and literature. For many years, he co-directed study abroad programs in which students visited archaeological sites in Greece, Turkey and Italy. 

Osgood’s research focuses on politics in ancient Rome and he has written about civil war, Roman women and Roman historical writing, among other topics. He is currently working on research about senators and their families in imperial Rome.

Colva Weissenstein (G’11), Distinguished Staff Award

Weissenstein, the program manager for , received the Distinguished Staff Award. 

This award is given to staff who have a record of extraordinary service within a department or program, and who have demonstrated selflessness as people for others, cura personalis, commitment to community in diversity and creative leadership and service in support of academic excellence.

Weissenstein holds a B.A. in English from George Mason University and an M.A. in from Georgetown. With expertise in film and media studies — particularly horror cinema and advertising — as well as university administration, Weissenstein brings both intellectual curiosity and organizational care to her work.

Weissenstein is especially proud of cultivating a vibrant, supportive community among American Studies students and faculty, where collaboration and connection are central. Through sustaining beloved program traditions, including pedagogical field trips, she has helped foster a culture defined by curiosity, creativity and playfulness. Committed to joy as a meaningful part of academic life, she works to ensure that the program remains not only rigorous, but also welcoming, dynamic and deeply human.

Dr. Mary Beth Connell (M’89), Distinguished ������̳ Service Award 

Connell, an associate dean and the director of , received the Distinguished ������̳ Service Award.

This award is given to staff who have a record of extraordinary service within the ������̳, and who have demonstrated selflessness as people for others, cura personalis, commitment to community in diversity and creative leadership and service in support of academic excellence.

In her roles at Georgetown, Connell oversees the advising of pre-health students, chairs the Pre-Health Recommendation Committee and directs the , which is for students who have completed their undergraduate education in a non-science area and wish to change careers.  

Connell received her M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1989. She also completed a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation and practiced at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. She has served Georgetown University since 1993, initially through �ұ�ǰ�����ٴǷɲ�’s , then on the Board of Governors, Directors and Regents. Her favorite role is guiding students on their journey to a health professions career.

Abigail Marsh, Farr Faculty Excellence Award

Marsh, a professor in the and and the co-director of the , received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award (Natural, Quantitative and Interdisciplinary Science).

This award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovative dissemination of scientific knowledge. 

Marsh received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and conducted post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Her research uses functional and structural brain imaging as well as behavioral, cognitive and pharmacological approaches and the study of special populations to answer the questions: How do we understand what others think and feel? What drives us to help other people? What prevents us from harming them? 

She is the author of 100-plus peer-reviewed publications and an award-winning trade book, . Her research has received awards that include the Cozzarelli Prize for scientific excellence and originality from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The S&R Foundation’s Kuno Award for Applied Science for the Social Good and the Richard J. Wyatt Fellowship award for translational research from NIMH. She is the co-founder of .

Dagomar Degroot, Stevens Faculty Excellence Award

, an associate professor of , received the Stevens Faculty Excellence Award (Social Science).

​​The award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovation in a social sciences field.

Degroot’s first book, The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560-1720, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and named by the Financial Times as one of the ten best history books of that year. His new book, , was published by Harvard University Press and Penguin, and is a Scientific American, New Scientist and Nautilus book of the year. He is currently editing several books on past climate change, including the forthcoming . 

He also writes, narrates and produces , an award-winning podcast, video series and website on the history of climate change. He has shared the unique perspectives of the past with policymakers, corporate leaders and journalists in many cities, from Wuhan to Washington, DC. Degroot teaches courses on such topics as existential risk, space exploration and the history of climate change. 

Charles McNelis, Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award

McNelis, a professor of who also serves as the faculty director of Graduate Liberal Studies and the interim director of the , received the Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award (Humanities).

The award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovation in the humanities.

McNelis has been a member of the faculty since 2002. He teaches Latin at all levels, as well as a range of courses on ancient Greek and Latin literature and culture. 

His research focuses on the connections between Greek and Latin literature, particularly in the genre of epic poetry. He is the author of and , co-written with . Most recently, he has published a commentary on Statius’ Achilleid, a poem which takes as its subject Achilles, the greatest Greek hero. McNelis received his undergraduate degree in Classics from Columbia University, his M.A. from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles.

Diana Glick (G’91, G’95), Condé Nast Award

Glick, a teaching professor of the , received the Condé Nast Award. 

Founded in 1966 by the Georgetown ������̳ Student Council to honor the memory of the first president of the student body, this award is given by the ������̳ of Arts & Sciences to faculty who have served the ������̳ with distinguished teaching, research, service and leadership.

For more than 30 years on the Hilltop, Glick has taught everything from general chemistry to inorganic and spectroscopic methods, working with both large lecture classes and small groups of majors. A passionate advocate for science education at all levels, Glick has developed courses for non-science majors and championed the integration of research throughout the undergraduate experience.

Glick earned her Ph.D. from Georgetown University wherein she developed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic techniques for polyoxometalate complexes. Since 2010, she has served as director of undergraduate studies and as faculty advisor to the student chemistry community, roles through which she has mentored countless students. Her efforts were further recognized in 2015 when she received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

She is known across campus for helping students find confidence in challenging subjects — and on occasion, even convincing them that chemistry can be fun. She continues to believe that small moments in the classroom can make a lasting difference in a student’s life.

The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation into the National Security State, , presents the Church Committee report in a single, readable volume, and shines light on modern American politics.

, a senior policy analyst for surveillance and technology at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and , the Hubert J. Cloke director of American Studies and professor of American Studies and English for the ������̳ of Arts & Sciences, co-edited the book, a re-issue of the initial report released in 1976.

Convened in 1975, the Church Committee was a Senate investigation into allegations of illegal activity at the CIA, FBI and NSA. The final report, published in 1976, “confirmed the nation’s worst fears about the secret doings of its government,” Hochman said. It revealed the CIA’s plots to assassinate or support the assassinations of Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba and Rafael Trujillo; the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations against the anti-war movement and Black nationalist leaders; and efforts to surveil and harass Martin Luther King, Jr.

“This [was] a really important moment, a turning point in American understanding of the workings of government,” Hochman said. The Church Committee “comes after Watergate, and really puts the nail in the coffin of ordinary citizens’ trust of the American state.”

‘Almost Reads Like a Spy Novel’

Guariglia and Hochman edited approximately 3,000 pages and six volumes of the original report into a single edition which highlights the findings that matter the most to Americans then and now.

“We’ve attempted to curate things so that you could actually sit down and read the report through, and, quite frankly, enjoy yourself,” Hochman said. “Some of these stories that our edition highlights are really, truly harrowing, really truly disturbing, and in some cases, it almost reads like science fiction or like a spy novel offhand.”

�ұ�ǰ�����ٴǷɲ�’s , in partnership with the Galsworthy Fellowship and the GU Americas Forum, hosted a panel, “Executive Power and the Fate of Democracy: Lessons from the Church Committee at 50,” last month in Copley Formal Lounge on the legacy of the report.

Hochman, Guariglia, , a Pulitzer Prize-winning Yale University history professor, , Regents Professor Emeritus of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia and a former aide to Sen. Church, , a New York Times investigative reporter, and , the director of ACLU National Security Project, shared insights on the legacy of the Church Committee and the current state of national security. 

Panelists discussed where the Church Committee succeeded and where it fell short, abuses committed by American intelligence, accumulation of power, public perception of these institutions and the tense relationship between security and freedom in the U.S.

“While the committee recognized that security is critical to liberty — it’s hard to argue that it’s not — it made a very strong claim that the balance by the late 1960s had fallen out of whack, and their hope was to rebalance the scales,” Hochman said. “Did they achieve that? I mean, look around you. I say not. But we’re better for trying.”

‘The Gold Standard’

For civil rights or anti-war activists, much of the report would have simply verified what they had already suspected. Some of the details, however, were explosive and “bombshell stories” to the American public, said Hochman.

The report uncovered efforts to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into dying by suicide; the use of wiretapping and surveillance to monitor American citizens, including King; plans to assassinate Fidel Castro using everything from poison pens and cigars to exploding seashells; and the CIA’s efforts to experiment with illegal drugs on non-consenting human subjects under project MKUltra.

The Church Committee “is still held up as the gold standard of bipartisan investigative work,” Hochman said.

The committee put these atrocities on the public, official record, which has been beneficial for our understanding of the complex relationship between citizens and state. For historians, “it’s the Holy Grail,” said Hochman.��

In the aftermath of the initial Church Committee, the White House banned foreign assassinations and covert action. Congress convened new subcommittees to oversee the CIA, FBI and NSA. In 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was passed, establishing guidelines for intelligence work in the U.S.��

The report also “helped sow further seeds of distrust” across the political spectrum after Watergate, Hochman said.

The Report’s Legacy

Despite its importance in U.S. history, many Americans today remain unaware of the Church Committee and its impact.��

“Many educated readers are entirely ignorant of these astonishing stories of illegality,” said Hochman. 

Americans in the early 1970s were increasingly distrustful of the government, and suspicions were intensified by Watergate. However, “while this is a distrustful audience, I don’t think even the most skeptical of Americans in the 1970s could quite have anticipated the levels of distrust and division that we now see today,” said Hochman. 

For modern readers, it’s “impossible,” Hochman said, to hear about the committee and not think about current examples of federal government overreach and abuse. It was these scenarios that the Church Committee hoped to avoid.  

With this new publication, Hochman said that he and Guariglia hope “to give readers a fuller, more historically rich understanding of the playbook that the U.S. government has long used to maintain the political status quo at home and project its dominance abroad.”

Illustration in top image by Hana Nakamura and photograph by Everett Collection Historical/Alamy.

He is a native of Monaghan, a town on the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and his father was a high school history teacher in Ireland. Books about Irish history surrounded Gannon at home. 

“There was an element of cultural immersion in the subject,” he said.  

Gannon is passionate about communicating Irish history to audiences at Georgetown and beyond, and last month, he was awarded the (Special Recognition Prize) for his 2023 book, .��

“The highest form of recognition really is that of your academic peers,” Gannon said. “To receive this award for me personally represents a form of career recognition by the Irish academy.”

Gannon’s book suggests that the actions, activities and attitudes of Irish nationalists in Britain were essential to the creation of the modern Irish state, he said, and it has contributed to recent national discourse in Ireland.

“We are proud to see Professor Gannon’s work recognized with the NUI Irish Historical Research Prize,” said , a professor and chair in the Department of History. “This award is particularly meaningful because it validates the global approach to history that we champion here at Georgetown. Professor Gannon’s scholarship — specifically his monograph, Conflict, Diaspora, and Empire — does not just recount events; it reimagines them across borders.”

Irish Nationalism in Britain

The book and Gannon’s research findings grew out of his Ph.D. thesis at Maynooth University and involved extensive archival research across Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Traditionally, Ganon said, the actions of Irish nationalists in mainland Britain were characterized as a “sideshow” to the revolutionary events that took place on the island between 1912 and 1922. But the book suggests that Irish nationalism in Britain was integral to contemporary Irish and British assessments of the Irish Revolution. It also shows that the role of Irish immigrants was invaluable to the creation of the Irish state, Gannon said.

The book and Gannon’s arguments have earned considerable media attention and commentary in Ireland and led to national debate. Publications and news organizations like , and , Ireland’s national broadcaster, have reviewed the book.

“This thoroughly researched, well written and insightful study addresses a significant gap in our knowledge of Irish Nationalism in Britain during the Revolutionary period and makes a convincing case for a need to reframe how we look at Irish Nationalism and the Revolutionary period in Ireland,” the NUI Awards selection panel wrote. “Professor Gannon is the first to place Irish Nationalism in Britain, which until now was regarded as marginal, more centrally within the wider context [of] the Irish Revolution.”

The selection panel also praised Gannon for “presenting a convincing argument that Home Rule activists, Sinn Féin supporters and IRA activists, operating in Britain had greater significance in shaping the Revolution back in Ireland than has hitherto been recognized.”

Maintaining peace on the island of Ireland requires embracing both British and Irish heritage, Gannon said, and the book attests to the importance of the shared past, shared future narrative through empirical research.

�ұ�ǰ�����ٴǷɲ�’s Irish History

When Gannon received a in 2022, he chose to come to Georgetown because of the Global Irish Studies program and the comparative and transnational focus of the history department.

“I think the incredible breadth of research interests in the Department of History really set Georgetown apart from every other institution in my mind,” Gannon said.

Collins, the chair of the history department, believes that Gannon’s book, with themes of migration, empire and transnational identity, mirrors the wider ethos of the department, where scholarly analysis that crosses geographic and thematic boundaries is encouraged.

Gannon said he feels at home at Georgetown, and considers the NUI award an international endorsement of the value of Irish history at the university. Gannon noted that both Georgetown University founder and president were of Irish descent.

“I’m really passionate about promoting Georgetown’s historic Irish heritage, and positioning Georgetown’s Global Irish Studies as the premier Irish studies program in the world,” Gannon said. “I consider this award a significant milestone towards those aims.”

The event highlighted the results of a semester-long research partnership between Georgetown and the and featured four panels of student researchers whose work will support public interpretation of Barton’s life and legacy. 

Kevin Patti, a park ranger and site manager for the Clara Barton National Historic Site, told the crowd gathered at the symposium that Barton’s story remains urgent and relevant.

“Clara Barton died 113 years ago, and yet we still have a great deal we can learn from her life and her service,” he said. 

He praised the Georgetown students, who also served as volunteer researchers with the NPS, for producing work that will strengthen interpretation at the site as it prepares for .

“The work they have done in a Clara Barton-focused class this semester will be used by the National Park Service to educate people and connect people to the Clara Barton National Historic Site — online, on social media and in other ways at the site,” Patti said.

A Mutually Beneficially Collaboration

Manning, a Civil War historian and professor in the Department of History at the ������̳ of Arts & Sciences, designed and taught the history seminar, Hands on DC History: Researching Clara Barton for the NPS.

She explained that the collaboration emerged when she learned that NPS staff wished they had the time and resources to look more closely into specific questions about Barton, who Manning describes in her course syllabus as “one of the most significant Americans in the 19th century.”

Barton’s home and the national headquarters of the American Red Cross are both located in the DC area, and students spent the fall reading Barton’s diaries, deciphering 19th-century handwriting together, visiting local historical sites and collaboratively analyzing and discussing archival discoveries. 

“Every single one of them has learned something new,” Manning said. “And now that knowledge is being used by the Park Service.”

A Humanitarian and Reformer 

The first panel examined how Barton’s upbringing, values and early professional experiences shaped her later humanitarian work, offering new perspectives that will inform how the National Park Service interprets Barton’s life for the public.

Carleigh Heckel (C’27) found that Barton’s views differed from evangelicals inspired by the Second Great Awakening. She held equally deeply felt moral views, but they sprang from Universalism, not evangelicalism. Barton was raised in a Universalist household, Heckel explained, but “most of the evidence we have shows she isn’t especially religious” in the way that mainstream evangelicals were. 

Fallon Wolfley (C’28) explored Barton’s poetry and how it helped her forge meaningful relationships during the Civil War. Barton exchanged poems with soldiers and reformers, using poetry to connect with others during the Civil War, and later, to illuminate her own experience. 

“Is Barton necessarily a good poet? … I’m not convinced,” Wolfley said. “But what’s more important is the story her poetry tells about emotions, connection and grief.”

Dahlia Lozier (C’28) focused on Barton’s short but revealing tenure as superintendent of the . 

Lozier argued that Barton’s emphasis on kindness, dignity and politeness subtly challenged prevailing reform models that sought to reshape incarcerated women according to rigid ideals of domestic femininity. Barton’s approach, Lozier suggested, foreshadowed later critiques of punitive reform systems.

A Public Health Pioneer

Barton was a public health pioneer who helped shape early approaches to mental health, emergency response and first aid education by extending care beyond hospitals and military settings to ordinary civilians.

Lily Marino (C’28) examined Barton’s lifelong struggles with melancholy through a modern psychological lens while emphasizing that any diagnosis would be speculative. By tracing patterns in Barton’s diaries, Marino argued that recognizing these episodes “puts in relief how much harder she had to push to do the spectacular things she did.”

Olivia Matlaga (C’28) highlighted Barton’s establishment of the in her early 80s. Matlaga’s project, Barton in a Box, creates an educational kit accompanied by online instructions and informational pamphlets linking early first-aid tools with modern ones. 

Barton’s efforts, Matlaga explained, “spread the ability to render aid to the hands of ordinary people … without waiting for the approval of larger institutions.”

Caroline Thomas (C’27) traced Barton’s evolution as an emergency-response leader, from delivering supplies after the to improvising battlefield care during the Civil War. Thomas argued that Barton’s work anticipated the development of disaster and emergency medicine long before the field was formally recognized.

Responding to Natural Disasters

Barton shaped the way that people responded to major natural disasters by systematizing relief efforts, preparing in advance for emergencies and developing recovery models that were later applied across the country.

Sophia Grossman (C’27) analyzed the , shifting attention from heroic relief narratives to the social dynamics of recovery. Grossman showed how class shaped access to housing and resources during reconstruction, revealing how post-disaster recovery could reinforce existing inequalities.

Sylvia Jordan, a second-year Ph.D. in history candidate, focused her research on the and found it was “the organization’s fifth largest domestic relief campaign” during Barton’s tenure and foundational for later responses in Johnstown, and Galveston, Texas.��

The Mount Vernon project, Jordan said, shows that “we cannot base everything we know about the early American Red Cross off just three major disasters.” 

Patti also singled out Jordan’s work, noting that it highlights “an aspect of Miss Barton’s work that has not been highlighted as it will be now because of Sylvia’s work.”

A Women’s Rights Advocate

Barton’s legacy includes expanding opportunities for women in public leadership and humanitarian work. 

Marie Kim (C’27) analyzed how Barton strategically navigated 19th-century gender norms, using domestic spaces and the performance of proper womanhood to gain authority in male-dominated political and humanitarian spheres.

Maggie Stephens (C’28) studied Barton’s participation in international Red Cross conferences spanning the late 19th century. Barton fiercely defended the integrity of the Red Cross symbol and used conference speeches to highlight American relief innovations. Media coverage praised her as a female delegate operating on equal footing with international leaders.

Emma Vonder Haar (C’28) mapped how Barton is commemorated across the United States and abroad — from schools and roads to a Public memory, she argued, reveals what communities choose to value. 

“What do you see of yourself in Clara Barton’s triumphs, tragedies, or ordinary moments?” she asked.

Patti closed the event by thanking the students for “the wonderful program,” adding, “I know that your work will serve the park very well in the future.”