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For senior Torrie Eberhard, graduation was nearly a decade in the making.

She’ll do so at the top of her class, as CMCI’s William W. White Outstanding Graduate, an honor given to the student with the highest GPA in the college.

“In my nine years of undergrad there have been countless obstacles and reasons to give up. I have taken semesters off and have restarted again and again,” Eberhard says. “Every time I consider throwing in the towel, but then I reflect on all of the obstacles, and how far I have come, and I just do it. I just turn in the paper or take the test, and now I am here.”

As a non-traditional student, Eberhard balanced her class schedule with a heavy workload. She also completed a PR internship with the Colorado Ballet, volunteered, and became a member of the Public Relations Student Society of America. The key, she says, was prioritization.

“For most of my college career, I have worked full-time,” she says. “Sometimes multiple jobs and over 40 hours a week. While it is absolutely possible to overextend yourself, we can mostly make time for the things we want to make time for.”

Another obstacle Eberhard faced—or expected to face—was the process of transferring schools. As she prepared to enroll at CU Âé¶čÓ°Ôș after several years at a community college, she worried about being older than other students and about not having connections established on campus.

Instead, during her first days and weeks on campus, she was pleasantly surprised to find a support system of friendly students, helpful and reassuring advisors, and dedicated professors, she says.

“The professors were the best,” she says. “They challenged the way I thought about myself and about the world. They supported me even though my circumstances were far different than my peers. And they believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself.”

One of the people who offered support along the way was Instructor Dawn Doty, who taught Eberhard in her Principles of PR and Strategic Writing for PR classes. Doty noticed that outside of class, Eberhard played an active role in supporting her family. She also noticed Eberhard’s work ethic, and her desire to do her best on every assignment.

“She pushes herself to get the very best grades and is disappointed when she doesn't reach her potential,” says Doty, who was recently named PRSA’s Mentor of the Year. “I remember one day Torrie came to visit me during office hours. She mentioned that she was disappointed with a grade for a writing project. I looked back to see what grade she achieved. It was an A-.”

Eberhard’s own assessment of herself is similar.

“I am a little neurotic and a major perfectionist—both to a fault,” she says. “I’m somewhere between a dreamer and a realist.”

Leading up to graduation, Eberhard has applied to a number of organizations. Her goal is to to find an entry-level position at an international strategy agency, but she’s open to whatever opportunities may come. Down the road, she hopes to finish and publish a book she’s started, to travel, and to find ways to build community and improve people’s ability to communicate with one another.

“Eventually, my intention is to create a space for the broader public to engage in a productive manner—a space that breaks partisan barriers and allows connection on a human level,” she says. “It’s a mixture of critical theory and communication strategy, an intersection in which I spend a lot of time.”

As she looks toward the next decade of her life, Eberhard knows challenges are sure to come. If her campus career has taught her anything, though, it's that she has the resiliency to overcome them and persevere.

“There was a time where I didn't even consider college, and more recent times when I thought I would never finish. This award is symbolic of all of the hard work and it is pretty special,” she says. “Wherever I end up, I know I will work hard, learn and excel.”

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CU Âé¶čÓ°Ôș CMCI Outstanding Student Award
Lina Takahashi

William W. White Outstanding Graduate 
Awarded to the student with the highest GPA in the college.
Torrie Eberhard

William W. White Departmental Awards
Chosen by department faculty, this award recognizes academic merit, professional achievement and service to the college.​

• Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design: Brianna Schwartz
• Department of Communication: Hannah Stewart
• Department of Critical Media Practices: Aabriti Shrestha
• Department of Information Science: Jacob Paul
• Department of Journalism: Lina Takahashi
• Department of Media Studies: CĂ©sar Iza Castillo

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Graduating with Honors

Students graduating with honors have completed an honors project demonstrating independent learning and intellectual insight that makes a contribution to our understanding of media, communication or information. The work must demonstrate intellectual or creative ability as well as analytical skills worthy of the recommended honors designation.

Summa Cum Laude

• Chelsea Magyar, Communication
• Hannah Stewart, Communication
• Anna Scott, Journalism
• Lina Takahashi, Journalism
• CĂ©sar Iza Castillo, Media Studies

Magna Cum Laude

• Samuel Metivier, Media Studies

Cum Laude

• Gavyn Doty, Journalism
• Madison Moye, Strategic Communication

Graduating with Distinction

This designation recognizes students who earn a 3.75 GPA or higher over at least 60 hours of coursework. 

• Saud Altarkait
• Lauren Arnold
• Doori Bae
• Sarah Brase
• D’mitrius Brewer
• CĂ©sar Iza Castillo
• Sabrina Cavanagh
• Kelsey Cloud
• Julia DeBell
• Grace Diamond
• Rane Dickerson
• Casey Van Divier
• Emily Dodge
• Torrie Eberhard
• Mary Fleming
• Sophie Katon
• Jensen Keller
• Sarah Lemon
• Nash Levitt
• Juliet Luna
• Chelsea Magyar
• Samantha Masterson
• Jake Mauff
• Samuel Metivier
• Kelsey Mullins
• Raine Roberts
• Serena Roberts
• Nicole Rosen
• Wendi Schneider
• Brianna Schwartz
• Sophi Schwartzbauer
• Selada Sinprasong
• Hannah Stewart
• Anna Mary Scott
• Aabriti Shrestha
• Serene Singh
• Fiona Slater
• Julia Stanisz
• Brianna Suazo
• Lina Takahashi
• Anastasiya Zhukova

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Academic Leadership Award
Jamie Ramge

Civic Engagement Award
Francesca Rubin

CDE Civic Engagement & Community Leadership
Nathan Bedsole, PhD
Logan Gomez, MA

CDE Leadership in Democratic Engagement
Brandon Daniels, PhD

John Waite Bowers Award
Rebecca Rice, PhD

Phillip K. Tompkins Student Achievement Award
Chelsea Magyar

Distinguished Graduate Student Service Award
Danielle Hodge, PhD
Kathryn Leslie, PhD

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award
Ellie Busch, MA
Logan Gomez, MA

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A senior majoring in journalism with minors in Japanese and technology, arts and media, Takahashi will head to Stamford, Connecticut, this summer to work with NBC Sports as an Olympics production fellow.

“The Olympics have been in my family,” she says. “Growing up, my dad worked with Japanese Olympic runners. He and I are both working to be in Tokyo for the Olympics, so it’s really neat that we both get to work toward the same goal.”

Both of Takahashi’s parents were born and raised in Japan. They met while her mother was attending graduate school at CU, and her father was training as a runner in Âé¶čÓ°Ôș.

Takahashi followed in her mother and older brother’s footsteps to attend CU, and shared her father’s love for the Olympics. While she knew it was a longshot, she found ways to prepare for the 2020 games throughout her time in college. She spent three years working for Buff Sports Live—CU Âé¶čÓ°Ôș’s student-run sports broadcast—and completed internships at a tourism company in Tokyo, KGNU Independent Radio in Âé¶čÓ°Ôș, and 9News KUSA in Denver, where she helps produce Next with Kyle Clark.

“I had to learn very quickly how to prioritize everything I wanted to do in my life,” she says.

As she progressed through classes and internships, Takahashi broadened her interests as a journalist. She began to gravitate toward opportunities that allowed her to shine a spotlight on other cultures, and on people whose stories are often under-told, overlooked or misunderstood.

In 2018, she was one of 17 students selected from universities throughout the U.S. for an Asian American Journalists Association VOICES fellowship, where she spent three months reporting on stories of LGBTQ Asian Americans who’d come out to their families.

For her senior honors thesis, she interviewed high-level athletes, sports professionals, sports psychologists, researchers and LGBTQ advocacy leaders about the intersection of gender identity and sports. It’s the type of work she hopes to do professionally: telling human interest stories about the challenges and triumphs athletes experience.

Takahashi earned the 2019 Evan Wolfson Prize in LGBTQ Studies for her honors thesis, and received the Department of Journalism’s William W. White award, which recognizes outstanding seniors.

While her time on campus was a whirlwind, to a large extent, her plan worked. One day she opened her email account and found a message from a recruiter at NBC Sports who wrote, “I heard you’re an Olympics fanatic.”

“I think my love for the Olympics was partly because of my dad, but I also think that I was just amazed at how the world comes together every two years to compete, watch and celebrate their nation’s players,” she says. “My motto ever since I was little was that I am ‘mini but mighty,’ and I think that still applies today.”

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