KU News Release

KU senior wins national Phi Kappa Phi fellowship to pursue master’s in classics

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas senior majoring in classical languages and English has won a national Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship, which provides $5,000 for graduate study.

Anne Isabel McEnroe is one of 60 students nationwide selected for a fellowship from the honor society. She received the Alfred M. Wolfe Fellowship, which is offered annually to a top-ranking nominee majoring in agriculture, classical Latin/ancient Greek or English.

The fellowship is the second McEnroe has received this year. She became eligible for the national fellowship when she received the $1,000 Blackiston Memorial Graduate Fellowship offered by the KU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.

She will be honored at the local chapter’s annual spring induction ceremony May 10 and is graduating this spring.

McEnroe plans to pursue a master’s degree in classics at the University of Bristol in England. McEnroe’s goals include teaching and helping classics students recognize links to recent history and contemporary life.

As an undergraduate, McEnroe researched the influence of Virgil’s poetry on the writing of St. Augustine from his conversion to Christianity through old age. Her proposal received a J. Michael Young Award for one of the top research proposals in the humanities.

Last fall, McEnroe advanced to the regional level in the national competition for a Rhodes scholarship. She is a National Merit Scholar, a University Honors Program student and a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society. At KU, she volunteers for Audio-Reader Network, a radio service for blind and print-disabled individuals and has volunteered as a Latin tutor. McEnroe was secretary for Sellards Scholarship Hall and vice president of the KU Classics Club.

She is the daughter of Bruce McEnroe and Michelle Tamburini and is a Lawrence Free State High School graduate.

Phi Kappa Phi has about 300 chapters nationally, and each may select one candidate from among its local applicants to compete for awards. Phi Kappa Phi was established in 1897 to recognize academic excellence in all disciplines. Only the top 7 percent of seniors, the top 4 percent of last-term juniors and the top 10 percent of graduate students are invited to join.

The Blackiston fellowship is named in honor of James Blackiston, a graduate student in linguistics and instructor in the Intensive English Center who was active in the formation of the KU chapter in 1975. Blackiston died during the summer of 1975.

Phi Kappa Phi’s primary objectives are to promote the pursuit of excellence in all fields of higher education and to recognize outstanding achievement by students, faculty and others by election to membership and through various awards for distinguished achievement.

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