Holly Hilliard graduates with highest honors from Duke University
DURHAM, N.C. – Hillsboro High School graduate (class of 2009) Holly M. Hilliard has graduated summa cum laude from Duke University's Trinity College of Arts and Sciences with a bachelor's degree in English.
Hilliard graduated Sunday at Duke University's 161st commencement ceremony.
Her senior thesis, "Contributions: A Novel," was recognized as "Highest Distinction" and she also received a Benenson Award for the Arts, which provides funding for arts-centered projects proposed by undergraduate students.
In addition, Hilliard was also inducted this weekend into the Duke University chapter of Phi Beta Kappa – a nationwide academic honor society of which only one in 100 college seniors are invited to join. She was one of 154 Duke students inducted into Phi Beta Kappa last Thursday evening in Page Auditorium.
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Phi Beta Kappa elects more than 15,000 new members annually from 283 chapters across the United States. Founded in 1776, the honor society is the nation'€™s leading advocate for arts and sciences at the undergraduate level.
The Duke Chapter, Beta of North Carolina, was formed in 1920 at Trinity College.
Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was the Duke commencement speaker.
Gates called on Duke graduates Sunday to "change the way you think about other people" and "choose to see their humanity first – the one big thing that makes them the same as you, instead of the many things that make them different from you."
Last year, Hilliard was one of 10 Duke University students selected to be a part of the school's capital fundraising campaign, "Duke Forward," that was launched in September 2012 at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the Duke campus.
Hilliard also served as one of the managing editors of the Duke Chronicle, the student newspaper.
She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Hilliard of Hillsboro.