Maryville College senior Samantha Stacey wins annual LeQuire Award at annual Academic Awards Ceremony
April 15, 2023
Samantha Stacey, a senior Biology major at Maryville College from Springfield, Tennessee, has been named the recipient of the prestigious LeQuire Award for the 2022-23 academic year.
Established in 1987 by descendants and friends of Maryville physician Granville Dexter LeQuire and his wife, Ellen Brickey LeQuire, the LeQuire Award includes a cash gift to help defray the expenses of applying to medical school and an engraved pewter julep cup.
Stacey, who will graduate in May from the 204-year-old college located in East Tennessee, was named winner of the award by College President Dr. Bryan F. Coker at the institution’s annual Academic Awards ceremony on April 15. The recipient of the LeQuire Award is selected each year from among the graduating class by the College president. Students are nominated by faculty members from the Humanities and Natural Sciences divisions.
Stacey, a McGill Scholar at MC, has been accepted into the Ph.D. program for biomedical research at Loyola University’s Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Her academic success — she was named the top biology student during her first three years at Maryville College, and in 2022 was recognized for most outstanding performance in organic chemistry — makes her “one of the brightest, most collegial, professional, competent and capable young scientists,” according to the faculty member who nominated her.
In addition to the LeQuire Award, Stacey was recognized with two other honors at the April 15 ceremony: a Liberal Arts Award, given to graduating seniors who have earned the highest grade point averages in all core courses taken at Maryville College; and the A. Randolf Shields Award, which recognizes the graduating senior who has the most outstanding four-year record in biology.
A graduate of Springfield High School, Stacey first came to Maryville College as a 2019 participant in the Great Smokies Experience, a program that originally led to a desire to study wildlife biology. During the summer of 2021, on Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia, she was drawn to the medical use of horseshoe crab blood, which led to a growing interest in cellular and molecular fields of research. In the summer of 2022, she participated in Vanderbilt University’s 2022 Summer Science Academy, and during her time at MC, she’s served as a member of the Environmental Action Team (EAT), the Tri Beta biology club, as a staff member for the on-campus outdoor adventure organization Mountain Challenge, and as a three-year percussionist in the College’s Tartanband.
“The faculty member who nominated this student for the LeQuire Award wrote that she is ‘among the top 1% of students’ with whom he has ever interacted … and he added these descriptions: Fun, gregarious, creative, flexible, organized, thoughtful and kind,” Coker added. “He concluded his nomination letter by saying, ‘You could not choose a more exceptional candidate for this award, of that I can assure you.’ We wholeheartedly agree.”