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Andrew M. Hemm Awards for Excellence
This award was established by Andrew M. Hemm to recognize outstanding student performance in the study of Chinese and Japanese. In 2003 Mr. Hemm created an endowment to fund this prize in perpetuity. Four awards are given annually - one to a Senior EALL Major in Chinese, one to a Senior EALL Major in Japanese, and two students who maintain the highest GPAs during their first two years of studying Chinese and Japanese respectively.
History
In 1972 Andrew Hemm '76 was in the first Chinese class taught at W&L. He majored in German (even taking a year off to live and work in Germany), but he also took all of the Chinese courses then available. In his senior year he attended a Spring Term program in Taiwan and remained there for four and a half years studying Chinese and teaching English at Fujen University. He then returned to the U.S. to earn a M.B.A. degree from the University of Michigan. Andrew Hemm has spent most of his career living in China.
Andrew speaks fluent Chinese and has conducted seminars in Chinese for Chinese bank officials and has appeared on Chinese television. He is married to Hilary, and they have a son, Christopher Lee. He has never forgotten his alma mater.
| Year | Chinese | Japanese | Senior Chinese | Senior Japanese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | Tom Son'24 | Connie Okeke '23 | Cara Flanery '23 | Wren Markley '23 |
| 2021-22 | Jasmine Gipson '24 | Ashley Xia '24 | Maria Shaw '22 | Bella Frazier Pool '22 |
| 2020-21 | Katherine Xia '23 | Wren Markley '23 | Lilie Tyler '21 | Sho Gibbs '21 |
| 2019-20 | Amelia Lancaster '22 | Blaine Browell '21 | Trang Nguyen '20 | Aimee Rodriguez '20 |
| 2018-19 | Temitope Adeyanju '21 | Tye Loan '21 | Di L. Aeschliman '19 | Tara Cooper '19 |
| 2017-18 | Nguyen Trang '19 | Aimee Rodriguez '20 | Courtney Hauck '18 | Elizabeth McDonald '18 |
| 2016-17 | Lorden Hoff ’19 | Kitanna Hiromasa ’19 | **Harrison DeKnight '17 | **Jordan LaPointe '17 |
| 2015-16 | Alice Nhi Tran '18 | Lee Sommerfeldt '18 | ||
| 2014-15 | Harrison DeKnight '17 | Leila Baldridge '17 | ||
| 2013-14 | Anh Ta '16 | Parker King '14 | ||
| 2012-13 | Chris Hu '15 | Hunter Brooks '15 | ||
| 2011-12 | William Fulwider '14 | Zoey Ryu '14 | ||
| 2010-11 | Hang Nguyen '13 | Kathryn Howard '13 | ||
| 2009-10 | Danielle Maurer '12 | Trang Nguyen '12 | ||
| 2008-09 | Anatoliy Khomenko '11 | Susan Taylor '11 | ||
| 2007-08 | Samara Francisco '10 | Kim Holland '10 | ||
| 2006-07 | Thao Thi Phuong Le '09 | Christopher A. Brimsek '09 | ||
| 2005-06 | Alexander Gould '08 | Ken-Cheng Hsiang '07 | ||
| 2004-05 | Mariko Ichihara '07 | Alex Kraus '07 | ||
| 2003-04 | *Adam Jarczyk '06 | *Aubrey Miner '06 | ||
| 2002-03 | Wen-Ting Shen '05 | Wen-Ting Shen '05 | ||
| 2001-02 | Cheol Park '02 | Jaime Muscar '04 | ||
| 2000-01 | Alice Saunders Lee '01 | Cheol Park '02 |
** First recipients of The Andrew M. Hemm Senior Award for Excellence in Chinese and Japanese