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Monmouth College's classics department brings home four major awards from Classical Association of the Middle West and South meeting

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (04/11/2024) — The Classical Association of the Middle West and South represents hundreds of schools in 35 states and three Canadian provinces.

So when one school brings home four major awards from the annual CAMWS meeting - which was held earlier this month in St. Louis - it's a significant achievement.

Monmouth College was that school, as professor Bob Simmons and student Jeff Schnetzler '25 of Metamora, Illinois, each received individual honors. They also shared an honor and were part of the overall team effort required to win the fourth award.

Simmons won an Ovatio, an award for exceptional achievement and service to CAMWS and the classics profession. Ovatio specifically means "ovation" in Latin, and it comes from the root word for "rejoice."

"This is this organization's version of a lifetime achievement award," said Simmons, one of three recipients of the honor, along with faculty members from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota. "There is no applying for this award. A merit committee decides on who's worthy."

Simmons' citation included a notation of the National Endowment for the Humanities institute he's co-leading at Monmouth this summer and the CAMWS teaching award he won last year.

Schnetzler was one of a handful of students to win a Manson Stewart Award for excellence in undergraduate classics. The award comes with a $1,000 prize.

"In addition to being a good student in general, Jeff had an insight into the throwing motion of the ancient discus on which he and I intend to collaborate on for an article," said Simmons. "He's a thrower on the track and field team, and he has done extensive research into the visual record of ancient discus throwing."

Simmons said Schnetzler's candidacy was also boosted by his "exceptional leadership and initiative" at the College's Classics Day VI and the national meeting of Eta Sigma Phi, the classics honor society, which Monmouth hosted last spring.

Those events helped Monmouth win the award for Outstanding Promotional Activity, the fourth time through the years that CAMWS has recognized Classics Day. Rahm Pandey '24 of Chicago was present to receive it on behalf of the Monmouth student team whose behind-the-scenes efforts made the event possible.

Simmons and Schnetzler also received a $1,000 Faculty-Undergraduate Collaborative Research Award to work on the aforementioned article.

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Rahm Pandey '24 and professor Bob Simmons are pictured with two of the four awards that Monmouth College brought home from the CAMWS meeting.

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