As a boy, Damien Gresko dreamed of playing football in front of 100,000 fans at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium. But in 2004, Gresko came to the University where he played football while excelling in an entirely different kind of stadium - the classroom. Ranked the top student in the College of Business Administration, Gresko received numerous awards through his years of study and will graduate with a 3.97 grade point average.

It would have been difficult for Rachael Gately to accomplish much more as an undergraduate. She served as president of the University’s Animal and Veterinary Science Club, received the President’s Excellence Award as the top animal science student , and was awarded a Udall Scholarship, the nation’s most prestigious scholarship for students preparing for environmental careers. To top is off, she won the Outstanding Senior Award at the Northeast Student Affiliate conference at Delaware Valley College last month.

Will Simoneau started taking classes at the University at age 13. Six years later he is graduating as the top computer engineering student and with the added distinction of being the youngest to earn a URI degree this year. Simoneau enrolled as a full-time student in the spring of 2005 at age 15, he started out as a computer science major but soon switched to computer engineering because he was more interested in “the nuts and bolts” of computer hardware.

From being a part of the University's cheerleading team her freshman year, the Talent Development program and a sister of Alpha Phi, Shana Leffingwell has benefited from her many campus activities. But even before she arrived on campus Leffingwell was enrolled in Talent Development, the program that helped open doors for her as she made the transition to higher education. Leffingwell said that because the program also provided major financial aide, she worked hard in her classes to show the staff at TD that she was truly benefiting from the program. Graduating with a double major in art and psychology, Leffingwell is now planning for a master’s in teaching art education.

It’s not unusual for college students to repeatedly change their major or arrive on campus without knowing what discipline they want most to study. But Michael A. Zompa never had that problem. “My grandfather is a doctor, my mother’s a nurse, my stepmother’s a nurse,” he said. “I’ve been exposed to the medical field my whole life and I have had so much family support that I’ve never doubted for a moment that I was going to become a doctor." URI's top biology student is well on his way.

Alison O’Malley wasn’t entirely sure what biomedical engineering was before she decided to study it at the University, but she made a good choice. She will graduate as the top biomedical engineering student on campus and will also graduate with a degree in electrical engineering as well. And all of this while she served as captain of the Ramettes, the University’s varsity dance team that performed at every home basketball game and at other events.

Rebecca Long took an uncommon path to earning a college degree, choosing to major in philosophy rather than what some would consider a more practical discipline. But for her, it was the right choice. Long will graduate from the University and receive the President’s Award for Student Excellence as the top philosophy student on campus.

Jill Anderson was filled with doubt and other strong emotions as a freshman softball player at the University. Her mother had died of breast cancer just two months before classes started, and those close to her questioned the wisdom of her choice to enroll at URI as a Division I scholarship athlete. But at this moment of her life, she is at the top of her game.

Maintaining equal focus on school and athletics has never been an issue for Whitney Hollis. As a member of the URI women’s basketball team, she put in many long hours, but was a star in the classroom and on the court. She will graduate on May 18 with a double major in communications and sociology. The day after, she will start a new job as an account executive with Universal Online Promotions in Manhattan.

When it was time for Michael Segala to go away to college at the University, his whole family went with him. The Segala family left its long-time New Jersey home in 2004 and moved here so Michael’s father, Jim, and his brother, David, could enroll in doctoral programs at URI. Now, the youngest Segala is in the spotlight. In addition to receiving bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics, the undergraduate will be honored with the President’s Award for Student Excellence as the top physics student on campus.

As a high school student, Melissa Holmes played soccer and lacrosse and was very conscious about the importance of nutrition and eating right. But it never occurred to her that eating right could lead to a career. Yet it has. Holmes will graduate from the University with a degree in nutrition and dietetics and with a certain pathway to a career as a registered dietitian.

Balancing a full load of classes and 20 hours of training each week -- including grueling 5 a.m. practices -- while maintaining better than a 3.0 grade point average would seem near impossible for some. However, four members of the University's rowing team have done it throughout their careers.

Gabriel "Gabe" Mancuso will deliver the student commencement address during URI’s undergraduate ceremonies Sunday, May 18. A political science and economics major, Mancuso was a founding member and the outgoing president of the Pre-Law Society. He helped develop a volunteer peer tutoring program in conjunction with URI’s Academic Enhancement Center, a service previously unavailable in some political science courses. He also organized and helped moderate the first debate between College Democrats and College Republicans.

Elka Arredondo has come a long way since moving with her family from her native Colombia in 2000. Despite knowing little English when she arrived in the U.S. as a freshman at Central Falls High School, she will graduate from the University as the top student in the kinesiology program. And she is already well on her way to earning her doctorate in physical therapy.

Monique LaFrance developed a passion for sea turtles as a child that only grew stronger when she entered the University and discovered opportunities to study them. Now, as she prepares to graduate from URI on May 18, she is looking forward to a marine biology career that will always keep her closely connected to these highly endangered creatures. Her drive to study sea turtles was initially fulfilled in 2006 when she spent a semester studying at the School for Field Studies along the west coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Based on Aaron Hebenstreit’s passport, it appears that he spent much of his college education traveling abroad. And that is exactly why he chose to enroll in the University's International Engineering Program (IEP). As he prepares to graduate on May 18 with degrees in mechanical engineering and German, he is looking forward to continuing his travels around the world. In addition to studying German and French at URI, he was one of the first URI students to enroll in Chinese language classes in 2005, and he went on a study tour of China in the summer of 2006.

Rather than rent flicks at a local Blockbusters when he was a teen-ager, Kyle Keough remembers hanging out at the Cumberland Public Library, looking for Japanese films, especially those directed by Akira Kurosawa. As soon as URI offered film media as a major two years ago, Keough signed on. He just won the highly competitive President’s Excellence Award in Film Media, which goes to just one top student in each of URI’s departments and programs.

Lisa Marie Carroll grew up in an artistic household and has a portfolio filled with her paintings, drawings and prints. But when she was deciding on a college major, she chose to study textiles because she thought it was a more practical field that would lead to a good job. As she prepares to graduate from the University, Carroll has ended up with the best of both worlds – an exciting job in the home design field and a once-in-a-lifetime semester in Italy studying art and fashion.