Bridget Lillethorup Wins the Helen Hansen Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Bridget Lillethorup, a graduate student in the Department of English, has been selected for the Helen Hansen Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Lillethorup, whom Dr. Lisa Knopp has described as “keenly intelligent with a rigorous work ethic and a fierce passion for writing,” has displayed a level of excellence and professionalism in the classroom and in her publication and presentation opportunities. She has maintained a crucial role in our graduate student community as the Co-President of the English Graduate Organization and the Graduate Representative of the English Graduate Program Committee.

Lillethorup has a substantial capacity for learning and writing and shines among graduate students. Academically, Lillethorup has demonstrated an unwavering capacity to identify and articulate her earned perspectives. Her attitude toward her scholarly work as a learning-enterprise is at the level of the top graduate students in the English Department’s past. Lillethorup is determined to establish herself in the literary world, and she has already enjoyed many successes in this regard. She has publications forthcoming or in five literary journals, including River Teeth, a well-respected journal of creative nonfiction. Further, she is currently the acting vlog editor for Literary Mama, another notable literary journal.

Lillethorup is the epitome of a passionate student and future scholar as well as a natural teacher, as demonstrated both by her engagement with her peers and the students she encounters in her role as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in our department and as the current president of the English Graduate Organization. Lillethorup joins many former English winners of the Helen Hansen Outstanding Graduate Student Award, representing the best from the Department of English.