From staff reports
A Franklin woman is one of 18 students at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, who received the 2019 President’s Distinguished Service Award at the university.
Beth Pfohl, a 2015 Franklin High School graduate, is graduating next month from Miami with a double major in strategic communications and theatre and a minor in musical theatre.
A press release from Miami says the Distinguished Service Award honors students whose service through campus life, community service, intellectual and cultural leadership or student employment demonstrates the spirit of being a student leader of uncommon quality.
Nominations come from faculty and staff across all Miami campuses. Academic performance and student disciplinary records are considered during this process.
The Miami website says Pfohl spent the fall 2018 semester at the university’s Luxembourg campus, where she quickly distinguished herself as a leader among peers.
As the co-chair of the student faculty council, she organized activities for students and their local host families and a fundraiser for a local refugee center. She also found time to volunteer at a local school while she was there, the website says.
Pfohl was chosen to give the introductory address at last fall’s 50th anniversary celebration of the university’s Dolibois European Center in Luxembourg. She opened her speech with a lengthy greeting in Luxembourgish, which she spent hours writing and practicing so as to honor the Luxembourgish guests, which included members of the royal family, the website says.
Outside of her time in Luxembourg, Pfohl has served as a College of Arts and Science Ambassador, a College of Creative Arts divisional representative, and a teaching assistant for qualitative research methods.
Pfohl is the daughter of Chip and Janene Pfohl of Franklin. She was the 2015 valedictorian at Franklin.