Several students from the Front Royal, Winchester and Shenandoah Valley area have recently earned academic recognition or taken part in international education programs.

Academic honors

Tiffany Galvin of Front Royal and Lexi Settle, also of Front Royal, have each been elected to membership in The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi — Galvin at James Madison University and Settle at Virginia Tech. Erin Attaway of Lake Frederick was similarly elected to the honor society at the University of Southern Mississippi. Phi Kappa Phi, founded in 1897, is the nation’s oldest all-discipline collegiate honor society. Membership is by invitation only and is limited to the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors.

Madison Hobson of Winchester was named to the dean’s list at Frostburg State University in Maryland for the fall 2025 semester, earning a 4.0 grade point average. Jake Dann, also of Winchester, made the dean’s list at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the same semester with a 3.0 or higher average.

Nicholas Figgins of Stephens City earned a Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in December.

Ave Meteyer of Winchester, a women’s hockey player at Nazareth University in Rochester, N.Y., earned Empire 8 Second Team All-Conference recognition after recording 3 goals and 17 assists for 20 points in 26 games this season.

Global Citizenship Project

Shenandoah University in Winchester marked the 21st year of its Global Citizenship Project this spring, sending students, faculty and staff to five countries in March. Area students participated in four of the five trips.

Darian Angel of Winchester and Lucas Weber of Linden traveled to Kenya, where the group toured Nairobi landmarks, visited Amref International University, took a safari at Tsavo East National Park, and explored the Shimoni Slave Caves and Mombasa.

Matthias Rivera of Lake Frederick and Marissa Overbaugh and Lauren Mason, both of Winchester, traveled to Hong Kong. The group visited Hong Kong Baptist University, toured the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and made a day trip to Shenzhen to meet with Shenandoah’s Global MBA students.

Erika Lopez of Winchester traveled to Ghana, where the group toured Cape Coast Castle, visited the University of Cape Coast, and toured the Manhiya Palace Museum in Kumasi before finishing with stops in Accra including a visit to the U.S. Embassy.

Aaruni Choudhary of Winchester traveled to Saint Lucia, where the group took lessons in Kweyol — a French-based creole language — toured Pigeon Island and Sulphur Springs, and participated in a masquerade workshop with local youth arts students.

Aidan Robbins of Winchester traveled to Slovakia, where the group toured Bratislava, visited Bratislava Castle, hiked the Janosikove Diery gorges and waterfalls in Terchova, and finished with a pottery lesson in Modra.

Since its founding in 2005, Shenandoah’s Global Citizenship Project has sent more than 1,400 participants to over 70 countries.

Information from a release. Posted by Dan McDermott.