In recognition of their remarkable scholarly dedication and outstanding achievements, Vanderbilt University celebrated the Founder's Medalists for the Class of 2025 during the Graduates Day event on May 8 as part of the university's Commencement celebration.
Since 1877, the university has awarded a gold medal to the student graduating with top honors from each of the university's 10 schools and colleges. The award is to honor the university's founder, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who endowed the award in its first year.
Nikki Takahashi Weitzenhoffer
College of Arts and Science
History of art major
Nikki Takahashi Weitzenhoffer, from Norman, Oklahoma, is this year's Founder's Medalist for the College of Arts and Science, majoring in history of art.
Weitzenhoffer earned highest accolades for her history of art honors thesis. The project focused on Ukiyo-e, which means "pictures of the floating world." It's a Japanese art form of the 17th-19th centuries that depicts scenes from everyday life on woodblock prints and paintings. She learned how historical research can illuminate broader cultural questions, which inspired her to pursue a master's degree at Vanderbilt in history of art.
Her leadership roles include co-president of the History of Art Society and co-assistant director of the Research on Conflict and Collective Action Lab. She said the ROCCA Lab strengthened her commitment to use research as a tool for advocacy.
She also was a senior staff editor for Vanderbilt Historical Review, group leader for Volunteers for Health and a Buchanan Library Fellow.
Weitzenhoffer said she is grateful for the transformative guidance of Helmut Smith in history and Susan Dine in history of art and architecture, professors who shaped her academic journey, future aspirations and growth.
After earning her master's, she plans to go to law school and develop expertise in art and cultural heritage restitution law.
Charles Thomas Schmitt
Blair School of Music
Trumpet performance major
Charles Thomas Schmitt, from Maitland, Florida, is this year's Founder's Medalist for Blair School of Music. Schmitt majored in trumpet performance with a concentration in jazz studies.
As a member of Blair's jazz ensembles, he has played at some of Nashville's foremost music venues, and he traveled to Cuba, Colombia and the Dominican Republic with the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony. He was a semifinalist in the National Trumpet Competition's solo jazz division and was recognized by Downbeat magazine for his Blair performances.
He is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society and received Blair's Spirit of Billy Adair Award for service and leadership.
Schmitt said that an academic highlight was doing research with the Yusef A. Lateef Collection as a Buchanan Library Fellow.
He thanks God and the help of his professors, especially Jose Sibaja and Jeff Coffin, for showing him that striving to become a better person is an essential part of being a lifelong musician.
After graduation, he will attend the University of Miami's Frost School of Music to pursue a master of music in jazz instrumental performance. Schmitt is the third of three children in his family to earn a Vanderbilt degree.
Grace Ann Jones
School of Engineering
Majors in engineering science, chemistry and math
Grace Ann Jones, from Knoxville, Tennessee, is this year's Founder's Medalist for the School of Engineering. She is a triple major in engineering science, chemistry and math.
Jones is an Ingram Scholar and the first in her family to attend a university in the United States. She was also a finalist for Class of 2025 Outstanding Senior in recognition of her leadership, service and passion.
Her inspiration to major in engineering was the Nanoscale Innovation and Making course at the Wond'ry, where her team worked on a prototype sensor to monitor food expiration to help reduce food waste.
During several internships with SkyNano, she worked to develop ways to convert atmospheric CO2 into valuable carbon nanotubes.
She was co-president of Next Steps Ambassa'dores, founded the Vanderbilt Gymnastics Club, was president of Vanderbilt's American Chemical Society chapter and supported programs for at-risk youth as a volunteer at Preston Taylor Ministries in Nashville.
She studied abroad in Cameroon, and she did community development work in Bolivia for her Ingram summer project, which she continued through a Nichols Humanitarian Fund award the next year.
After graduation, she will pursue a fellowship exploring technological innovation startups for social impact.
Samuel Elliott Lu
Peabody College of Education and Human Development
Majors in early childhood and elementary education, human and organizational development, and climate studies
Samuel Elliott Lu, from Little Rock, Arkansas, is this year's Founder's Medalist for Peabody College of education and human development. He is a triple major in early childhood and elementary education, human and organizational development, and climate studies.
Lu continues the legacy of teachers in his family in Taiwan and the U.S.
Vanderbilt professors describe him as earnest, inquisitive, hardworking, open-minded and deeply curious about content and pedagogy.
During his internship at Our House Shelter in Central Arkansas, which serves families and youth experiencing homelessness, he worked alongside a classroom teacher to support students' summer learning and foster a love for literature.
He also founded Camp P.L.A.Y., a play-based education program supported by the Nichols Humanitarian Fund.
True to his humble and generous spirit, he credits his cohort with having the greatest influence on his experiences at Peabody.
After graduation, he will be an elementary school teacher in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Thornton Taylor Muncher
Divinity School
Master of Divinity
Thornton Taylor Muncher, from Sumiton, Alabama, is this year's Founder's Medalist for the Divinity School. He is graduating with a master of divinity.
Muncher earned a Carpenter Scholarship and a Blakemore-West End UMC Scholarship. His academic interests include Jewish studies, Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies, and global Christianities and interreligious encounters.
He was a teaching assistant in the Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, served on the Divinity School Honor Council and presented at meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion-Southeast Region and Belmont University.
Participating in the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics had a profound impact on him, as he and other graduate students and future leaders explored ethical responsibilities in their own fields by analyzing the decisions and actions of professionals during the Holocaust.
After graduation, he will be a program coordinator in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He also is pursuing ordination in the United Methodist Church.
Mellissa Brandy Meisels
Graduate School
Doctor of philosophy in political science
Mellissa Brandy Meisels, from Portland, Oregon, is this year's Founder's Medalist for the Graduate School. She is graduating with a doctor of philosophy in political science.
Meisels is a scholar of congressional elections and money in politics, with novel insights made possible by her extensive and original data collection. At Vanderbilt she was a Russell G. Hamilton Scholar and received the Provost Pathbreaking Discovery Award.
She is already achieving impact in her field through peer-reviewed publications in top journals, speaking engagements and stellar teaching. She was the teaching assistant for the first class offered in the new data science minor at Vanderbilt, which had more than 100 students from every major and discipline across the university, with significant variation in prior knowledge and skills.
Meisels is now at Yale University as a postdoctoral associate and in July will join Yale's Department of Political Science as an assistant professor.
Rachel Michelle Dodge
Law School
Doctor of jurisprudence
Rachel Michelle Dodge, from Greenville, South Carolina, is this year's Founder's Medalist for the Law School. She is graduating with a doctor of jurisprudence.
Dodge will be the first attorney in her family-a personal milestone and a testament to her strong family foundation. At Vanderbilt, she won the Robert F. Jackson Memorial Prize and scholastic excellence awards for highest grade in Torts, Property, Constitutional Law I, Constitutional Law II, American Legal History, Corporations and Business Entities, Environmental Law, and Professional Responsibility.
She won the Candidate's Award from Vanderbilt Law Review for her position as a notes editor. She was chair of service for Law Students for Life and philanthropy coordinator for Women's Law Student Association.
Dodge is grateful to her parents for their support and to the law faculty who inspired her to not only pursue excellence, but also invest in others and take joy in their successes.
After graduation, she will join Bradley Arant Boult Cummings as an associate. In 2027 she begins clerking for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Carter Lakin Lovvorn
School of Medicine
Doctor of medicine
Carter Lakin Lovvorn, from Nashville, Tennessee, is this year's Founder's Medalist for the School of Medicine. He is graduating with a doctor of medicine, and he earned a certificate in health equity.
When Lovvorn began his studies at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, he was already familiar with and fond of Vanderbilt; he is the son of a Vanderbilt professor of pediatric surgery.
He said he was drawn to pediatrics partially because of his positive experiences working with young people. He has always enjoyed being a mentor-captaining sports teams in high school, tutoring student-athletes as an undergraduate, and caring for young patients during medical school.
Lovvorn was co-president of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and volunteered as a certified medical interpreter and a care coordinator at Shade Tree Clinic, which provides free health care to uninsured people in the Nashville community.
He also worked on research with Dr. Natasha Halasa to explore social barriers to pediatric vaccination in Nashville.
After graduation, Lovvorn will begin a residency in pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and he expects mentoring, teaching, public and community health, and working with Spanish-speaking patients, to be a vital part of his future.
Vicky Nicolas
School of Nursing
Master of science in nursing
Vicky Nicolas, from Orlando, Florida, is this year's Founder's Medalist for the School of Nursing. She is graduating with a master of science in nursing.
Nicolas' studies have prepared her to be an adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner.
At Vanderbilt, she received the DAISY Award recognizing extraordinary nurses and nursing students and was selected for a federal Health Resources and Services Administration-funded grant that provided nurse practitioner clinical experience in rural and underserved health clinics in Kentucky.
She also was part of a team providing vaccinations and health screening assessments with the Vanderbilt Mobile Vaccine Clinic and began fostering relationships with communities she plans to serve.
Nicolas said she was inspired to become a nurse by an aunt who became her adoptive mother. Aunt Adeline was a single parent who became a certified nursing assistant despite poverty and other hardships and made a difference for her patients. Nicolas has embraced her aunt's belief that serving others makes life fulfilling.
Robert Rickard
Owen Graduate School of Management
Master of business administration
Robert Davis Rickard, from Austin, Texas, is this year's Founder's Medalist for Owen Graduate School of Management. He is graduating with a master of business administration.
Rickard's MBA concentrations were finance, operations and analytics, and strategy. He was honored as a Dean's Scholar, a Bruce D. Henderson Scholar and an E. Bronson Ingram Scholar.
Rickard said that two influential courses for him were corporate financial policy and corporate strategy, which reinforced his interest in consulting and in tackling complex, high-impact business challenges.
As vice president of the Owen Strategy and Consulting Club, a peer coach and a case coach, he helped first-year MBA students navigate the consulting recruiting process, and he was also a teaching assistant for managerial finance and operations management.
Rickard is grateful to his parents, Rob and Polly Rickard, for their support and to the Owen community for making his MBA experience professionally valuable and personally fulfilling.
After graduation, he will return to McKinsey & Company in the St. Louis office.
- Look for more stories in the Class of 2025 storytelling series
- Check out a list of past Founder's Medalists
