Hallie Wielfaert
Lee University announced Hallie Wielfaert as the winner of the 2025 F.J. Lee Award. Ms. Wielfaert was recognized for this honor during a special chapel service.
This annual award was established in 1968 in honor of the second president of Lee University. It is presented to the Lee senior with the overall most outstanding record of student achievement. Award winners demonstrate high standards of integrity, leadership, service, broad campus involvement, and academic excellence. Each department may nominate one student for the award, and from these nominees, a winner is selected by a faculty vote.
“She has been operating at the graduate level in intellectual quality and workload quantity for some time, and has compiled perhaps the most thorough and well-rounded dossier of undergraduate accomplishment I’ve seen at Lee.” said Dr. Chad Schrock, professor of English.
Her school involvements include presidency in the Kairos Honors Scholars Program; presidency of the Humanities Coalition; work in the Office of Admissions, Office of the President, Office of Academic Events, and Office of Online Learning; and a teaching assistant role for British Literature under Dr. Ashley Mulligan. Additionally, she has taken part in the Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society, Bluestockings, a teaching internship at Candies Creek Classical Academy, and has served as a community builder on the Atkins-Ellis Dorm Team.
Ms. Wielfaert has received numerous awards at Lee, such as first place in Humanities research presentations at the McNair-Ledford Research Symposium, first place recipient of the Conference on Christianity and Literature Undergraduate Student Award, recipient of a Colonel Lee B. Ledford research scholarship from the Appalachian College Association, first place paper presentation at the Department of History, Humanities, and Political Science Sims Colloquium, second place critical essay and recipient of a Justin Q. Owen convention award at the International Sigma Tau Delta convention, and was a Lee University Presidential Scholar and Dean’s List member while at Lee.
“It is hard to describe the new and wonderful ways God has worked in my life during my time at Lee,” said Ms. Wielfaert. “These years have been so formative, and I credit this to the incredible faculty, staff, and administration who have chosen to invest in Lee and students like me. I am so honored to receive this award, and in a way, it serves as one reminder of God’s sustaining grace and joy in the opportunities and challenges I’ve encountered at Lee. I am so thankful for the Lee community and my time here.”
In addition to her academic success and extracurricular activities, Ms. Wielfaert has participated in several acts of service, including the Kairos Scholars Annual Serve Day, the “Continuing the Classical Conversation” event for high school students, the Historical Society Cemetery Tour, a literature film night event for high school students, cleaning the Cleveland Greenway with the Creation Care Club, and Lee’s Constitution Bowl event for high school students.
After graduation, Ms. Wielfaert plans to pursue her Master of Arts in English Literature at the University of Toronto in Canada.