LEXINGTON, Ky. — The national leadership society Omicron Delta Kappa has recognized recent Transylvania University graduate Raisa Tikhtman as a Leader of the Year in the area of campus or community service.
The prestigious award honors students who have demonstrated the greatest dedication to one of five phases of campus life celebrated by ODK: athletics, campus or community service, creative and performing arts, journalism, speech and mass media, and scholarship.
“Raisa Tikhtman is a natural leader in every sense,” said Tiffany Wheeler, who is the ODK faculty advisor at Transylvania and an education professor and program director. “She is poised, decisive, and highly organized. Raisa possesses a collaborative spirit and is adept at enabling others to utilize their strengths while working together for a common purpose. She is also extremely versatile and has been very successful in leading a variety of organizations, which include serving as president of her sorority and ODK, an August term scholar, and a site leader for Transylvania Alternative Spring Break.”
Tikhtman’s leadership qualities match her strengths as a scholar, Wheeler said, noting that she graduated with a 4.0 GPA in both of her majors: biochemistry and French. In fact, the combination became her passport to study nanotechnology in France and traditional medicine in Madagascar.
“The balance between natural science and a humanities-based education is really important to me,” Tikhtman explained. “It’s been essential to my mental stability as a student, and it’s forced me to think in different ways.”
As a recipient of the award, Tikhtman receives a $1,000 scholarship to support her graduate studies, and a $300 grant in her honor is provided to the Transylvania University Omicron Delta Kappa circle.