Kearse Distinguished Lecture and Student Honor Awards Ceremony collection

The Kearse Student Honor Award is given to students in the Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) College of Liberal Arts. During an annual awards ceremony, a distinguished lecturer appears at the Institute to speak about a topic in the field of liberal education. Award recipients are chosen by the Kearse Awards Committee from a pool of students nominated by faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts. Those students that have produced "outstanding research papers or projects" in their area of study are chosen for the award. According to one ceremony program, the purpose of the award is to "recognize those students who have in their course work in Liberal Arts manifested the ideals and standards of excellence, of creative endeavor, and of scholarship."

Started in 1980, the Kearse Award is funded by an endowment left by Mary Geirin Kearse. Mary and her husband Henry J. Kearse were strong supporters of RIT and its programs. Henry founded H. J. Kearse, Inc., a paving contracting company that participated in the construction of RIT's new campus in Henrietta, NY. Following the campus's completion in 1968, the Kearses continued to support the university. Mary Kearse belonged to the Nathaniel Rochester Society, an honorary group opened to RIT's top contributors. Since Mary Kearse did not provide any stipulations on how her gift to the university should be spent, the endowment was used to fund the Kearse Distinguished Lecture and Student Honor Awards.