The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) recognized UNA graduate student Madeleine Frankford as a 2018 Honors Student April 18.

The award honors students who demonstrate exceptional scholarship, leadership and community service in the field of family relations, according to their website.

Frankford said the award inspires her to do more.

“When I opened the email notifying me that I had been selected as an NCFR Honors Student, I audibly gasped,” she said.  “It is incredibly encouraging to know that my ongoing efforts to educate the UNA community about Title IX policy, bystander interventionand healthy relationships is recognized as valuable by such a prestigious national organization.”

Frankford is a graduate from UNA’s Department of Sociology and Family Studies with a major in Family Studies. She is pursuing her M.S. in family studies and maintains a 4.0 GPA at the graduate level.

NCFR is a professional association for understanding families through multifaceted research, study and practice, according to their website. NCFR produces three peer-reviewed academic journals which feature research about families from around the world.

NCFR awarded honors to 56 college and university students who completed their academic programs in spring 2018, according to their website.

Frankford said in an April 6 press release the honor is evidence of the wonderful support she received from the Sociology and Family Studies’ faculty both as an undergraduate and now as a graduate student at UNA.

Associate professor of Sociology and Family Studies Amber Paulk said Frankford’s success in the classroom is impressive.

“Madeleine serves as UNA’s Title IX Graduate Assistant Coordinator,” she said.  “Her responsibilities include managing data collection for the university-wide Student Campus Climate Survey, organizing and marketing all Title IX related programming on our campus, and facilitating Title IX and Bystander Intervention trainings in First Year Experience (FYE) courses and other venues on campus.”

Paulk said Frankford has become a masterful prevention educator, tireless advocate, and emerged as a leader in the movement to end violence on campus and in the local community in an April 6 press release.

Junior Brooke Dolney said she is excited to see UNA students recognized for their hard work.

“I think it’s great when students are recognized by national programs like (the NCFR),” she said. “It inspires me to try harder and do more in my own educational pursuits and make this university proud.”