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Megan Hoak, Class of 2007, Anthropology

2007 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence Recipient

The Chancellor’s Award is the highest honor bestowed by SUNY upon a student.

Megan Hoak, who has earned a bachelor of arts in anthropology, has demonstrated academic achievement, leadership, and service. She has a GPA of 3.8 (earned while working full-time as a restaurant manager) and has been tireless in pursuit of her long-time ambition of becoming an archeologist. She is especially interested in zooarchaeology, North American archaeology, Paleoindians, and large-game specialization.

Hoak has extended her learning beyond the classroom. She volunteered on an Ice Age excavation at the Hiscock site in Genesee County, directed by the curator of geology at the Buffalo Museum of Science. She participated in the analysis of artifacts from the site, and used the findings to develop an honors thesis exploring the impact of human hunting on large animals such as mammoths and mastodons. She presented her research at the 2006 Student Research and Creativity Celebration at Buffalo State.

To learn practical archaeological methods, Megan applied to a study-abroad program offered by Northern Illinois University. She was accepted, and she traveled to Salemi, Sicily where she took part in a field experience at a site that has been occupied for centuries by people from different cultures.

Hoak, a member of the Anthropology Society and the Archaeological Institute of America, is a focused researcher who is able to organize and complete challenging projects in a timely manner.