LCCC Students of the Year
Lehigh Carbon Community College Student of the Year awards are nominated and selected by the LCCC Faculty Association. These award-winning students celebrate service, enrich the campus community, and pursue and achieve big goals. This year’s Student of the Year, Shenandoah DeNardo, and Early College Student of the Year, Meghan Duffy, charted an impressive course at LCCC. Their futures hold the promise of even more.
Shenandoah DeNardo
DeNardo was originally drawn to psychology, but LCCC helped her draw a different conclusion about what really colors her world.
“I’ve been drawing since I was three. And, at LCCC, I learned about technical drawing,” says DeNardo. “It was different from free-flowing drawing. I took a mechanical print reading class, and I absolutely fell in love with it!”
DeNardo graduated magna cum laude with an associate degree in general studies. She is transferring to Lehigh University this fall to match her LCCC-found passion with a major in architecture.
DeNardo was a cyber high school student who wanted the college experience at her own make-sense pace.
“I wasn’t ready to just jump right into a four-year school and live on campus, and LCCC was a nice transition from being completely at home.”
As an Honors Scholar and member of Phi Theta Kappa, DeNardo networked with peers who energized her academically and encouraged her to serve with the Student Government Association.
“I went to one meeting, loved the people, and became vice president,” says DeNardo. “It developed my leadership and communications skills, too. I was not much of a public speaker before, but having to speak at events helped me be in front of a larger audience.”
DeNardo’s friends and classmates modeled success for her, something she says made her strive to be recognized as Student of the Year.
“It was important to me to contribute and give back to the campus community. Past award recipients were really big motivators for me,” says DeNardo. “It was a big wow for me to walk on stage and realize all my hard work paid off.”
Meghan Duffy
Duffy was the clear choice for LCCC’s Early College Student of the Year, thanks to her wide-ranging accomplishments, which included serving as a library assistant, creating and designing t-shirts for the inaugural Day of Kindness and Inclusion (an event she conceived), being an active Special Olympics of Pennsylvania (SOPA) Ambassador, and presenting at the PA Training & Technical Assistance Network’s annual transition conference.
Duffy is a walking (dancing, swimming, and bocce-playing) banner for kindness, inclusion, friendship, and self advocating, thanks in part to Success, Engagement, Education, Determination (SEED), a program that helps students with disabilities navigate college and career transitions. Duffy says SEED equipped her with time management and communication skills, while growing the confidence she needs to feel more independent.
“I like helping people be more inclusive. Kindness makes people happy. It makes them feel loved. This is something that’s very interesting to me,” says Duffy.
These core values, together with Duffy’s love of sports, led her to convene her SOPA coaches, SEED program director, the Student Government Association, and campus activities director to propose a day dedicated to kindness and inclusion at the college.
In March 2024, her idea for a Day of Kindness and Inclusion came alive—complete with posters, a freshly penned LCCC Inclusion Pledge, pizza, bocce, dancing, and other kindness-inspired activities.
“My friends really liked learning bocce,” says Duffy. “Our posters and pledges stayed on the walls for weeks. Students signed the pledge. It was fun!”
Duffy inspired the start of an inclusion-day tradition while earning her certificate in cross-institutional studies. She is transferring to Millersville University this fall for integrated studies.
