Commencement Profile: Devon A. Cozad

Devon Cozad has earned a bachelor of arts degree in English, attaining a GPA of 3.85 while proving herself as a classroom leader with excellent analytical and writing skills.

Cozad will receive the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence during the 10:00 a.m. baccalaureate ceremony at Buffalo State's 140th Commencement, Saturday, May 12, in the Sports Arena.

Cozad received numerous honors and scholarships, including the English Department’s Arthur L. Bradford Scholarship, which recognizes exemplary work in literary analysis. She also received the prestigious Presidential Scholarship, along with the All College Honors Scholarship and the Buffalo Federation of Women’s Clubs Scholarship.

In summer 2011, she worked with an English Department faculty member on a research project that examined the commodification of fairy tales and their role in popular culture. In class, she used persuasive arguments in analyzing the literature of Milton, Dostoyevsky, and others. Faculty members praised her outstanding performance on examinations, term papers, and class participation. Her work stood out for her impeccable attention to detail and insightful analysis.

Outside the classroom, Cozad helped her peers by serving as a tutor for three years in the English Department’s Writing Center. She also took many leadership positions on campus, serving on the All College Honors Council (ACHC), the Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, and the School of Arts and Humanities Dean’s Student Advisory Council. Through the ACHC, she became an ambassador to the Foundation Scholarship Gala, and she worked with other honors students to clean up neighborhoods and plant gardens during Extreme Makeover Home Edition Buffalo 2009.

As a volunteer with the Brighton Place Library and Community Resource Center, she founded and moderated the 39 Clues Book Club, a literacy group for children in grades three through five.

She also joined with independent artists across the online community of Etsy.com to collect funds for Oxfam America and the National Wildlife Federation, raising almost $10,000 toward cleanup efforts after the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.