Alumni Senior Awards 2025
The Grinnell College Alumni Council has selected two graduates to receive the 2025 Alumni Senior Awards.
The Alumni Senior Awards honor graduating seniors who best exemplify the Grinnell College spirit and to whom the class will continue to look to for leadership as they become the newest members of the alumni community. Seniors were nominated for the award by their class of 2025 peers.
Kate Bartz ’25 and Grace Marsh ’25 were presented with the Alumni Senior Awards at Baccalaureate on May 18 by Alumni Council member Becky Reetz Neal ’65. Below is more information about the two recipients.
Kate Bartz
Kate Bartz has succeeded in her ambition to break the stigma around mental health and create a safe environment for students to receive support.
A swimmer and diver for the Pioneers, Bartz was a campus captain for The Hidden Opponent, an advocacy group that raises awareness about mental health in athletics. The Rosemount, Minnesota native organized the SWACK meet where athletes from the swimming and track teams met in a variety of events from both sports and then took part in a discussion about mental health led by a sports psychologist.
Bartz also has excelled in the classroom, becoming a beloved three-time mentor in the math department. She also conducted multiple high-level research projects, completed a summer engineering research position at the Mayo Clinic, and is looking to the future by applying to Ph.D. programs where she will pursue a degree in electrical and computer engineering with a research focus on medical imaging for radiation oncology. She is passionate about this area of study because of its implications for accessibility and equity in medicine.
In addition, Bartz has advanced the inclusion of women in STEM. As a linear algebra mentor, she fostered a class environment where women felt supported and represented.
“Kate is a brilliant combination of incredible potential, genuine humility, impeccable work ethic, reasonable bravery, service-focused selflessness, pure kindness, and pragmatic optimism,” said math professor Jeff Blanchard. “She is a human-centered scientist.”
Grace Marsh
Grace Marsh was a leader in athletics and academics, and a source of support and wisdom for her peers. She double majored in sociology and psychology and undertook an astonishing amount of guided research during her time at Grinnell.
For two semesters, Marsh did a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) with sociology professor Ross Haenfler and an educational psychologist based in London, where she studied the impact of students’ early college experiences on their understandings of race, sexuality, and ability. Marsh also completed another MAP on paganism in America. As a member of the Sociology Student Educational Policy Committee (SEPC), she actively helped shape the department through the faculty hiring processes and event planning.
A 4-year member of the women’s basketball team, and a 2-year member of the women’s track and field team, Marsh was well-regarded as a teammate and an advocate for mental health. As a co-leader of Queer Athletes and Allies, she cultivated a sense of community amongst LGBTQ+ athletes and their peers.
A native of Salt Lake City, Marsh will pursue a Ph.D. in sociology, where she plans to study Christian nationalism and its impact on social and political structures.
“Grinnell has instilled in me a commitment to academic inquiry as a means of fostering social change, and I will carry that forward by producing research that critically examines power, ideology, and inequality,” she said.
Previous Recipients