Saladin becomes Illinois student laureate

Augustana's Chris Saladin was honored with the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award this month, making him a student laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

An awards ceremony recognizing the top students in Illinois were held at the Old State Capital in Springfield Nov. 12. Students and their families also were honored at a luncheon.

Saladin is a senior, majoring in Classics and history. 

Each student received a certificate of merit, a medal of Lincoln, and a $1,000 check.

The awards are presented for excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities to seniors from each of the state's four-year, degree-granting colleges and universities, and one student from the community colleges in Illinois.

This is the 42nd year Lincoln Academy has celebrated students' excellence in Illinois.

Earlier this year, Saladin won Augustana's $5,000 Nils Hasselmo Prize for Academic Pursuit. The annual award recognizes the scholarship of a student in any field who plans on graduate school and a career in academics or research. (See story and video)

In 2015, Saladin received a fellowship from the Etruscan Foundation to help defray the costs of participation at the Poggio Civitate archaeological field school in central inland Tuscany. He worked in the summer of 2015 near the Commune of Murlo, about 55 miles south of Florence.

Saladin is a member of the men's track and field team and represents Campus Ministries to the Student Government Association. He is from Carthage, Mo.