High School Seniors Receive Honda-Ohio State Math Medal Award

NOTE: The complete list of Class of 2008 Math Medal winners follows this release.

Marysville, Ohio—High-achieving high school seniors from throughout west-central Ohio will receive the Honda/Ohio State Partnership Math Medal Award from a partnership between Honda of America Mfg. Inc. and Ohio State University tomorrow (11/2) at an 8:30 a.m. ceremony at Honda in Marysville. The award recognizes and honors the students’ achievements in their mathematics courses throughout high school.

More than 300 friends and family are scheduled to attend the ceremony as the 113 Math Medal winners from the Class of 2008 receive their Math Medals. The award is presented through the Honda-Ohio State Partnership Program that supports initiatives in education, research and public service.

“Math can help you develop whatever it is you dream of, but the important thing is that you have a dream,” said Akio Hamada, President and CEO of Honda of America Mfg. “The skills that you have demonstrated in using math will provide you with a set of tools for anything that you dream about doing in your lives.”

These math scholars have the opportunity to apply for a Honda-Ohio State Partnership scholarship at Ohio State’s College of Engineering. Totaling $2,500 each, up to 12 scholarships will be awarded to this year’s Math Medal recipients for the 2008-09 academic year and can be renewed for a total of four years.

“We’re proud to recognize these outstanding math students, in particular because this award and scholarship highlight opportunities in the engineering field,” said William A. “Bud” Baeslack III, dean, Ohio State College of Engineering. “This award encourages exceptional math students to investigate academic opportunities at the College of Engineering and employment opportunities at companies like Honda.”

In addition to the award — a boxed pewter medal and certificate — the Math Medal winners will receive a savings bond.

All 156 high schools near Honda operations in 15 west-central Ohio counties were asked to select their best senior math scholar for the Math Medal, based on academic performance at the end of the student’s junior year in 2007.

The Honda-Ohio State Partnership Program is an unparalleled, bilateral collaboration between Ohio State and Honda of America Manufacturing that supports initiatives in education, research and public service to positively impact students, faculty, public and private sector practitioners, and the transportation industry as a whole.

Earlier this year, Business Facilities magazine, a leading publication for corporate executives, ranked the Honda/Ohio State Partnership among the top five industry-university partnerships in the U.S., along with Stanford, MIT, the University of California system and Penn State.

Honda operates two auto plants and motorcycle, engine and transmission plants in Ohio, along with a major vehicle research and development center and engineering, logistics and purchasing operations in the state. With 12,000 associates — including more than 1,000 engineers — Honda is one of Ohio’s largest private employers.

Ohio State’s College of Engineering is ranked among the top 15 public university engineering programs in the country by U.S. News and World Report, and our 4,700 undergraduate students choose from 13 different engineering majors.

More information about the Honda-Ohio State Partnership Program is available at http://elearn.eng.ohio-state.edu/honda.

Honda-Ohio State Partnership

Class of 2008 Math Medal Award Recipients, by County and High School

Contact: Gina Langen, 614-688-4423