Every year, the honor society awards 60 fellowships of $5,000 each and 40 Awards of Excellence of $2,000 each to members entering the first year of graduate or professional study. Phi Kappa Phi, founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, is the nation's oldest and largest honor society for all academic disciplines. Its chapters are on more than 300 campuses in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

The Wolfe Fellowship is for honorees majoring in agriculture, classical Latin or ancient Greek, or English. He will receive $5,000 for graduate school.

Heery is an Honors Tutorial College classics and English double major with particular interest in the Late Antiquity period, which lasted from approximately 250 to 750 A.D. His HTC honors thesis under development is titled "Origen on Love: the Synthesis of Christianity and Platonism."

"Academically, he does brilliant work," Steve Hays, associate professor of classics and world religions, said of Heery. "Organizationally, he is amazingly motivated, self-directed and capable."

During his time at Ohio University, Heery has been an active member and leader in numerous organizations including Student Senate, Amnesty International and Unify. He serves as an elder at the First Presbyterian Church and as the assistant and community discussion coordinator for the Difficult Dialogues program.

In the fall, Heery will begin work on a master of divinity degree at the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he has received full financial support for the two-year program. He already has begun the three-year ordination process with the Presbyterian Church and intends to enter parish ministry after obtaining his master's degree. He also is considering eventually obtaining his doctorate with the prospect of teaching, continuing parish ministry or doing interfaith peace work abroad.