David Hanna of Valdosta, Georgia, is the recipient of the Fall 2017 President’s Award for Academic Excellence for the Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration at Valdosta State University.

The President’s Award for Academic Excellence is presented to the graduating student with the highest grade point average in each of VSU’s five colleges — Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration, College of the Arts, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education and Human Services.

VSU will celebrate its 224^th commencement on Friday, Dec. 8, and Saturday, Dec. 9.

Hanna will serve as the official banner carrier for the Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration during the undergraduate commencement ceremony at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9, on the VSU Front Lawn. He will graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting and an Honors College Certificate.

“It is such an honor to represent the Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration and all of my fellow classmates in the fall commencement ceremony,” he said.

As a student at VSU, Hanna was a member of the Institute of Management Accountants, where he served as president; Beta Gamma Sigma: The International Business Honor Society, where he served as president; the Business Student Advisory Council; the Beta Tau chapter of Phi Kappa Phi; Alpha Lambda Delta: National Honor Society for First-Year Students; the Valdosta chapter of the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants; and Sigma Alpha Pi: The National Society of Leadership and Success, where he served as a member of the executive board and earned the National Engaged Leader Award in 2017.   

Hanna’s commitment to academic, research, and service excellence on campus, in the community, and around the world resulted in him earning the 2017 Outstanding Senior Accounting Major Award and the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants Academic Excellence Award from the Department of Accounting; the 2017 Clare Philips Martin Scholarship; a $10,000 merit-based scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board; the 2017 Institute of Management Accountants Memorial Education Foundation Scholarship; the 2017 Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants Coastal Chapter Scholarship; the 2016 Georgia Society of Certified Public Accounts Georgia Chapter Scholarship; a 2016-2017 Georgia Gulf Sulfur Scholarship; the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 Ty Cobb Educational Foundation Scholarship; and a 2015-2016 Colquitt EMC Scholarship.

Hanna won first place in the 2017 Institute of Management Accounts Manuscript Competition, writing about his experiences with the organization. He volunteers with Second Harvest of South Georgia Inc., the leading hunger-relief organization in the region and the second largest food bank in Georgia. He also volunteers with Valdosta-Lowndes County Habitat for Humanity, an organization that gives families a chance to thrive and succeed by building homes. He is a member and lector at St. John Catholic Church in Valdosta.   

Hanna plans to continue his education at VSU in Spring 2018 and pursue a Master of Accountancy. His ultimate goal is to become a certified public accountant and to work in public accounting, where he believes he will be “better able to serve my clients.” He is the son of Joseph and Gezel Hanna.