Name: Elise Williams

Hometown: North Richland Hills, TX

Major: English with a concentration in classics

Notable UD Memory: Reading original poetry at the Catholic Imagination Conference

Achievements: Belonging to three honors societies, Eta Sigma Phi, Sigma Tau Delta and Phi Beta Kappa; 2023 Sister Frances Marie Manning, S.S.M.N., Award for Excellence in Literary Study recipient; publishing a children’s book which won the Education Department’s Clodecott Award.

Future Plans: Completing the 4+1 program in English at UD.

Elise Williams, B.A. ’23, is a second-generation UD student. Her parents both graduated from UD in 1996 and her siblings in 2020 and 2022. This May, she becomes the fifth Williams to hold a UD diploma but the first to have her name engraved on a plaque, along with other Manning Award honorees, in the English Department office.

“My parents were always very open about letting me choose anything I wanted, but I had been considering English or psychology back and forth, and UD was the best fit either way,” said Williams.

As it turns out, she realized UD was where she was meant to be during a campus visit.

“I came for visit day, and every other visit day I had been running around to classes and, by lunchtime, I was exhausted,” she said.

On her last day, however, she sat on one of the swings outside the Fishbowl, lured in by the quiet of the afternoon. This led to a moment of insight.

“I felt I was finally in a good space, and it was quiet, and I felt like I fit in at UD,” she said.