The Warren Miller Blue Skies Award honors a graduating senior who has helped foster good cheer, a good-humored perspective, and saving grace in the conduct of our everyday lives together on campus. The award’s namesake is a 1960 Beloit alumnus, whose witty and insightful cartoons appeared in the New Yorker Magazine for more than four decades.

Each year, Student Life staff nominate and select the recipient of this award.

Since 1982, Beloit has recognized one outstanding graduate each year to receive this award at Commencement. The roster of Blue Skies Award winners is a remarkable group of alumni, and today, we are pleased to announce that Parker Blunt, of the class of 2020, will be added to this auspicious list of Beloiters.

Parker is a leader, an outstanding RA, a member of Alpha Sigma Tau, SPIEL, and the Student Excellence and Leadership program, and a student who mentored and tutored high school students through Upward Bound.

An anthropology major from Rock City, Illinois, Parker has shown a caring and dedicated interest in the greater Beloit-area community by devoting their free time as a volunteer for organizations such as the Janesville Humane Society and the League of Women Voters.

On campus, from engaging students as an RA through educational posters and events, to prioritizing check-ins with resident students to make sure they’re thriving, Parker has made a difference in students’ lives and enhanced their sense of well-being.

Nominations describe Parker as “bright and positive,” “kind and caring,”—someone with “a supportive spirit and energy” that inspires others.

It is with great pleasure that we recognize Parker Blunt with the 2020 Blue Skies Award.