Charles Stamboulian of Farmington Hills is one of two graduating Wayne State University seniors who will receive the prestigious Howard A. Donnelly Award during the university's spring commencement ceremonies at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 6, in Cobo Arena.

The award is given annually to a man and to a woman in the spring graduating class in recognition for outstanding contributions to the university and to the community from the standpoint of student activities, leadership and service, consistent with superior scholarship.

Stamboulian, a graduate of North Farmington Hills High School and the son of Thomas and Linda Stamboulian, will receive a Bachelor of Science in Education degree, magna cum laude. He majored in secondary education and English and minored in mathematics at Wayne State.

A member of the Golden Key National Honor Society, he serves on the university's Student Athlete Advisory Committee and was a student assistant in the mathematics department. He was a volunteer math tutor at Wilson Elementary School in Ferndale and also has served as a student teacher at Beaubien Elementary School in Detroit. Currently, he is completing his student teaching assignment at Southfield High School.

While president of the Society of Armenian Students at Wayne State, he headed projects to raise funds for a hospital in Armenia and for the Armenian Community Center in Dearborn. Other community service activities include participation in the "Motor City Makeover" project and the Farmington area Goodfellows canned food drive. Stamboulian also served as a volunteer camp counselor at the Armenian Youth Federation junior seminar in Pennsylvania.

He participated in men's cross country at WSU for four years and was a member of the team that won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in 2001. He twice earned NCAA Academic All-America honors.

Also receiving a Donnelly Award during WSU commencement ceremonies will be Kathy Borovicka of Amherstburg, Ont. She and Stamboulian are among approximately 3,000 degree candidates in the May graduation class.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.