Desormeaux selected as top UL Lafayette graduate

Amélie Desormeaux, who lives in Abbeville, was recently chosen by the University of Louisiana as the Outstanding Graduate for the Fall 2016 graduation which took place on Friday.
She was first chosen by her professors as the Outstanding Graduate in Political Science, and was then chosen by the Dean as Outstanding Graduate for the College of Liberal Arts.
Following an interview and selection process by the UL Alumni Association, she was announced as the recipient of this most prestigious honor.
Amélie is a Political Science major with a concentration in international relations, and a minor in Spanish, and has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her undergraduate studies.
Amélie has been on the President’s List, received the Colonel Thomas Ritchie Memorial Endowed Scholarship, has been a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and received the Honors Convocation Certificate of Recognition.
Amelie has worked as the Global Solidarity Animator for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in the Diocese of Lafayette for 2 ½ years.
With this office, she has created a Legislative Advocacy team, where Catholics met with US Senators and Representatives to lobby for social justice and moral issues. Additionally, she strived to create opportunities and provide education for local Catholic schools and parishes to pray about, learn about, and respond to the issues faced by the poor, both local and global.
While at UL, Amélie was the creator and President of the CRS Ambassadors, a member of the Eugene Scassa Mock Organization of American States, El Club Española, the International Affairs Society, the Megapreneurship Society, the Honors Program and the Political Science Club.
As a founding member of CRS Ambassadors at UL, she led an interfaith prayer service for the Syrian refugee crisis, and held a “fair trade campaign” to put collegiate-wear clothing in the bookstore that is created by workers who earned a living wage.
Active in the community, Amélie has volunteered as a translator for Hispanic women, tutored at Missionaries of Charity after school Program, organized games for children and chaperoned on field trips during summer camp. She has also volunteered at St. Joseph’s Diner, co-founded Freetown Friends Society and Lafayette Creatives. She has participated in mission trips to Mexico and India where she served people by building and painting homes, distributing food rations, bringing healthcare and economic opportunities and ministering to small villages.
Amélie is engaged to Zachary Tanner of Lafayette, with plans to wed in February. The couple will move to Peru for 4 months to work in a dormitory and high school for young girls. She plans to teach English, conduct workshops and create a bakery there to provide sustainable funds to the dormitory. She will then move to New Orleans and pursue a dual-master’s degree at Tulane University in Maternal and Child Health and in Social Work.
Amélie attended Mount Carmel Elementary and is a 2013 graduate of St Thomas More High School in Lafayette. She is the daughter of Scott and Catherine Desormeaux of Abbeville.