The Otto Graf and Jack Meiland Scholarships honor the late Professors Otto Graf, who served as director of the Honors Program for eighteen years, and Jack Meiland, who championed interdisciplinarity in the Honors curriculum. They are given to rising seniors - students whose educational careers and aspirations embody our engaged liberal arts pedagogical philosophy. In application essays and interviews, applicants are asked to reflect upon the depth of their specialization in their honors major, the breadth of intellectual curiosity displayed in their elective courses, the demonstrated leadership potential and commitment to improving the lives of others in their co-curricular activities. Many of our Graf and Meiland Scholars go on to become nominees for top national awards such as the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford.

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Adesewa Ojo is a senior studying history and writing a thesis on the surveillance of the Black Panther Party. After graduation, Adesewa plans on pursuing a PhD in History. 

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Joseph Reichelt is graduating in May 2026 with a B.A. in Organizational Studies from the College of LSA and B.M. in Viola Performance from SMTD. While at Michigan, he has been involved in musical performance activities on and off campus, while also utilizing his liberal arts education to understand that challenges and opportunities facing arts organizations today. His Organizational Studies thesis, “For the Joy of the City: Adaptation and Change at the Detroit symphony Orchestra” applied organizational theory to understand how a leading American orchestra is grappling with the rapidly changing artistic landscape of the 21st century. He is grateful for the rigorous and expansive liberal arts and musical education the University of Michigan has afforded him, which he will carry with him as he seeks to use music to build connection and empathy in an often fractured world.

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Meghan Wysocki is from Grosse Pointe, MI. She is a double major in Anthropology (Medical) and Music at the University of Michigan, where she studies the carillon under Dr. Tiffany Ng and the organ under Dr. Caroline Robinson. Meghan's thesis explores how the Mayo Clinic's Rochester Carillon destabilizes and reinvents western bioethical principles through its interlocutors, physical presence, and music performed. On campus, Meghan helps lead the University's pilot arts prescription program, ArtsRx, and holds prior internship experience with the U-M Institute for the Humanities and the U-M Detroit River Story Lab. After graduation, she plans on pursuing graduate education in bioethics.