Cheverton Award recipient announced – Chapman's highest student honor

This year’s Cheverton Award recipient was announced on Friday at the Student Leadership Awards ceremony.   The Cheverton is Chapman’s highest honor for a student,  equivalent to valedictorian of the senior class, and is awarded annually to the outstanding graduating senior.

This year’s Cheverton recipient is Parker Bush — who coincidentally was recently announced as the Commencement speaker for the Argyros School of Business and Economics.  (Guess Parker will now be doing even more speaking at Commencement!)   Parker is receiving his B.A. (in just three years) in economics with a minor in business administration and a cumulative 3.88 GPA. 

Among his international achievements, in the summer of 2009, Parker was selected to join 29 other Mandarin Chinese-speaking students across the country in an exchange program with the U.S. Department of State and Fulbright Scholar program. As the only California representative, Parker’s highlighted experience included his presentation at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to over 200 Chinese citizens on international team building.

While at Chapman, Parker was the lead analyst for the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship, where he co-authored (and published) a paper on campuswide entrepreneurship with Dr. PK Shukla. He served on Chancellor Daniele Struppa’s Student Advisory Board and as a Chapman Ambassador. He also participated on the mock trial team, was a voting member of the Campus Peer Conduct Board and pitched his freshman year for the Chapman baseball team.

Parker is currently a financial analyst for SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, where he plays a leading role in trend analysis, value and profitability modeling for new branches and acquired firms. Upon graduation, Parker is pursing opportunities to enter the world of corporate financial analysis, investment banking, public and private equities, and venture capital. After expanding his expertise in these industries, Parker will concurrently pursue his J.D. and MBA. He aspires to become a domain expert in corporate negotiations, financing, business development, and M+A with a domain expertise in Chinese relations.

Above all, Parker is a big brother to Jenna—a sophomore in high school — and son to Doreen, who is a non-profit development manager and a recent breast cancer survivor.

One of the oldest awards presented by Chapman, the Cheverton Award was established in 1929. The original bronze cup awarded to recipients was a gift of the Class of 1929 and remains on exhibit in the Argyros Forum on campus, along with its successor, a silver bowl. Upon the trophies are engraved the names of all Cheverton awardees since 1929. In addition to academic accomplishments, awardees must demonstrate a “high moral character” and “represent the spirit of Chapman University.” The award is named for Cecil F. Cheverton, Chapman’s sixth president, who served from 1929 to 1941.