Joseph Robert Bissonnette of Lewiston was awarded the degree of honors bachelor of arts, summa cum laude, at the 115th commencement exercises at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., on May 17.

The college bestowed upon him the Chancellor’s Award as the graduate with the highest academic average. The dean of the college, the Rev. Augustine Kelly, said, “He failed to achieve an A in only six courses, and in all of those six he garnered an A minus.”

A philosophy major, Bissonnette received the Joseph B. MacDonald Award in Philosophy and a Certificate in French Language and Literature. He was inducted into the Tau Chapter of Delta Epsilon Sigma, National Catholic Scholastic Honor Society and into Pi Delta Phi, Kappa Epsilon Chapter, National Honor Society in French.

Active in the school community, Bissonnette was president of the Honors Program Student Advisory Council and was a member of the college’s choir.

He walked the Road for Hope, an eight-day trek from Saints Peter and Paul Basilica in Lewiston to the Abbey Church at the college to raise money for charities. He performed with the Abbey Players, the college’s student theater, and sang bass in a four-man a cappella group, the Acafellas. He volunteered as an altar server, taught religious education at a local parish and was a student representative on a three-college committee formed to spiritual growth.

Bissonnette will pursue a master’s degree in philosophy at Boston College in the fall. He is a 2004 graduate (valedictorian) of St. Dominic Regional High School in Auburn and is the son of Ronald and Donna Bissonnette of Lewiston.