by Heather Morales
Staff Writer
Every year, each academic department on campus recognizes the top students in its department in the annual Academic Awards night. Tuesday, the University hosted those students and their families in Founders Auditorium for the ceremony.
Among the awards presented was the Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities citations, which 30 University of La Verne students received.
The Behavioral Science Department awarded nine student honors in the fields of anthropology, behavioral science, criminology, psychology and sociology to seniors Denise Delgado, Shannon McCrea and Rebecca Minor; juniors Katherine Custodio and Shelley Millone; and CAPA students Ellen Danehy, Grace Lim, Jamie Griffiths and Lillia Marin.
The School of Business and Global Studies honored eight students in the fields of accounting, business administration with a marketing emphasis, business administration with a finance emphasis, economics and international business and language.
Recognized were seniors William Creech, David Robles, Julie Henricks-Schafer, Alana Herzog and Starla Willis; juniors Yvonne Robles, Rocio Toscano, Mike Medford and Andy Decker.
In the Computer Sciences, awards were given to junior Veero Der-Karabetian and Kenneth Frank.
The Communications Department handed out six awards with emphases on broadcasting, journalism and communications. Seniors Kieron Estrada, Scott Mac Kay and Cherryl Cercado all received awards, as well as juniors Rob Strauss, Christie Reed and Raechel Fittante.
In the Education Department, four awards were given to senior Josh Sherod and CAPA students Barbara Sommers, Ilene Donner and Jennifer Loula with emphases in diversified education, child development and child life.
The Fine Arts awards were presented to eight students in the areas of art, music, photography and theater arts. Seniors Darcee Golden, Ray Garza, Mario Lopez, Starr Carroll, Margo Fiorito and Erik Johnson received awards, along with Der-Karabetian and junior Debbie Lee.
The foreign language awards went to senior Tieu-My Nguyen in French and senior Martha Fernandez and junior Yvonne Robles in Spanish.
In the Humanities Department, six awards were given out. They were to seniors David Wingfield, Marine Gradzhyan and Shannon Hensley; junior Shannon Beets and international students Aiko Kaneda and Candace Valdenaire in the areas of English, English as a second language, philosophy and religion.
The Natural Sciences Department handed out eight awards in the areas of biology, chemistry, environmental biology and mathematics. Seniors Christina Ortiz, Michael Buckley, Nichole Ford, Sarah Seidman, Don Bundy, Ahlam Attiya and Quyen Nguyen and junior Mohammed Ghonim received awards.
The Physical Education Department handed out four awards to CAPA student Leeann Faucett, a senior, and seniors Guillermo Escalante, Rob Sneider and Deborah Cobbett in the areas of athletic training and teaching.
The Social Sciences gave out five awards to seniors Jenna Bowman, Natalie Lehr, Leo Chan and Virginia Castro and junior Nate Petkewich.
Seniors Willis and Jennifer Rubino both received the Honors Academic Excellence Award. The Honors Essay winners were freshman J.R. Javier in first place, junior Wendy Lau in second place and junior Julie Eklund in third place.
Mac Kay was awarded the General Service Award, as well as the Mike Duffy Award with junior Tracey Landisi. Senior Christina Tejeda received the Dean’s Service Award for her service in all areas of campus life and Gradzhyan was named Tutor of the Year.
The 30 seniors who were honored in Who’s Who were Tammy Abedo, Calvin Bang, Amy Borer, Elisa Carmona, Stephanie Carson, Creech, Lori Cruz, Delgado, Fernandez, Gilbert Gomez, Hensley, Dan Herrig, Herzog, Arthur Huerta, Lee, Lehr, Lim, Mac Kay, Tieu-My Nguyen, Denise Rice, Rubino, Phil Rudulph, Ichiro Sato, Henricks-Schafer, Seidman, Josh Sherod, Stephanie Smith, Tejeda, and Wingfield.
CAPA student Carol Liggins was also honored after being inadvertently left off last year’s list.
Heather Morales
