Undergraduate Education celebrates faculty, staff, students

By Beverly Makhani, Office of Undergraduate Education

PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University faculty, staff and students were recognized for excellence at the eighth Office of Undergraduate Education awards ceremony on April 21 in the CUB ballroom.

Richard G. Law Excellence Award for Undergraduate Teaching: Jeanette Clayton Martin, a senior instructor in mathematics, whose students research and write about ways in which mathematical concepts apply to their areas of interest, thus uniting the broad goals of general education with the specific skills of math.

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McNassar, left, and representatives of the Environmental Science Club and ASWSU Environmental Sustainability Alliance.

Common Reading Excellence Awards: Jack McNassar, anthropology doctoral student, for his “Garbology in the Halls” and “Bring Your Own Garbage” events, and the Environmental Science Club and ASWSU Environmental Sustainability Alliance for their support of common reading events and programming.

Learning Communities Excellence Award: Kurt Wilkie, geology instructor, for contributions over many years to the First-Year Focus living-learning community, including: his Geology 101 course where students personalize their learning experience; his steady communication with First-Year Focus residence hall staff partners; and his deep concern for the success of his students.

Excellence in Support of Undergraduate Research Award: Clinical assistant professors Samantha Gizerian, integrative physiology and neuroscience, and Jeremy Lessman, chemistry, for being “indispensable,” knowledgeable, long-time members of the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) team.

Susan H. McLeod Writing across the Curriculum Travel Grant: Johnna Lash, English/rhetoric and composition doctoral student, to present a paper, “Common Ground: Critical Literacy as a Model for Sustainable and Inclusive Practice,” at a meeting of the Council of Writing Program Administrators.

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Torres with Victor Villanueva, Writing Program director.

Harold and Jeanne Rounds Olsen Writing across the Curriculum Graduate Fellowship: Jonathan “JT” Torres, educational psychology and anthropology graduate student, in recognition of his commitment to and immersion in writing across the curriculum (WAC), and for exemplifying WAC from his scholarly to his personal work.

CLASP Advocate Award: Anna Plemons, English/rhetoric and composition doctoral student, and Rachel Sanchez, English instructor and CLASP Writing Commons coordinator, for championing the vision of the Critical Literacies Achievement Success Program (CLASP) and helping it develop.

CLASP Faculty Award: Matt Frye, English doctoral student and graduate instructor, for commitment to his CLASP students and for conscientiously implementing CLASP critical pedagogies into his teaching.

ACADA-WSU ACADA Outstanding Achievement in Academic Advising Awards: Teresa Phimister, advisor and academic coordinator, arts and sciences at WSU Vancouver, in the advising-primary role category; Leah Rosenkranz-Wurst, academic coordinator, civil and environmental engineering, in the new advisor-primary role category; Justine Rupp, academic coordinator senior in the School of Biological Sciences, in the advising-administrator category; Mary Sánchez Lanier, associate director and clinical associate professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences, in the advising-faculty role category; and, Aaron Whelchel, instructor at WSU Vancouver, in the new faculty advisor category.

WSU Student Employee of the Year Award: Ashley Vu, mechanical engineering, works as an alumni engagement intern at the WSU Alumni Association.

SURCA Awards: Four additional recipients of gray awards at the 2015 Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) were announced. Awardees in SURCA’s organismal, population, ecological and evolutionary biology category are: Nicholas Greene, neuroscience and psychology; Scott Mitchell, biology; and Daniel Nicoara, biochemistry. In SURCA’s molecular, cellular and chemical biology category: Brandon Graham, bioengineering.

Norma C. Fuentes and Gary M. Kirk Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research: Sophia Beyer, chemistry; Kyra Christiansen, interior design and construction management; Meredith Kuchera, food science; and Alexander Wood, computational neuroscience.

Emeritus-winners
Emeritus Society award winners.

WSU Emeritus Society Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Awards: Colleen Chalmers, psychology and human development, in the social, behavioral and economic sciences category; Molly Diamond, zoology, biosciences category; Jake Gray, chemical engineering and chemistry, physical sciences and engineering category; and John Menard, history, arts and humanities category.

Harold and Jeanne Rounds Olsen Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Writing Awards (top Junior Writing Portfolios WSU-wide): Carrie Birmingham, management operations, Global Campus; Adrienne Carlson, electrical engineering, WSU Tri-Cities; Emily-Ann Cross, social sciences, WSU Vancouver; Dustin Davis, English, WSU Vancouver; Kyle Hansen, philosophy; Rebecca Hoerner, computer science, WSU Tri-Cities; Luke Holbert, astrophysics; Brittany Kalahiki, psychology; Alexis Rapozo, zoology; and Grace Reed, English.

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Laura Abbott

Stanley P. Williams Award for Excellence in Tutoring: Laura Abbott, creative writing and neuroscience major.

College Success Scholar Leadership Awards: Dae’Janae Anderson, criminal justice and criminal sociology; Delfino Dominguez, criminal justice and psychology; Gabriel Dumbrique, human development; Gabriela Ibanez, psychology and Spanish; Sabrina Lester, psychology; Onan Lopez-Cabrera, criminal justice; Samantha Romero-Sabo, biology; and Shelby Swofford, international business and finance.

International Tutor Training Award: Zamzam Abdulgani, communication and society; Jamie Alliston, math/actuarial science; Kianna Anderson, kinesiology/movement studies; Belen Carriedo, criminal justice and criminology, and sociology; Elizabeth Dellinger, philosophy, English, and history; Weian Fan, electrical engineering; Jeremy Frank, management information systems; Luke Hembree, math/actuarial science; Ally Hochanadel, psychology and criminal justice and criminology; Yun Liu, materials science and engineering; Jocelynne Lo, psychology and communication/strategic communication and advertising; Lucy Mambo, psychology; Brian Monatanarelli, political science and communication/journalism and media production; Jesse Nelson, microbiology/molecular biology; Jordan Nelson, basic medical science; Kiah Rose, mathematics/secondary education; Miles Saul, computer engineering; Lauren Setzer, pre-nursing; Karson Taylor, economic sciences/economic development and international business; Yizhuo Zhang, civil engineering; and Song Zheng, biochemistry and molecular biology.