PULLMAN, Wash. – The annual Top Ten Senior Awards recently were presented to graduating men and women students in five categories by the Washington State University Student Alumni Ambassadors and Alumni Association.
Academics:
Floricel Gonzalez, microbiology and English, whose research won an award at the 2014 National Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students; and Justin Niedermeyer, physics, German and music, who received 2015 Goldwater and Fulbright scholarships.
Athletics:
Mariah Cooks, political science, who is CFO of the Student Athlete Academic Committee, a two-time member of the WSU Athletics All-Academic Team and has twice earned a Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention; and Joseph Dahl, a three-year letter winner with the WSU football team who earned Second-Team-All-America honors from USA Today and was selected by the Detroit Lions in the 2016 NFL draft.
Campus involvement:
Ashley Vu, mechanical engineering, pre-med mathematics and biology, who is captain of the WSU Lightweight Women’s Rowing team, Honors College mentor and ambassador, team mentor for Multicultural Student Services and member of the Student Alumni Ambassadors; and Jansen VanderMeulen, Spanish language and culture and philosophy, who is the WSU student regent and has held numerous leadership appointments with the Associated Students of WSU.
Community service:
Rachel Christensen, human development, and family and consumer sciences education, who has been philanthropy and community service chair for Chi Omega sorority and has worked with Water Access Now to help bring sustainable water to villages in Ghana; and Sreenath Panchagnula, psychology and global leadership, who is has been involved with the Office of the President’s Presidential Committee, ASWSU, the International Students’ Council and the United Students Against Sweatshops.
Visual and performing arts:
Regan Siglin, music performance, who has been fiction editor and manager of The Palouse Review, won the WSU Concerto Competition, was named the WSU Outstanding Senior in Music and earned an academic scholarship from the WSU chapter of Phi Beta Kappa; and Jonathan Matteson, visual arts and music, who has worked for the WSU Museum of Art as a museum education assistant, began collaborations with regional and cultural institutions to design and implement education-based events and is the 2016 Outstanding Senior in Fine Arts.