On May 6, 2022, Dean of Students Jerry Price, Ph.D. held the 2022 Campus Leadership Awards in the Fish Interfaith Center to recognize and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our Chapman students. 

Syndi Au Hoy with Dr. Goldsmith

Cheverton Award Winner Syndi Au Hoy with mentor Dr. Gregory Goldsmith

Cecil F. Cheverton Award Winner Sydni Au Hoy

The Cecil F. Cheverton Award is the oldest and highest undergraduate student honor, awarded by a vote of the full Chapman faculty.

Awarded the Cheverton Award this year is biological sciences major, Sydni Au Hoy. 

Sydni completes her time as a biological sciences student at Chapman University with an outstanding record of accomplishments in research and service to the community.

In collaboration with her teammates from the Grand Challenges Initiative, Sydni and her teammates started working on a project that involved developing a case study of an unusual observation of non-epileptic seizure disorder. They presented their research at the Annual Meeting of the American Neuropsychiatric Society and were awarded te university’s 2021 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize for their research, entitled “Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures Disorder: Treatment after the Diagnostic Odyssey.” She then served among the first authors of the resulting article, “Functional seizures: The Patient’s perspective of a diagnostic and treatment odyssey,” which appeared in a special issue of the journal Epilepsy and Behavior Reports.

Sydni contributed to research on plant microbiology with Dr. Kenjiro Quides and Dr. Hagop Atamian’s research group, as well as wrote a senior thesis in the honor’s program evaluating the decision making of higher education institutions in response to the emergence of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2).

Sydni also provided service to the Schmid College of Science and Technology and the university community as a whole. As the student representative on Schmid College’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force and a committee leader on the Schmid Student Leadership Council, she provided insightful and important contributions to improving the quality of the student experience on campus. She has displayed exceptional leadership as the co-president of the Be KYnd to Your Heart Foundation, an organization committed to spreading awareness of sudden cardiac arrests. 

According to Dean of Schmid College Michael Ibba, Ph.D., “Syndi’s accomplishments speak for themselves. Her service to the college, the university, and the community over the past four years is only a preview of all that she will achieve in the years to come.”

Sydni was also a finalist for the Paul S. Delp Outstanding Service Award which recognizes a graduating senior judged to have made the greatest contribution of public service to the community at large.

Sydni became deeply interested in a career in medicine as a means of giving back, particularly to those in her home community around Honolulu, Hawai’i. She has served as a volunteer in Shriners Hospital for Children, as a counselor for a crisis hotline, and in a vaccine clinic helping to coordinate the distribution of vaccines for COVID-19 at Queens Hospital. In summer 2021, Sydni was a health career summer intern at Hawai’i Pacific Health in Honolulu.

She completed her undergraduate studies in December of 2021 and has been working as an orthopedic medical scribe at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute. In June 2022, she begins a post-baccalaureate clinical observation and medical transcription fellowship at Stanford Medicine.

 

Natanael Alpay with President Struppa

Huntington Award Winner Natanael Alpay with President Struppa

Ronald M. Huntington Outstanding Scholarship Award Winner Natanael Alpay

The Ronald M. Huntington Oustanding Scholarship Award is presented to the graduating senior judged to have exhibited the most distinguished record of scholarly accomplishments while a student at Chapman University.

The Huntington Award this year went to quadruple major, Natanael Alpay.

Natanael began his time at Chapman in spring 2018 and will graduate with degrees in mathematics, physics, computer science and French in spring 2022.

In August 2021, Natanael was the only undergraduate student to present at the annual International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications Conference, which brings together mathematicians and engineers who work in functional analysis and its application to related areas. His talk, titled “Generalized Fock Space and Fractional Derivative,” presented recent mathematical research in spaces of functions relevant in quantum mechanics and signal processing. His work is in collaboration with Paula Cerejeiras and Uwe Kahler from the University of Aveiro.

Natanael plans to continue his education and pursue a doctoral degree in mathematics.

 

Outstanding Leaders in Each Class

The Chapman Outstanding Leadership Awards are given to outstanding leaders in each class for their leadership and dedicated service to the quality of life and campus community programs at Chapman University. Undergraduates from across Schmid College were recognized. 

Outstanding Seniors Award Winners

  • Nayiri Alexander – Biological Sciences (Human Anatomy emphasis) and Physiology majors, Chemistry minor
  • Abby Bechtel – Physics and Computer Science majors
  • Tracie Okumura – Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major, Computational Science minor

Outstanding Juniors Award Winners

  • Jillian Fahey – Biological Sciences major, Psychology minor
  • Michelle Tran – Applied Human Physiology major, Chemistry minor

Outstanding Sophomores Award Winners

  • Rama Bedri – Environmental Science & Policy major, Mathematics and Honors Program minors
  • Camilla Acosta – Biological Sciences major
  • Mo Hijazi – Biological Sciences major
  • Todd Soo – Biological Sciences major
  • Kainani Tacazon – Environmental Science & Policy major, Nutrition minor
  • Jocelyn Valdivia – Environmental Science & Policy major, Chemistry minor

Dean Price recognized students who received notable scholarships. He highlighted junior chemistry major Benjamin Janda and biochemistry and molecular biology major Kevin Nguyen for receiving the 2022 Goldwater Scholarship.

The Phi Beta Kappa Society, the oldest and the most prestigious honors society in the United States, also had 24 Chapman students inducted this year. Biochemistry and molecular biology junior Kylie Deer was inducted and recognized.

We are so proud of our Schmid students! Congratulations to all who were recognized at the 2022 Campus Leadership Awards!