STONY BROOK, N.Y., April 7, 2006 - John R. Ryan, Chancellor of the State University of New York, will honor 270 college students from 62 SUNY campuses with the 2006 Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, Monday, April 10. The Awards are given out annually to students who earn a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.78 or higher and record a significant contribution to their campus or local community.
Fourteen of the recipients are from Stony Brook University, including three from Stony Brook, N.Y.
"Recipients of this year's awards have excelled academically and, in many cases, far exceeded even their own expectations in their pursuit of higher education and community involvement," said Chancellor Ryan. "The Chancellor's Award for Excellence is given to the best and the brightest students across the SUNY System. I am pleased to see so many recipients this year from nearly all of our campuses. I commend the campus presidents and their faculty and staff for discovering and enhancing student excellence throughout the year."
The Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence was created to recognize students who have best demonstrated, and been recognized, for the integration of academic excellence with accomplishments in the areas of leadership, athletics, community service, creative and performing arts or career achievement.
The Stony Brook University recipients are Tejus Bale of Hillcrest, N.Y.; Oumou Tounami Diallo of Stony Brook; Melissa Friedman of Great Neck;, Sara Goldgraben of Bethpage; Nathan Houd of Oswego, N.Y., Celmali Jamie of Bronx; Katherine Kao of Stony Brook; Matthew Marge of Port Jefferson Station; Caroline Park of Stony Brook; Elizabeth Roberts of Schenectady, N.Y. Yi Mei Shi of New York; Alexandra Smolyanskaya, of Staten Island; Marissa Trachtenberg of Freeport; and Michelle Wenderlich of Canandaigua, N.Y.
"We are so proud of these extraordinary students," said Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny. "They enrich the University with their commitment to achieve greater understanding of the key issues we face as a society and to make the world a better place."
Each year, campus presidents establish a selection committee, which reviews exemplary members of their college communities who are graduating. Nominees are then forwarded to the Chancellor�s Office and are subject to a second round of review. Finalists are then recommended to the Chancellor to become recipients of the Chancellor�s Award for Student Excellence.
At Monday's ceremony, which will be held in Albany, each recipient will receive a framed certificate and medallion, which is traditionally worn at commencement. A complete listing on this year's recipients is available online, at www.suny.edu.
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 414,000 students in 6,688 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses. The SUNY Learning Network has more than 53,000 enrollments by more than 34,000 students in more than 3,200 courses and 60 degree and certificate programs. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.
