Celebrating the Spring 2026 CAS Student Award Winners

🎉 College of Arts and Sciences students were celebrated this semester for their achievements. These honors reflect more than just test scores — they exemplify how UNO students actively apply what they learn in the classroom to everyday life. From leading student organizations to pioneering research in labs, their hard work is a living example of the Maverick movement.

🏆 Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Graduate Poster Presentation:

• Outstanding: Chukwuma Adinchezor, “Gastrointestinal Transit Time in Captive Common Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus): Associations with Stool Consistency and Gut Microbiome Structure”

Graduate Oral Presentation:

• Outstanding: Dominic Koperski, “Investigation of Antimicrobial PA-12 in Selective Laser Sintered Prosthetic Sockets”

Undergraduate Poster Presentation:

• Best: Claire Wing and Jayden Smith, “Cytotoxic Effects of Ethanol on the OVCAR-8 Ovarian Carcinoma Cell Line”

• Outstanding: Chris Schinzel, “Examining Long Term Effects of Antibiotic Administration in Callithrix jacchus”

• Meritorious: Clara Wallace, "Do feeding patterns explain greater energy use observed in cold-adapted prairie lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus) populations?’

• Honorable Mention: Kaitlyn Parker, “Effects of dietary protein during zebrafish (Danio rerio) development on stress expression and cortisol after exposure to chronic stress during adulthood”

Undergraduate Oral Presentation:

• Best: Wells Johnson, “IRE1 and Filamentation in C. albicans”

• Meritorious: Victor Rivero, “Validation of a human-specific, multiplex platform for detecting common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) inflammatory analytes”

🏆 Student Honors Convocation

Undergraduate Major Awards:

• Yasmine Alhejaj | Women’s and Gender Studies
• Nicholas Armstrong | Molecular and Biomedical Biology
• Jannette Castro-Gomez | Latino/Latin American Studies
• McKenna Decker | Chemistry
• Kelsey Golden | Medical Humanities
• Gio Gomez | Political Science
• Lucian Hadford | Bioinformatics
• Vivian Hickman | Religion
• Joel Jarusek | Physics
• Maddy Leland | Environmental Science
• Isabella Manhart | English
• Isabella Martin | History
• Adam McLaughlin | Geography
• Simon Medinger | World Languages & Literature
• Bella Merrill | Interdisciplinary Studies
• Jonathan Schaeffer | Economics
• Chris Schinzel | Biology
• Jaylin Sims | Psychology
• Kyla Talavera | International Studies
• Sloane Vanarsdall | Sociology
• Isabelle Vargas | Neuroscience
• Nathan Walther | Mathematics
• Asia Wewel | Philosophy
• Ursula Ziebolz | Geology

College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Award: Isabelle Vargas

Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence: Isabelle Vargas

Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership: Daniela Martha-Palma

Helen Hansen Outstanding Graduate Student Awards: Grace Gunderson

Outstanding Student Athlete Awards: Jackson Burrus

National Scholarships and Fellowships:

• Moo Law Eh Soe | Fulbright Semi-Finalist
• Zach Venn | Goldwater Scholarship