Each year, the Department of World Languages and Literature holds a ceremony to recognize a select number of students who have shown exceptional achievements in foreign language study from Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Master of Arts in Language Teaching (MALT) and our student organization Sigma Delta Pi. All students, faculty, friends, and family are welcome to join us in celebrating these students.
If interested in learning more about these awards, please contact your advisor to learn about criteria for selection. Nominations are based on students' performance and commitment to language learning.
2026 H&A Ceremony
The Honors and Awards Ceremony will take place on Wednesday-April 8, 2026 at 6 P.M. at the Community Engagement Center (CEC) Room 201/205/209. Here is a link to a map of the UNO campus so you can locate the CEC. There is a parking lot out front.
The program will include a presentation of awards to all honorees in French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. Light refreshments will be provided!
For any questions, please contact Ms. Marie Lee.
2026 Award Recipients
Outstanding Student in the Language
Oustanding Honors are given to one student from each WLL major concentration: French, German and Spanish.
- FRENCH Michael Howatt
- GERMAN Mindy Morgan
- SPANISH Jesús Molina
Departmental Honors
Departmental Honors recognizes a select number of majors and minors for WLL languages with concentrations. For all other languages, the top achieving students are recognized.
- FRENCH Azumi Kuchma, Rose Lampman, Clare Schinzel
- GERMAN Alleta Little, Clint Plozay
- JAPANESE Arisa Lattison, Saral Sapkota, Chris Wagner
- SPANISH Salvador Becerra, Gillian Brink León, Nagely Ortiz Neco, Yanira Ricketts, Emily Salazar
Second-Year Honors
Second-Year Honors recognize students who excel in their language studies at the intermediate level: 2110, 2120 and SPAN 3010.
- FRENCH Isabelle Burchess, Emily Harrelson, Bella McAtee, Sarah Pacholski, Somer Schultz
- GERMAN Mac Caubre, Bennett Schliesser, Joelle Weber
- JAPANESE Daniel Sheehan, Zach Venn
- SPANISH Madeleine Alexander, Veronica Altuzar, Ulises Chairez-Lopez, Aimee Correa, Rebecca Furasek, Morgen Gardner, Anne Maxwell, Monica Mora-Becerra, Andrew Wittwer, Kongmong Xiong
Maverick Language Maven Award
This award recognizes students who are committed to language learning and have shown particular enthusiasm in their courses.
- FRENCH Makayla Acouetey, Ari Vigue
- GERMAN Mac Caubre, Joseph Lee
- JAPANESE Aiden Shackelford
- ITALIAN Samantha Rieke
- SPANISH Maya Dooley, Burk Farley, Samuel Jacobsen, Kat Rivera, Lindsay Sanders, Saral Sapkota, Grace Vaughan
Outstanding Graduate Student - Certificate in Spanish
- Aida Lamelas
Sigma Delta Pi - National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society
- Gabriela Valladares