- Our students have a myriad of opportunities to get involved and engaged with our colleges through leadership, internships, volunteering and paid positions. We rely on our student leaders to support our community of students through their amazing efforts. We simply could not do what we do without our student leaders. In order to pay tribute and acknowledgment of their efforts, we dedicate this page to our student leaders’ incredible contributions to our Colleges. Thank you and we hope you are inspired to continue this imperative work here and beyond.
Student Leadership Recognition Ceremony
Every year at the end of Spring quarter, we gather with our amazing student leaders to celebrate, acknowledge and honor their contributions to our Colleges. Thank you for all you do for our Colleges!
Our Leadership Awards are as follows:
College Nine Leadership Certificate
College Nine Pathways to Academic Disctinction
Jay Johnson
Jay Johnson was a CSO at College Nine and John R. Lewis College from when College Nine was first founded through Fall of 2006, when he passed away on duty. Jay cared deeply about the students and took time to learn their names, joke and chat with them about their lives, help them out with their questions, and point them in the right direction. He is remembered for his commitment to our colleges and for the positive impact he had in shaping our community. In honor of this amazing individual, the Jay Johnson awards were created.
There are two categories of the Jay Johnson award.
The Jay Johnson Leadership Award is presented to current student leaders who are in their third year or higher. Recipients are selected by College Nine and John R. Lewis College Staff.
The 2025 awardees are:
College Nine: Natalie Morales, Shania Miles
John R. Lewis College: Amanda Harrison, Dean Brown, Marianas Fernandez
Non-Affiliate: Mary Hillenbrand
The Jay Johnson Emerging Student Leader Award is intended for a first or second year student, or who are beginning their student leadership journey. Recipients are both nominated and selected by a committee of current student leaders.
The 2025 awardees are:
College Nine: Chris Hein, Annie Nashaly Pari-Candia
John R. Lewis College: Mahima Johnson
Non-Affiliate: Naomi Beal
Sarah Woodside Bury Award
The Sarah Woodside Bury Award, presented in honor of former Senior Director of College Nine and John R. Lewis College Sarah Woodside Bury, recognizes individuals who have centered sustained and outstanding leadership and service within our communities through their dedication to empathy, generosity, sincerity, and compassion. Like Sarah, these individuals exemplify unwavering commitment to the values and themes of our two colleges - advancing social justice and global understanding - and serve as powerful agents of positive change in our communities and beyond.
There are two categories of the Sarah Woodside Bury award.
The Sarah Woodside Bury award is presented to current student leaders who are in their third year or higher. Recipients are selected by College Nine and John R. Lewis College Staff.
The 2025 awardees are:
College Nine: Shay Biggins, Elsie Vizcarra
John R. Lewis College: Christine Collins, Ella Chapman
Non-Affiliate: Alana Stone
The Sarah Woodside Bury Emerging Leader Award is intended for a first or second year student, or who are beginning their student leadership journey. Recipients are both nominated and selected by a committee of current student leaders.
The 2025 awardees are:
College Nine: Amaya Aquino
John R. Lewis College: Isaiah Matsunami, Myrelle Quinto, Key Jones
Non-Affiliate: Laaila Irshad
College Service Award
This next award, called the College Service Award goes to students who have contributed significantly to our colleges and campus during their time here.
The 2025 Awardees are:
College Leadership Certificates
The College Nine Leadership Certificate is an honor that represents significant, sustained leadership connected to the College Nine community and theme of International & Global Perspectives. Over several years, each recipient of the Certificate has participated in various leadership opportunities, ranging from taking college classes, being a member or leader of a college-affiliated group, and holding a student staff position. Through self-nomination and completion of the Leadership Journal, we're able to recognize the graduates that have actively engaged in our College Nine community and built leadership skills that reflect our themes.
The 2025 College Nine Leadership Certificate recipients are:
College Nine Pathways to Academic Distinction
The College Nine Pathways to Academic Distinction: College Nine strives to recognize students who incorporate the theme of “International and Global Perspectives” during their undergraduate career. The theme focuses on perspectives including: economic globalization, human rights, regional conflicts, the environment, and cultural identity. To encourage outstanding achievement, students may be recognized with “College Nine Academic Distinction” upon successful completion of research experiences, course work, service and leadership and/or writing intensive courses focused on the college theme and being a global leader. Students would build on the topics that were introduced in the College Nine Core Course (CLNI 1) such as: Globalization, Food Justice, Global Inequality, Migration, Universal Human Rights, and What actions individuals and communites can take.
We acknowledge that learning styles and educational commitments are unique and personal. “Academic Distinction” is unique from other college awards, in that all qualifying work is based on research experiences and academic courses taken for credit towards a UCSC undergraduate degree. This award comes with special recognition at commencement, a certificate of achievement signed by the College Nine Provost, and can be used on future resumes and graduate school applications.
The 2025 College Nine Pathways to Academic Distinction recipients are:
Good Trouble Academy
The Good Trouble Academy (GTA) joins together academic class offerings across campus, co-curricular programming at College Nine and John R. Lewis College, and student-initiated opportunities to support a pathway for students to become social justice change agents. Students will participate in an experience (class, club, internship, etc.) and then complete the reflection on the GTA Canvas course reflecting on how the experience aligned with the principles and enlivened their own educational experience at UCSC.
The 2025 Good Trouble Academy certificate recipients are:
Chancellor's Award and Dean's Award for Undergraduate Research:
College Nine
Dean's and Chancellor's Award
Baskin School of Engineering - Aurora Hofkin: Biochemical Characterization of Human Astrovirus 1 RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase
Baskin School of Engineering - Naomi Rehman: Incorrect-Path Prediction for Power Throttling Speculative ExecutionDean's Award
Baskin School of Engineering - Emil Wilson: Annota: Measuring The Impact of AI Feedback for QA Education.
Baskin School of Engineering - Sriya Katreddi:“Who thought .zip was a good idea”: Analyzing Maliciousness in Newly-Released gTLDs.
Humanities Division - Emmy Ceron: Bad Bunny: Music with a Purpose.
Physical & Biological Sciences Division - Stuti Garg: A New Census of the Universe's Entropy.
Social Sciences Division - Chelsey Tien: Caregiver's use of praise during a collaborative problem-solving task involving causal reasoning.
John R. LewisDean's and Chancellor's Award
Arts Division - Gillian O'Leary: Girl Blood, An Original Play.
Dean's AwardArts Division - Annalie Taylor: Stone and Body.
Baskin School of Engineering - Brian Nguyen & Tejas Polu: Annota: Measuring The Impact of AI Feedback for QA Education.
Baskin School of Engineering - Prasiddh Pooskur:“Who thought .zip was a good idea”: Analyzing Maliciousness in Newly-Released gTLDs.
Physical & Biological Sciences Division - Ishan Kollipara: A New Census of the Universe's Entropy.
Social Sciences Division - Sophia Spry: AI Driven Welfare Reform: Predictive Risk Models in New Zealand, Chile, and the US. Mentor: Sara Niedzwiecki
Social Sciences Division - Audrey Yu: Language Effects on Parent-child Conversations About Human Traits.
Student Leadership Recognition at College Nine and John R. Lewis College
Social Sciences Division Awards
