UB to celebrate student excellence

The accomplishments of UB students will take center stage on April 26 at the annual Celebration of Student Academic Excellence.

The celebration is comprised of two parts: a Student Showcase, where graduate and undergraduate students present the mentored research, scholarship, and creative and community projects they have worked on during the current academic year, and the Celebration Ceremony, where student recipients of select national, SUNY and UB awards are recognized publicly.

“The Celebration of Student Academic Excellence recognizes and celebrates UB students for their many research and academic accomplishments,” says Graham Hammill, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the Graduate School. “It gives us the opportunity as a campus to show our pride in our students’ successes.”

The celebration kicks off at 1 p.m. in Alumni Arena with the Student Showcase, coordinated by the UB Experiential Learning Network.

More than 300 students representing just over 200 projects are taking part in the showcase — pretty evenly divided between undergraduate and graduate students, says Christina Heath, administrative director the Experiential Learning Network.

The showcase moved to Alumni Arena from the Center for the Arts atrium a year ago, which gives the event more space to grow and highlight student projects, Heath says.

“This is truly a Celebration of Student Academic Excellence, as each unit internally selects and puts forth their best student work for participation in this event,” she says.

“This event allows us to come together as a united campus to celebrate all the great work our students are doing. It is so important for us to take the time and create the space to do this. It also gives the students a unique opportunity to share their work with the campus community.”    

The showcase will wrap up around 2:45 p.m., with the focus then moving to the Celebration Ceremony, hosted by President Satish K. Tripathi and Provost A. Scott Weber.

The ceremony, which begins at 3:30 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre, features a welcome by Tripathi, remarks by Weber and on-stage recognition of students in several categories:

• National scholarships and fellowships, among them the Goldwater scholarship, Marshall scholarship, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and Fulbright award, among others.
• SUNY awards, including the Chancellor’s Awards for Student Excellence and the SUNY GREAT (Graduate Research Empowering and Accelerating Talent) Award.
• UB awards, including the Excellence in Research, Scholarship and Creativity Award and the Sigma Xi “Companions in Zealous Research” Award.

A full list of honorees is available on the celebration website.