On Dec. 17, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University will recognize its highest-achieving students from the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences at the fall 2024 convocation ceremony.
Every semester, departments and schools within The College select outstanding students who have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to academic excellence while at ASU. These students are awarded the prestigious Dean’s Medal for their academic achievements.
Meet the Dean’s Medalists from The College for fall 2024:
Aliah Casuse
Dean’s Medal: American Indian Studies
Major: American Indian studies
Casuse will graduate with a degree in American Indian studies this fall.
Throughout her time at ASU, she has grown a passion for Native voting rights and accessibility, as well as working on solutions to critical issues within her community. Casuse thrived in the classroom and collaborated with her peers to gain a deeper understanding of how to support Indigenous peoples.
According to her mentors in the department, her strength of character, intellect and commitment to Indigenized scholarship make her a standout student with a bright future ahead.
Wade Sharp
Dean’s Medal: Department of English
Major: English
After overcoming hardships and homelessness, Sharp will graduate with a degree in English this fall.
While attending school online, he published two stories in the Canyon Voices Literary Magazine, with one detailing his past experiences. His storytelling won him several honors and scholarships such as the Online Undergraduate Research Scholarship Award and the Louis Owens Essay Prize for Excellence in Steinbeck Scholarship for participating in the Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies seminar.
Sharp also earned the Department of English’s High Impact Internship Award, which helped support two internship experiences in which he worked with housing-insecure artists to sell and create their work for free and helped incarcerated felons with their essay writing.
Currently, he is interning as a grant writer for Millionaire Grant Lady to craft proposals for issues including child abuse and senior care.
Logan Pugliese
Dean’s Medal: Department of Economics
Majors: Economics, mathematics
After starting out in a different major, Pugliese discovered his passion for math and will now be graduating with a degree in economics and mathematics.
Pugliese worked as a tutor at the Barrett Math Center. The honors student also had the opportunity to work for Charles Schwab as a risk management intern and will begin his full-time role there as a data analyst after graduation.
He hopes to return to school to work on his master’s degree and PhD in statistics after getting more experience in the industry.
Zachary Hendrix
Dean’s Medal: Department of Physics
Major: Physics
Hendrix will be graduating with a degree in physics.
Alongside his studies as an online student, he is set to be the first author of two manuscripts that cover topics such as the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm and anomalous diffusion. His work under Professor Steve Pressé developed an alternative to the Richardson-Lucy algorithm and a new approach to particle tracking.
He currently has a pending $2 million National Institutes of Health grant for high-speed imaging for biomedical science and has received three Presidential Lifetime Service awards from current and former U.S. presidents.
Natalia Tefft
Dean’s Medal: Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
Majors: Communication, family and human development
Tefft is completing two degrees in communication and family and human development.
She earned several scholarships while attending ASU, including the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication Scholars Program scholarship, and participated in the school’s London, Dublin and Edinburgh study abroad program. She also made an impact on local communities with her behavior analysis work with children with autism.
After graduation, Tefft will continue her education at ASU and work on obtaining her master’s degree in special education (applied behavior analysis).
Sami Al-Asady
Dean’s Medal: School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership
Majors: Civic and economic thought and leadership, political science
Al-Asady, an honors student, is graduating with degrees in civic and economic thought and leadership and political science. He has already started to pave his path in the public service sector.
He was a summer fellow at Princeton’s School of Public Affairs, completed a summer internship with a local congressman’s office and worked with groups committed to protecting the First Amendment. Al-Asady spent two semesters in Washington, D.C., and interned at the White House twice for the Office of Technology and the Coronavirus Task Force.
He also received several awards for his work in this sector, including being named as a Point Foundation Flagship Scholar and one of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 25 Faces of Free Speech.
Mariah Gonzales
Dean’s Medal: School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
Major: Geographic information science
While completing her degree in geographic information science online from Texas, Gonzales has been serving as a full-time Air Force service member.
On top of her busy schedule, she completed two internships with Tomorrow’s Leaders Today Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps develop leaders through education and collaboration with local community and business leaders. Gonzales worked on GIS-based projects and helped collect data, conduct geographic analyses and manage several research projects.
Gonzales is continuing her studies at ASU to complete her master’s degree in program evaluation and data analytics.
Nathanial Clary
Dean’s Medal: School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Major: Philosophy (morality, politics and law)
Clary attended ASU Online as a transfer student and is graduating with a degree in philosophy (morality, politics and law).
Clary originally started off his collegiate career in 2013 studying the music industry in New York after playing a variety of instruments throughout his life, but he realized the subject wasn’t aligning with his academic interests. He discovered a passion for philosophical issues after taking an introductory elective class. It was the first time he found a field of study that heightened his desire to learn as much as he could.
He took a six-year break from school and worked as a senior process technician at GlobalFoundries before starting classes at ASU in 2022.
After graduation, Clary will continue to study at ASU to earn his master’s degree in social data science.
Jenna Mae Schultz
Dean’s Medal: School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Major: Anthropology
Schultz is graduating this fall with her degree in anthropology.
Since 2021, she has worked in several research labs at ASU, including the Jane Goodall Institute Gombe Chimpanzee Archive as a research apprentice organizing and digitizing data from the chimpanzees at Gombe National Park.
This past year, Schultz has expanded her independent research with the Gombe chimpanzees, investigating territory boundaries in the Mitumba and Kasakela communities. She also participated in a National Science Foundation research experience in collaboration with Yale University, traveling to Argentina on a two-month independent research project at the Owl Monkey Project site.
Alaleh Moslehpour
Dean’s Medal: School of International Letters and Cultures
Major: Spanish
Moslehpour returned to school in 2023 after taking a break from university studies.
When she returned, she changed her degree to something she was more passionate about — Spanish — and expanded her love of the language, culture and history with the help of professors in her online degree program. Throughout her studies, Moslehpour worked full time at her family’s business while maintaining perfect grades.
She was also chosen to participate in the Our New Gold International Storytelling Festival, which explores 17th-century Hispanic theatrical and poetic texts that focus on current issues.
Nisha Kulkarni
Dean’s Medal: School of Life Sciences
Majors: Biological sciences (neurology, physiology and behavior), computer science
Kulkarni will graduate with degrees in biological sciences (neurology, physiology and behavior) and computer science this fall.
She was recruited to participate in the Science and Engineering Experience program as a mentee — a program that pairs ASU research labs with local high schools to provide hands-on research experiences to younger students.
This experience was personal for her, as she got involved in ASU’s labs while she was still in high school. Working under Research Professor Hong Lei, she worked on implanting microprobes in bee brains to study neurons and odor stimuli. The research received the Best of Fair award and first place in Animal Sciences Senior at the 2019 Arizona Science and Engineering Fair.
Kulkarni was recognized as a School of Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Scholar for her work and dedication to multiple projects in the lab.
Natalie Kerbel
Dean’s Medal: School of Politics and Global Studies
Major: Political science
Minor: Music
Kerbel is graduating with a degree in political science and a minor in music.
Throughout her busy undergraduate experience, Kerbel gained valuable experience in the political field. This past year alone, she was a Capital Scholar, served as a student voter outreach coordinator and communications fellow for local and national political candidates, and interned for a premier consulting firm in Washington, D.C.
In 2023, she was invited to join Pi Sigma Alpha, a national political science society. Kerbel also received several scholarships, including the Calvin M. Holman and Herman R. Frazier scholarships, for her essays and analysis on the current American political systems and the intersections of sports and politics.
She will pursue a master’s degree in political psychology at ASU after graduation.
Felicity Miranda
Dean’s Medal: School of Social Transformation
Majors: Gender, women and sexuality studies; biological sciences (neurobiology, physiology and behavior)
Miranda will complete her degrees in gender, women and sexuality studies and biological sciences (neurobiology, physiology and behavior) this fall.
During her time at ASU, Miranda immersed herself in the medical field and participated in numerous opportunities across the university. The Phi Beta Kappa member participated in the Comparative Health Systems program in London through the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, as well as worked for ASU’s Sexual and Relationship Violence Program to connect victims and survivors with resources and advocates.
Currently, she works closely with dementia patients at Hospice of the Valley and offers companionship and emotional support to enhance patient well-being.
She has started to pursue a master’s degree in biology and society at ASU and hopes to attend medical school to become an OB-GYN.
Cameron Brooks
Dean’s Medal: School of Earth and Space Exploration
Major: Earth and space exploration (astrobiology and biogeosciences)
After four years on the Dean’s List, Brooks completed his honors degree in Earth and space exploration with an emphasis in astrobiology and biogeosciences.
As the coding lead for his senior capstone project, he helped develop a robust thermal model of the LunaH-Map CubeSat that could be utilized to determine what conditions would cause thermal anomalies to occur. Brooks used the Cameo Systems Modeler Toolkit to create robust simulations of complex systems and developed comprehensive and versatile scripts for data analysis and modeling using Python.
His work on the conditions required to produce stardust grains with low carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios led to an abstract submitted to the prestigious 2024 Goldschmidt Conference, where he presented his findings as the first author.
Brooks is in the process of applying to law school to study patent law.
Justin Le
Dean’s Medal: School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Major: Mathematics
Minor: Applied computing
As an honors mathematics student, Le excelled in some of the school’s most rigorous courses, both in theoretical and applied mathematics. Notably, of the many 400-level courses he completed, six were depth mathematics courses — which are the most challenging.
His honors thesis, supervised by Associate Professor Sebastien Motsch, is titled “Diffusion Models for Generating Samples in Sparse Datasets.” As Motsch’s research assistant, he evaluated a dataset of slime mold laboratory images and he applied synthetic data to improve the detection of credit card fraud.
Le plans to stay at ASU for one additional semester to finish his master’s degree through the accelerated degree program. Eventually, he hopes to pursue a PhD and continue his research in machine learning.
Laura Berzinas
Dean’s Medal: School of Molecular Sciences
Major: Biochemistry
Berzinas, a biochemistry graduate, distinguished herself as an outstanding online student through her academic achievements and inspiring dedication to environmental science and sustainability.
She completed her program through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan and currently works as a wine chemist in St. Helena, California. Throughout her studies, she has mentored other students and has been involved in community outreach programs promoting STEM education in historically underrepresented groups.
Her interests in marine biology, water pollution and the environmental impact of pollutants, such as microplastics and oil spills, align with her goal of contributing to a more sustainable future and eventually pursuing a PhD in biochemistry, environmental sciences or toxicology.
Ron Spigelman
Dean’s Medal: T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics
Major: Family and human development
Minors: Communication, counseling and applied psychological science, sociology
Spigelman completed his degree in family and human development, along with three minors, through ASU’s partnership with Uber.
In addition to being an excellent student, Spigelman is an accomplished musical conductor. He has held numerous positions with orchestras and ballet companies, including being guest conductor for the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony and the Vancouver Symphony.
Spigelman’s ancestors were Holocaust survivors, and he grew up in a house of social activism. He has participated in causes for the LGBTQ+ community with his children, stepchildren and wife, and he currently serves as the president of the board of Harmony Project Tulsa, which puts instruments in the hands of children in after-school music programs.
He has decided to pursue an advanced degree in liberal studies, which will permit him to conduct a project that combines his interests in human relations, communication and organizations.
Matthew Monson
Dean’s Medal: Department of Naval Science
Majors: History, political science
Minor: Military science
Monson will graduate with degrees in history and political science with a minor in military science this fall.
During his time at ASU, Monson was a member of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, where he displayed exemplary leadership in several roles, including operations officer. The Phi Beta Kappa honor society member has traveled to Japan and California to take part in different U.S. Navy training programs.
Monson is set to earn his commission as a Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy.
Dona Ananickal
Dean's Medal: Department of Psychology
Major: Psychology
Despite coming to ASU with the intentions of pursuing a different major, Ananickal found her calling on another path and will be graduating with a degree in psychology.
With a desire to help conduct research, Ananickal was attracted to the psychology program after noticing how COVID-19 impacted those around her and the disparities in mental health treatment. That’s when she joined the Youth Development, Context, and Prevention Lab, where she looked at how fatalism played a role in the relationship between COVID-19-related stress and mental health outcomes in Latino youth.
Since 2022, she has participated in several different research experiences and presentations, including internships through the University of Washington and the University of Missouri, focused on mental health and addiction treatments.
She is currently waiting for responses on her clinical psychology doctoral program applications.
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