Centennial Achievement Awards

Centennial Award Criterion and Nomination Forms

Centennial Undergraduate Awardees
Centennial Masters Degree Awardees
Centennial Doctorate Degree Awardees

Undergraduate Centennial Achievement Awards
In December 1984, the University of Arizona Division of Student Affairs created the Centennial Achievement Award to be presented annually at the December Commencement. This award is given to two students who are graduating seniors during the current academic year.

2011 Centennial Undergraduate Awardees:
Dylan Moriarty
Dylan Moriarty will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Dylan grew up on the Navajo Nation with his mother to whom he attributes most of his success. He attended St. Michael’s Indian School and was later awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship which allowed him to attend the University of Arizona.

Since his freshman year, Dylan has worked for the Office of Early Academic Outreach whose mission is to increase the number of ethnic minority, low-income and first-generation college-bound students. As part of the outreach program, he was exposed to the challenges faced by Native American and underrepresented students and wanted to make a difference.

During Dylan’s junior year at the UA he was accepted into the Ronald E. McNair Achievement program which strives to prepare underrepresented students for doctoral programs through undergraduate research. Dylan quickly became hooked on research and has presented his research at multiple conferences.

During the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science Conference he noticed the many young scientists of ethnic minority in attendance. Inspired by the immense potential seen in underrepresented students at the conference Dylan realized there was much work to be done to bring more students of similar backgrounds into the sciences. He returned to the UA and helped revitalize the local society chapter and is now chapter president with plans to firmly reestablish the organization before he graduates.

Dylan has also received several awards including the Native American Freshman and Undergraduate of the Year awards in 2008 and 2011 awarded by the UA’s Native American Student Affairs. He has also maintained an overall GPA of 3.57 and holds a 3.87 within his major.

After graduation, Dylan plans to pursue a Masters / PhD program in energy resources engineering with the hope of creating clean sources of energy on tribal lands.

Ella Starobinska

Ella Starobinska will graduate from the Honors College with degrees in physiology and Russian and Slavic studies and minors in chemistry and molecular and cellular biology.

At the age of fifteen, Ella immigrated to the United States with her family as a result of strong anti-Semitism in her native Ukraine. She participated in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution that took place as a result of a corrupt election. She joined the ranks of the protesters in the fight for the fair and democratic elections. However, with the escalating nationalism and ideology of “Ukraine for Ukrainians,” her family sought refuge in the United States.

Immigration was a very difficult experience for Ella's family. In addition to learning a new language and adjusting to a new culture, Ella's family had to start over completely. Her parents, who had lived off their retirement pension were denied their pensions upon immigrating. Yet, no matter how difficult immigration was on Ella's family, she always had their support. She realized that the most valuable possession that people have is their health. That is why she seeks to make a difference in human lives by becoming a doctor.

Her passion for helping others is evident in her volunteer work at Tu Nidito, an organization that provides support to children and adults whose lives have been impacted by serious medical conditions or grief associated with a loss of a relative. As a group leader and a camp counselor, she provides children with emotional support. She has also gained clinical experience by working at the Odyssey Hospice.

Ella's love of science led to an opportunity to conduct cardiovascular research in the laboratory of Dr. Brad Davidson. The research is critical for the development of new diagnostic tests and therapeutics for congenital heart disease.

Her experiences have enhanced Ella's strong desire to practice medicine, as this discipline uses science as its foundation and integrated humanitarian ideals of tolerance, acceptance and compassion in order to help those, whose wellbeing and health are compromised.

Graduate Centennial Achievement Awards
During the fall of 1987, the Graduate College and the Division of Campus Life established awards to recognize outstanding achievement and contributions of minority graduate students at the University of Arizona. Awards are given to two students working in a master's degree program and two students working at the doctoral level during the current academic year.

2011 Centennial Masters Degree Awardees:
Denise Garcia
Denise Garcia, a first-generation graduate student, will graduate in May 2011 with a Master’s of Science in ecology and management of rangelands from the University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Denise, a native of Albuquerque, NM, began her undergraduate education in 2006 in the International Studies program at the UA. Through the International Studies undergraduate program, Denise obtained a background in the political, economic and social aspects of sustainable development. During this time, she took the opportunity to tutor refugees and be student coordinator of the Honors Civic Engagement Teams Internship Program.

As a freshman, Denise founded the UA’s first Mexican folklórico student club, and remains an active mentor in the group today. During the summer of 2008, the National Association of Colleges and Universities granted Denise the special opportunity to intern at the National Institutes of Health as a Spanish medical interpreter.

In 2009, Denise participated in the UA Summer Research Institute’s Internship Program to explore ecological and hydrologic processes in rangelands. Denise continued this research for the 2009-2010 school year as an intern in the NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Research Internship program. These experiences sparked her interest in how humans interact with the their environment which became the basis of her honors thesis “The Interrelationship of Local and Global Events and the Changing Ecological and Socio-economic States of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua, Mexico.”

Throughout her undergraduate education, Denise was the recipient of several awards, including the National Hispanic Scholars Award Scholarship, The UA Hispanic Alumni Scholarship, the Dick Roberts Memorial Scholarship, the Guié Scholarship and the Pillars of Excellence Award. As a graduate student, Denise has received the Diversity Fellowship and the Graduate Access Fellowship.

After graduation, Denise hopes to pursue a doctorate degree and join the Peace Corps. Denise’s professional interests are focused in the local efforts of sustainable management of the environment in Northern Mexico.

Shannon Corkery
Shannon Corkery plans to graduate with a doctorate in family studies and human development in 2013. Shannon’s doctoral research goals stems from master’s work that focused on relational processes within couples.

Shannon is from Voorhees, NJ and completed her undergraduate education at Pennsylvania State University where she completed Bachelor in Science degrees in human development and family studies and in biological and evolutionary psychology.

Shannon first became involved in research when she worked as an undergraduate research assistant examining the university life experiences of undergraduate students. Since coming the University of Arizona, Shannon has collaborated on projects with several faculty members as well as presented her work at several national conferences as well as been published in peer reviewed journals.

Shannon enjoys her role as an educator at the UA. She has served as a teaching assistant with a variety of courses across her graduate career, as well as instructed several online courses and been actively involved in course development and quality control efforts with regard to online education. For her dedication to and excellence in teaching, in 2011 Shannon received the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Meritorious Award for Graduate Teaching and the Graduate and Professional Student Organization Achievement Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Shannon is currently the president of the Family Studies Graduate Student Group, serves as the advisor to the undergraduate research honorary, Moving Research Into Practice, and is part of the project team working on a grant for Campus Health from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She also works as a teaching and research assistant and advises undergraduate research students.

Upon completion of her degree at the UA, Shannon would like to remain in the higher education arena and continue work on her research as well as educate.

2011 Centennial Doctorate Degree Awardees:
Ashley Randall

Ashley K. Randall is expected to graduate with a doctorate in family studies and Human development, with a double minor in clinical psychology and counseling and guidance from the University of Arizona in May 2012. Ashley’s dissertation focuses on if and how partners are emotionally linked and connected (emotional synchrony) and whether this relationship is affected by attachment styles, culture and engaging in coping.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Ashley completed a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Indiana University and received a Master’s of Science degree in clinical psychology from North Dakota State University. Ashley was also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship where she studied at the Institute for Family Research in Counseling in Fribourg, Switzerland. She studied the role that stress and coping has on couples. She has continued her program of research at the UA, where she has presented over 20 conference presentations, published in top tier journals on the topics of stress and couple’s emotional linkage, as well as in international books written in both English and Italian.

She has worked as a research associate for both the Division of Family Studies and Human Development and the Department of Psychology at the UA. Last year, she was named Outstanding Research Assistant,awarded by the UA Graduate Student and Professional Council. Ashley has also taught a number of both live and online courses in family studies and human development, and she consistently receives high teaching evaluations.

Currently, Ashley is an executive board member and program director of the Couple’s Corner, a part of the The Magis Foundation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting mental health awareness and education. Last year, she self-directed a needs assessment team to assess couple’s programming needs in the Tucson community and is in the planning stages of developing a program to meet their needs.

Upon completion of her doctorate degree, Ashley plans on continuing her education so that she may obtain clinical licensure in the state of Arizona. The licensure is necessary to achieve her goal of opening a Couple’s Research Center, so that she may better the lives of individuals, couples and families.

Aja Y. Martinez
Aja Y. Martinez will graduate with a doctorate in rhetoric, composition and the teaching of English in May 2012. Her dissertation focuses on Chicana/o identity in academia and uses critical race counterstory (a methodology of critical race theory) to construct a dialogue, a narrative and an allegory concerning Chicana/o undergraduate and graduate student experience while addressing the topics of cultural displacement, assimilation, the American Dream and ethnic studies.

A native Tucsonan, Aja is a graduate of Cholla High Magnet School. A first generation college student, she received a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology at the UA. In 2001 at age 19 while an undergraduate student at the UA, Aja became a mother to a beautiful daughter, Olivia. She made her way through her undergraduate studies as a single mother and was kept afloat through strong family support, terrific mentoring, and her affiliations with programs such as the McNair Scholars Program and Gamma Alpha Omega Latina Sorority. She is especially grateful for mentorship from Dr. Richard Stoffle and Dr. Maria Teresa Velez.

Aja received a Masters in Arts in rhetoric, composition, and the teaching of English from the UA in 2007. She has published articles, an edited collection and has chapters under review from her dissertation for future publication.

Aja developed first-year composition curricula framed by her theoretical and pedagogical interests. She proposed, piloted and has taught a course focused on issues concerning race, racism and access to higher education for the last four years. Aja has been the recipient of several awards including: the Conference on College Composition and Communication Scholars for the Dream Award, the UA New Start Summer Bridge Program Outstanding Instructor Award, and the Julie Christakis DeFazio Excellence in Teaching Award, a highly competitive award for graduate student teachers of writing.

Aja coordinates a writing partnership between UA students and her alma mater Cholla High Magnet School. She is an instructional advisor for UA Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs and teaches/mentors a group of first-year and first generation college students who are recipients of the Hispanic Alumni Scholarship.

After graduation, Aja’s career plans involve an assistant professorship at one of our nation’s universities where she can continue her efforts towards increasing access, retention and participation of diverse groups in higher education.