In the Student Spotlight: Feb. 15, 2019

Kudos to these students

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  • Women’s tennis player Chiara Tomasetti was named Big Sky Women’s Tennis Player of the Week for the third time in five weeks, making her one of two players in NAU history receive this recognition three times in the same season. It is Tomasetti’s sixth of her career, giving her the most Player of the Week awards in program history.
  • Graduate student in biology Brian Hamilton organized the second annual College of Forestry and Natural Sciences (CEFNS) Science Bowl Trivia event. The event, which took place on Feb. 6, was open to all CEFNS students in any major. Competing student groups included undergraduates from the Ambassadors for CEFNS, the Exercise Science Club, The Louie Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, the Student Undergraduate Research Council, the Society of Physics Students and student employees from the Academic Success Center. CEFNS Dean Paul Jagodzinski made an opening statement and other faculty members were in attendance.
  • Working under assistant professor Amir Arzani, a number of graduate students from the Cardiovascular Biomechanics Lab in the Mechanical Engineering Department will present research at the American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) Conference in April. The conference provides an international forum for the latest research and knowledge in the field. Student presentations include:
    • Symon Reza with “Residence-time and blood flow stagnation in aneurysms”
    • Ali Farghadan with “The role of wall shear stress divergence in lung particle transport”
    • Mostafa Mahmoudi with “Lagrangian wall shear stress structures and convective mass transport in the atherosclerosis”
  • Undergraduate students on the Speech and Debate Team competed at the Sunset Cliffs Classic and the Montezuma Invitational against students from 30 other colleges and universities throughout the country. Individual achievements included:
    • Anthony Violissi: first place in communication analysis, discussing the Stonewall Queer Ghost Hunters from Columbus, Ohio; second place in dramatic interpretation, performing a dramatic piece on the rise of hate crimes in the U.S.
    • Cameron Baird: second place in novice extemporaneous speaking, presenting on contemporary political events; third place in novice impromptu speaking; finalist in informative speaking, discussing economic impacts of cultural belief in luck
    • Elliot Dominguez: finalist in impromptu speaking
    • Alyssa Layne: finalist in novice persuasive speaking, discussing K-12 policies regarding gun violence in schools
    • Konnor Morris: second place overall in junior Lincoln-Douglas Debate tournament, discussing the role of the U.S. Cyber Command in ongoing national security discussions
  • Several communications students won awards in the 2019 Broadcast Education Association Festival Media Arts competition. Conor Sweetman, Jessica Duarte and an NAZ Today student team won first place in the television newscast (four or more a week) category with their Nov. 28 show. Matthew Jarecki took third place in the air personality and specialty program categories, for his piece, “The Jerk,” and received an award of excellence in the Student Sports Competition for a news segment from “The Jerk.” Jarecki also took first place in the television sports talent (anchor/host) category. Jasmine Flores received an award of excellence in the TV sports news program category for a segment on the Flagstaff High School baseball memorial.
Tallie Valverde