A team of UC Davis students has placed first overall in the First Nations Launch competition sponsored by NASA and the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium.

An aspiring policymaker intent on addressing inequities in education and a documentary filmmaker are the recipients of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science’s top prizes for graduating seniors.

In an election year with record turnout among young voters, 22-year-old Hipolito Angel Cerros took civic engagement a step beyond most of his peers. Cerros, a science and technology studies (STS) major at UC Davis, won a seat on the city council in his hometown of Lindsay, in California’s Central Valley.

“I couldn’t sit idly by and watch events unfold around me,” Cerros said. “I wanted to make an impact.”

Each year, the UC Davis College of Letters and Science names two graduating seniors as the Herbert A. Young Award and Leon H. Mayhew Memorial Award recipients in recognition of outstanding academic achievement, community service and extracurricular involvement in the college. The college honors and celebrates the incredible leadership that both these students have shown our academic community.

An English major — who aims to use fiction to address climate change and help its refugees — will be honored as the top graduating senior at the University of California, Davis, during its online graduation celebration Friday, June 12. Jumana Esau is being awarded the University Medal, which recognizes excellence in undergraduate studies, outstanding community service, and the promise of future scholarship and contributions to society.

Ellen Caminiti had a speech impediment as a child, was painfully shy when she started at UC Davis, wandered in her studies and was dismissed for poor academic performance. But the 24-year-old will stand center stage to share her journey and message of encouragement with more than 800 fellow graduates and thousands of guests at the fall commencement at 10 a.m. on Saturday in the Pavilion at the ARC.

Some of the citizens that Julianne Cravotto has helped register to vote may just one day cast their ballots for her. The political science and history major, to be honored as the top graduating senior at UC Davis, is embarking on a career in public service and has ambitions of being a state legislator. And the award she has won attests that she is well on her way. The University Medal — to be presented at the College of Letters and Science commencement at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 15 — recognizes excellence in undergraduate studies, outstanding community service, and the promise of future scholarship and contributions to society.

Julie Cravotto, an aspiring policymaker with dreams of resolving California’s housing crisis, is the recipient of the 2019 Herbert A. Young Award for outstanding senior in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science.

Michael O’Hearn will be hitting a high note when he walks across the stage at the fall commencement of the University of California, Davis, on Saturday, Dec. 15.

UC Davis senior Nina Forest, competing as Miss Idaho for the Miss America title, finished in the pageant’s top 10 on Sunday. An aspiring civil rights attorney who is majoring in international relations and minoring in Chinese, Forest promoted her “Leave Childhood Hunger Behind” platform, focused on decreasing food insecurity in Idaho.

Eight student leaders in the College of Letters and Science have been recognized as United Nations Millennium Fellows.

Nina Forest’s summer got off to an unexpectedly busy start—with a series of news interviews, official appearances at parades, festivals and other community events, and preparations for the Miss America competition. A UC Davis senior majoring in international relations and minoring in Chinese, Forest was crowned in June as Miss Idaho 2018.

Two UC Davis undergraduates won the $10,000 first prize in the 18th annual UC Davis Big Bang! Business Competition on May 24, 2018. Their venture, Japa Inc., takes the pain out of finding parking with a mobile app that employs smart data and advanced analytics to provide drivers with real-time parking availability.

UC Davis Creative Writing graduate student Cristina Fries is one of the 12 winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. It is given by PEN American, an organization that offers a wide range of support to writers.

Shengling “Wilburn” Wang, a senior majoring in communication and economics, was recently awarded a $1,000 study abroad grant from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Wang will use the grant for a three-week UC Davis Study Abroad seminar in Pokhara, Nepal, over the winter break.