Four Fredonia seniors - including three who share the same major - were the recipients of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. The honor recognizes a student’s ability to integrate academic excellence with accomplishments in leadership, athletics, creative or performing arts and community service.
The recipients - Tatianna Baker, of Perry; Kearstin Derrenbacher, Dansville; Olivia Kaltenbach, Brocton; and Caeli Faisst, Morrisville – were among 15 Fredonia students nominated for the award. The ceremony and reception for all SUNY student award winners was held in Albany at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center on April 5.
SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher noted, “This award is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to stand-out SUNY students whose achievements reflect their own impressive hard work as well as the support of their families and friends, and SUNY’s world-class faculty and staff,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “The 248 students we honor with this year’s award have excelled academically, become role models on campus, and established themselves as leaders in the community. Congratulations to all of the students receiving the 2016 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.”
Ms. Baker, who is majoring in Communication Disorders and Sciences, is a member of Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society and Golden Key International Honour Society and has been named to the Dean’s List throughout her Fredonia career. Baker has served as president of Alpha Lambda Delta for two consecutive years and also webmaster for Golden Key.
Baker belongs to the Alma Mater Society, Student Health Advisory Committee and Fredonia National Student Speech Language Hearing Association.
Active both on and off campus, Baker has participated in Relay for Life, Fall Sweep, Pennies for Pets and the NSSLHA Peer Mentor program and served as a volunteer at Fredonia Place. Baker completed internships at the Campus and Community Children’s Center - where she now serves as a teacher’s assistant and substitute - and Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center. Baker has also been a cheerleader since 2013.
Baker been a recipient of the Robert E. Coon Scholarship, Golden Key’s Outstanding Junior Scholarship, the Ann James Manley Scholarship and the Fredonia Scholar Award.
Ms. Kaltenbach, also majoring in Communication Disorders and Sciences, has attained numerous academic accolades. She has been inducted into the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, Golden Key International Honour Society and Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society.
A perennial Dean’s List student, Kaltenbach has received five scholarships: Lieutenant General Woods, Marion Sonnenfeld, Walter Gotowka Endowment, Fredonia Alumni and Fredonia Merit.
Kaltenbach has made significant contributions to the New York State Speech Language Hearing Association. She served a year as president and immediate past-president, implemented and oversaw the peer mentor program and organized the trip for 23 students to the association’s three-day convention in Rochester. Kaltenbach also served as her department’s student representative for the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences search committee.
In two consecutive years, Kaltenbach participated in the Belize Learning Project, engaging in language and literacy skills programs for children. Through Operation Smile, Kaltenbach helped raise funds and increased awareness for children with cleft lip and palate.
In the community, Kaltenbach has tutored children in reading at Brocton Central School, assisted graduate student clinicians at the Youngerman Center for Communication Disorders and guided social activities for residents of the Chautauqua Rehabilitation and Nursing Center and the WCA Home. She has also been involved in the American Red Cross blood drive, Fredonia Graduate Fair, Stroke Awareness Walk and Fall Sweep.
Kaltenbach worked with special needs children during an internship at Brocton Central School. She was engaged in an independent study that involved an analysis of assessment and intervention of child language disorders resulting from a low socioeconomic environment and supported learning activities in a Dunkirk autism classroom.
She developed activities focusing on emergent literacy skills for children through the Agri-Business Child Development Center and engaged in similar classroom learning activities at the Buffalo Hearing and Speech Centers in Fredonia and Angola. Kaltenbach also had job-shadowing experiences in speech-language pathology in Westfield, Fredonia and Lakewood.
Caeli Faisst, who is majoring in Theatre Arts, has been a Keeper of the Dream scholar since 2012, a member of Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society and a student presenter at a SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference.
Ms. Faisst is a member of Writers Ring, the editorial staff of the student-run literary magazine Trident, Fredonia State of Mind, a student club focused on reducing negative stigmas of mental illness and participant in Relay for Life.
She has provided leadership at Elevation as president of the campus church and service group and coordinated numerous service events during Love Week, and also hosted Kick Butts Day, a campus-wide event that addressed the effects of tobacco use.
Faisst currently serves as vice president of Alpha Psi Omega, the national theatre honor society, was a writer for the Big Read Festival and playwright for Echoes of Emily, a student-led project promoting the study of Emily Dickinson. She was a social media intern for Kingdom Bound Christian Music Festival and is currently a script writing intern at Venture Productions.
Kearstin Derrenbacher, a Communication Disorders and Sciences major, has been inducted into Golden Key International Honour Society and Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society and is a recipient of Ann James Manley and Winch Endowment Fund scholarships.
She has served as a community service chair at Golden Key, team captain of the St. Jude Up ‘Til Dawn fundraiser and student mentor in Communication Disorders and Sciences. Ms. Derrenbacher is a member of the Fredonia National Student Speech Language Hearing Association, Operation Smile, Fredonia for St. Jude, Friends Across Borders and Voices for Autism. She has also served as a volunteer at the Dunkirk Boys and Girls Club Autism Clinic and at the Henry C. Youngerman Center for Communication Disorders.
Derrenbacher has worked at the Campus and Community Children’s Center since her freshman year, initially as a substitute. Successive promotions, from assistant teacher to head teacher to activity supervisor, followed. She has also served as a research assistant in a child language lab and evidence-based practice lab.
As a volunteer in the Belize Service Project, Derrenbacher taught in a school for deaf children and children with disabilities.
The following Fredonia students were also nominated for the Chancellor’s Award: Tyler Brown, Communication Disorders and Sciences; Mark Dudek, Biology; Julianne Foster, Communication-Media Management; Sarah Fuller, Communication-Journalism and Communication-Public Relations; Jeannie Galbraith, Social Work; Krystal Lebron, Biology; Michael Lewis, Computer Information Systems; Tanisha Morrison, Criminal Justice; Meghan Guattery, Communication-Journalism; Stephanie Willis, Communication-Public Relations; and Rianna Seelig, English.
