2016 Golden Cupola Awards

Annually NCSSM honors students — nominated by the community of faculty, staff, and peers — for their overall service, contributions to the community, and leadership. Congratulations to our Class of 2016 awardees: Alisa Cui, Kunal Lodaya, Erica Mullis, Belton Moore, Adam Schmidt, and Godgive Umozurike.

Alisa Cui ’16
Alisa was a leader of the Asian Cultures Club, working with her co-leaders to organize over 100 student performers, ticketing, publicity, and a community performance dinner. She is an excellent communicator with amazing talent in logistics. She worked to develop community events that allowed all three student culture festival groups to showcase talents and cultures.

With no prompting, she helped with the Latin American Fest dinner so that performers and student group leaders could interact with each other and their families. At Africa Fest, she organized students to help with ticketing, greeting, and programs. These small, unheralded gestures speak to Alisa’s character and her desire to make the community better.

Kumal Lodaya ’16
As an RLA, Kumal maintained a calm, mature demeanor, helping students with time management and life in general. He led many activities on his hall including Airband and “Thursday Talks.” He was active in the student government’s mental health initiative.

Kumal balanced participation in seven dance groups this year and created the Blast Band to fill the gap of not having a high school marching band. He also lead a mock trial seminar.

His love for NCSSM is shown by other students voting Kumal the most popular student, honoring his leadership, community service, and love of music and performance. 

Erica Mullis ’16
Erica was nominated by all of her junior work service supervisors, a rare occurrence. They all noted her outstanding work ethic, positive attitude, excitement for learning, and caring attitude. She still has lunch with her former supervisors once or twice a month.

She was a varsity volleyball teammate both years, captaining the team her senior year and showing great enthusiasm and sportsmanship.

As a Student Ambassador, Erica received glowing reviews from the visitors who toured campus with her. Last fall she gave a tour for the admissions director at Mississippi School for Math & Science, a chance event that led to her proposing a visit to the Mississippi campus for a three-day meeting of student leaders from both schools.

Erica once told a staff member, “Life is an adventure that shows itself to each and every one who accepts the challenge of facing it. I wake up every day wondering what is in store for the day and what this day will help me to achieve in my future.”

Belton Moore ’16
As a Student Ambassador, Belton always went above and beyond the call of duty. Guests remarked on his ability to engage with them and ease any concerns that prospective students may have about the school.

As a member of Akrwe:kon’s Exectuive Leadership Council, Moore demonstrated outstanding leadership. He developed a petition of request on behalf of Native American students gaining approval to include a sacred eagle feather attached to the tassel of thier graduation cap. He was engaged in the coordination, planning, and set-up of the school’s annual Powwow. He created a Native American Studies seminar, a first at NCSSM, and developed assignments and activities. He was also a student representative for the MLK Day student panel on entitlement and privilege.

Read about Belton’s research endeavors

Belton has said he considering attending NCSSM a great honor and privilege, and he wants to work with youth in Robeson County, his home, to make them more aware of this opportunity.

Adam Schmidt ’16
Adam’s work ethic as a student leader is unparalleled. He is a doer and not a complainer, no matter how strenuous his commitments and schedule became. He often “rallied the troops” and worked hard to ensure that all peers felt heard. An outstanding leader, he can motivate others but also takes responsibility to see projects to completion.

Thoughtful and forward thinking, he served with the UNC Association of Student Government, effectively interacting with college students on matters such as student mental health and student advocacy. On NCSSM’s five-year Strategic Planning Committee, he engaged with our Board of Trustees and spoke articulately about the need for making STEM resources available to all North Carolina students, not just those at NCSSM.

Godgive Umozurike ’16 
A well-rounded scholar and leader, Godgive excelled with her Mentorship at Duke University. Her compassionate personality fosters close relationships. As an RLA, she showed a strong sense of moral character and held high standards for herself and her hallmates. She played on the women’s basketball team her junior year, then served as its manager as a senior.

As a member of the Campus Climate, Culture, and Diversity Committee, Godgive worked on ways to make the NCSSM environment more inclusive of our diversity. She values service learning and volunteering, tutoring and mentoring at-risk urban youth and serving at nearby soup kitchens.

She hopes to become a doctor and bring the gift of health to the less advantaged. A childhood friend writes that Godgive “is going to bloom into something spectacular, whether as a doctor in the ER or working with UNICEF in Africa…I wouldn’t be surprised if one day she saves hundreds of lives through her practice, her ingenuity, and her desire to do her best at everything she does.”

2016 Departmental Awards

Twelve seniors, three for each academic department, were honored for their exceptional academic work dedication, and accomplishments.

Engineering and Technology
Hunter Mayo, Tanya Mittal, Deanyone Su

Humanities 
Karly Andreassen, Mack Harrison, Max Schlenker

Mathematics 
James Chapman, Dylan King, Kelly Zhang

Science
Esosa Asemota, Daniel Taesoon Lee, Margie Bruff

2015-2016 Teaching Awards 

Congratulations to the winners of our slate of teaching awards, including Philip Rash, instructor of mathematics, named the Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching winner. Read more.