March 29, 2019

Giraffe Award winner Chris Gonzalez, others honored in 2019 CHaSS awards

Q. Why was Christopher Gonzalez carrying a small statuette of a giraffe around?
A. Because he stuck his neck out!

Gonzalez, an assciate professor of English was awarded the Giraffe Award, the traditional CHaSS recognization of someone who's taken a risk to improve life for students and the college.

Many CHaSS students, faculty and staff members walked to the stage to accept awards during the 2019 CHaSS Awards Ceremony March 27. Here's a gallery, and a list of awardees:

Morgan Sanford, valecdictorian

CHaSS valedictorian and Student of the Year for English Teaching, with Jeannie Thomas (English head) and Dean Ward.

All Giraffe Award nominees

The innovative CHaSS faculty who were nominated for the Giraffe Award were (from left): Doris McGonagill (German), Maria-Luisa Spicer-Escalante, Chris Gonzalez (English), Susan Cogan (History), Debra Jensen (JCOM), Clair Canfield (Comm Studies), Rebecca Andersen (History), Marcus Brasileiro (Portuguese), Cacilda Rego (Portuguese), Ruby Carvalho (Portuguese) Colin Flint (Political Science), Jasmine Chen (Chinese) and Ko-Yin Sung (Chinese).

John Seiter

Named a CHaSS Distinctive Professor

Gary Anderson

Distinguished Alumni award

Karin DeJonge-Kannan

Teacher of the Year Linguistics senior lecturer

Clair Canfield

Lecturer of the Year Communications Studies

Judson Finley

Faculty Undergraduate Mentor of the Year Anthropology

Leonard Rosenband

Distinguished Lifetime Service Award Professor Emeritus, History

Stacey Kelley

True Blue Award Political Science staff (now in Advising)

Barry Harris

Light of Old Main Award Dean's Office

Norm Jones

History professor Recognized for his years of service

Steve Shively

English Professor Recognized for his years of service

Don Larson

Sociology Recognized for his years of service

Chris Gonzalez, Giraffe Award winner

Chris Gonzalez, an associate professor of English, received the Giraffe Award for his vision of a Latinx Center at USU, as well as shepherding the project through approvals.

CHaSS Awards

Legacy Award Nominee	Frankie Urrutia-Smith	History
Kiwanis Award	Frankie Urrutia-Smith	History
Scholar of the Year	Cassidy Gummersall	Communication Studies
Valedictorian	Morgan Sanford	English
Undergraduate Researcher	Rachael Gulbrandsen	SSWA
Graduate Student Instructor of the Year	Alicia Ingersoll	SSWA
Master’s Student Researcher of the Year	Stacie Denetsosie	English
Doctoral Student Researcher of the Year	Kristen Koci	SSWA
True Blue Award	Stacey Kelly	Political Science
Light of Old Main Award	Barry Harris	Dean’s Office
Ed Glatfelter Faculty Service	Jessica Lucero	SSWA
Distinguished Lifetime Service Award	Leonard Rosenband

Faculty Undergraduate Mentor of the Year	Judson Finley	SSWA
Undergraduate Research Mentor	Michaelann Nelson	English
Lecturer of the Year	Clair Canfield	LPCS
Researcher of the Year	Tammy Proctor	History
Teacher of the Year	Karin deJonge-Kannan	LPCS

Students of the Year

Codie Bonnin	General Studies & Interdisciplinary Studies
Dreyton “DJ” Schafer	Aerospace Studies
Alicia Harris	American Studies
Madison Vaughn	Literary Studies
Morgan Sanford	English Teaching
Adrian Thomson	Creative Writing
Jessica Nani	Technical Writing
Tanner McAlister	Religious Studies
Daniel Bertrand	History
Tiffany Caruthers	History Teaching
Christy Achen	Agricultural Communication & Journalism
Zachary Aedo	Broadcast/Multimedia Journalism
Matilyn Mortensen	Print Journalism
Kellianne Gammill	Public Relations
Kellen Bell	Asian Studies
Jared Worwood	Communication Studies
Iain Laurence	French
“Étienne” Raine Owens	French Teaching
Judith Korbanka	German
Janelle Carter	German Teaching
Brian Warnes	Global Communication
Jenna Madsen	Liberal Arts
Chasen Robbins	Philosophy
Remington Lohmeyer	Portuguese
Nathan Child	Spanish
Allison Johnson	Spanish Teaching
Ivanna Fuentes Javier	Intensive English Language Institute
Lisa Bourgeois	Military Science
Chantelle Gossner	Political Science
Hannah Penner	International Studies
Kaden McArthur	Law and Constitutional Studies
Rachael Gulbrandsen	Sociology
Madison Elliott	Social Work
Ben Johnson	Anthropology
Taylor Dawn Passarella	Criminal Justice
Emily Colby	Utah Public Radio

Giraffe Award nominees

Chris Gonzalez	English	Founded the Latinx Culture Center
Rebecca Andersen	History	Created a new Public History track for our Master’s program
Susan Cogan	History	Mentorship of medieval trebuchet project
Deb Jenson	JCOM	Modeled independence and self respect
Clair Canfield	LPCS	Improved CMST 1020 Public Speaking
Ekaterina Arshavskaya	LPCS	Worked with International teaching Assistant videos
Maria Luisa Spicer-Escalante	LPCS	Worked with the Dual Language Immersion programs in the state
Doris McGonagill	LPCS	Worked with USU’s Anthropocene conference
Cacilda Rego, Marcus Brasileiro, Ruby Carvalho	LPCS	Created new Portuguese Major
Ko-Yin Sung, Li Guo, Jasmine Chen	LPCS	Annual Chinese New Year celebration and work on the proposal for a new major in Chinese
Colin Flint	POLS	Developed clever initiatives (Aggies GO) and involved with Merrill Scholars initiative
Yesola Kweon	POLS	Leadership in organizing department’s Milton R. Merrill Speaker Series
Derrik Tollefson	SSWA	Developed the I-System Institute