SUNY Chancellor’s Award

SUNY Brockport’s 2026 Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence (CASE) Recipients Gavin Miller, an Honors student majoring in political science and minoring in Economics with a 3.79 GPA, described by one of his recommenders as “the best student in the political science department” whose “record of engaging with the campus and broader community is extraordinary.” Another writes that Gavin “is truly the most outstanding” student he has had in fifteen years of teaching.

Gavin has a record of exceptional leadership and community engagement. He has been the student leader for the EUROSIM club on campus for the past two years. That club participates in international European Union simulations, at which. Gavin won the award for “Most Valuable Contribution” two years in a row. Gavin started the Brockport Political Engagement Club in 2024, to provide students on campus with a nonpartisan political organization and has grown the club to 40 members by using data-driven outreach strategies. In its first year the club invited a NATO colonel and a former EU commissioner to campus. In his role as leader of two clubs, he was elected to the Brockport Student Government’s Academic Club Council. He was a campaign manager for a city council race, and as a participant in the SUNY Washington Internship Program he interned for Congressman Joe Morelle. He was named the Former Administrative Assistant of The Year (FAATY) Scholar, given to interns who demonstrate future promise in public policy. He has also interned at the Volunteer Lawyers Project, interned at the International Institute of Buffalo, and helped organize food and clothing drives for new immigrants to Buffalo. Finally, Gavin’s service ties into his research. As an International Youth Think Tank fellow, he developed policy proposals to address International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt relief mechanisms for developing countries to promote democratic norms, economic equity, and focus on human capital.

Gavin Miller is an exceptionally driven, passionate, and engaged student. His ability to engage with his field at a local, national, and international level is truly impressive and worthy of the Chancellor’s Award in Student Excellence.

Nicholas Pisano will be graduating from SUNY Brockport after just two years with a degree in Mathematics and a 4.0 GPA. Nicholas has taken the most difficult classes offered at Brockport, many at the master’s level. His advisor writes that “he is not intimidated by pure math nor by a seemingly insurmountable challenge”, rising to any occasion, having “the most potential” of any undergraduate student she has worked with.
After his first year, he worked with Dr. Melissa DiMarco on Symbolic computation, specifically Groebner Basis theory and is continuing that work with his honors thesis this year, impressively taking on the task of coding in Python the algorithms from the Groebner basis. Having no experience with coding, Nicholas reached out to computer science students for help and quickly mastered it. His advisor writes that “this is the first time I’ve ever had a student capable of understanding these kinds of questions.” He has presented his work at multiple conferences, won a number of mathematics awards, and will be applying to PhD Programs for the Fall. In the classroom, he has worked as a teaching assistant both informally and formally, and he was the academic coach for two sections of Social Statistics. He has also stepped up in leadership roles: president of the math club and Circle K.
Nick was described by the Director of the Honors College as “the most extraordinary student I have ever encountered, here at SUNY Brockport or at any other university I have taught in the past, including my two years at Stanford.”

Rylie DelVecchio is a student in the Honors College with a 3.98 GPA, majoring in both Social Work and Sociology, with a minor in Women & Gender Studies. She is described by faculty as astute, passionate, reflective, and committed to “deep learning.” Her compassion for others is reflected in her goal of a career advocating for underserved communities. She is a member of both Alpha Kappa Delta, the Sociology Honor Society, and Iota, Iota, Iota, the Women and Gender Honors Society. Rylie earned recognition as the Sociology Departmental Scholar, the Sociology Department’s nominee for Arts and Sciences Outstanding Student, and the Outstanding Women and Gender Studies Minor Award. She served as a Student Evaluation Assistant to a Sociology professor for the Surviving and Finding Empowerment (SAFE) Court, a human trafficking court providing case management and other services to women who have experienced sexual exploitation and offering safe pathways out of the criminal justice system. She also serves as coalition member and Internal Education Chair for the World Without Exploitation’s Youth Coalition and in this role, she conducts education workshops and recently published an op-ed.

Rylie served as an intern in the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, where she worked alongside Pulitzer-winning journalist Molly O’Toole on Molly’s forthcoming nonfiction book about immigration policy, called “The Route: Global Migration to the U.S. Border.” Molly described Rylie as “a peer” and said, “Frankly, at her age, I was quite far from her level of academic rigor, research capability, maturity and professionalism…I know she’ll do great things.” Rylie also was an impressive student in the DC Internship program, often engaging at high levels with professionals from civil rights groups, policy think tanks, and government agencies. Rylie has also served the greater community in multiple ways, including roles with the United Nations Association of Rochester, Rochester Global Connections, and Meals on Wheels, as well as a Volunteer Crisis Counselor. Rylie played on Brockport’s women’s Soccer team. She has just started an internship with Our Local History, focused on sharing local civil rights history in Rochester.

Rylie’s references describe her as a student who has distinguished herself as deeply committed to research, to learning, and to finding solutions to complex social issues.

Sharvani Regmi was enthusiastically and unanimously nominated for the CASE award by the full-time faculty of the Department of Journalism and Social Media, where she has distinguished herself as an exceptional scholar and professional-in-training. A Journalism & Broadcasting major concentrating in Multimedia Journalism, with minors in Public Relations and Digital Marketing, Sharvani has earned a 3.76 cumulative GPA. The Department Chair wrote: “Sharvani’s dream is to become an on-air broadcaster/content producer for men’s soccer, and we in the department fully expect to see her covering international men’s soccer in the future. Why? Because Sharvani is good and driven and does not give up.”

Sharvani’s academic accomplishments extend beyond the classroom. She managed her department’s social media presence. She was inducted into her field’s honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha, in Spring 2025 and received the Kurt Williams Excellence in Reporting Award. Sharvani received a 2025 New York State Broadcasters Association Excellence in Broadcasting Award and a 2025 Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts Award of Excellence for Best Promo. She currently serves as President of the Brockport Student Government, making history as the first international student to hold this role. Sharvani is committed to service throughout her academic and leadership roles and beyond. Through her work position at Drake Memorial Library, she won the George W. Cornell Library Administration and Service Award in 2024, followed in 2025 by the Donald and Gloria Huot Excellence in Leadership Award and the Jeanette D’Agostino Banker Volunteer of the Year Award.

To finish, another referee writes, “across academics, leadership, and service, Sharvani Regmi consistently performs at an exceptional level, demonstrating remarkable ability to balance multiple high-impact roles while maintaining academic excellence, particularly as an international student navigating additional cultural and systemic challenges. Courageous, thoughtful, ethical, and driven, she embodies SUNY’s highest values, and for these reasons, I offer my strongest possible recommendation for her selection for the Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. She is unquestionably among the most outstanding students not only at SUNY Brockport, but across the SUNY system.”

Jane Brown is a triple major in Women and Gender Studies, International Studies, and English: Creative Writing. She is the President of Gender Equity Movement, a club on campus devoted to empowering and uplifting all identities. She has studied abroad in Oxford, UK and Paris, France. Her future aspirations include becoming a Women and Gender Studies professor, writing a novel, and seeing as much of the world as possible.

Joe Smith, a first-generation college student majoring in Psycho logy and Biology, is a proud member of the Honors College and CSTEP/McNair program. He is Principle Investigator on his own independent research project, engages with fellow students as a tutor, lab assistant, and community ambassador, and committedly advocates for underserved individuals. Outside of college, Joe supports persons with developmental disabilities in both clinical and community settings. He intends on a career as a physician and researcher.

• Presentation at the Midwest Society of Pediatric Research Conference: After completing summer research with Dr. Eric Biondi, a pediatric hospitalist at Golisano Children’s Hospital, was granted the opportunity to submit an abstract to the Midwest Society of Pediatric Research Conference in Cleveland, Ohio on October 30, 2014. Following our diligent work on the manuscript that was being prepared for submission, Dr. Biondi sent me to present research on the “Validation of use of procedural codes to identify infants evaluated for serious bacterial infections.”
• Over the past years at SUNY Brockport I have received several scholarships based on academic excellence, community service,EDI work, and campus involvement:
  • The Class of 1964 Education Scholarship
  • Lea Cowles Memorial Award
  • Robert Griswold Award
  • Brockport Alumni Legacy Scholarship
• Resident Assistant (2016 -2018) - Served as a resident assistant for Bramely Hall in the Teachers of Tomorrow LLC for the 2016-17 school year and hired as a Senior Resident Assistant for MacVicar Hall in the Teachers of Tomorrow LLC for the 2017-18 school year. While serving as an RA, received the Residential Life Rookie of the Year Award (2016-2017) given to an outstanding first-year RA and the Residential Life LLC of the Year Award (2017-2018) for outstanding programs and community involvement.
• Principle Investigator of Research Project - (January 2018 - present)
  SUNY Brockport (SUNY), Department of Psychology
  Project: Clustering, Switching & Verbal Fluency: A Critical Evaluation of Interview-based Scoring Procedures
  Co-Investigator & Advisor: David Abwender, PhD
  Research Assistants:
  • Conduct review of background literature and formulate hypothesis
  • Develop experimental design choosing variables and assessment measures
  • Write and submit IRB proposal for ethical considerations
  • Conduct experimental trials and obtain data from participants
  • Encode data and perform statistical analysis
  • Prepare for presentation of findings for national conferences and for potential publication
• Coordinator for the Canned Food Drive hosted by the Honors Biology Club: I organized an informal, open basketball game for members of the Honors Biology Club and students of the Biology Department. Students that participated brought non-perishable food items that were donated to the Brockport Ecumenical Food Shelf. We donated 39.8 lbs. of food in total (April 2015).
• Golden Eagle Senior Council Co-Chair (2017-2018): as a co-chair, I helped coordinate and plan senior events for the Class of 2018. I organized and spoke at the senior forum and senior toast. I also presented President Macpherson with the Class of 2018’s gift to SUNY Brockport.
• Gigi’s Volunteer - (July 2018 – present)
  Gigi’s Playhouse – Down Syndrome Achievement Centers
  • Interact in a group setting with children and adults with Down Syndrome
  • Assist in arranging activities and games aimed at developing fine & gross motor skills
  • Attend to questions of each child and fostered a positive learning environment