Tag Archives: 2020 Senior Awards

Virtual Celebration

Annmarie Gajdos

Annmarie Gajdos is graduating as Baruch College’s 2020 Valedictorian with a major in Computer Information Systems, a concentration in Music Management, and double minors in Business Law and NYC Studies. She volunteered abroad extensively, spending time in the Galápagos Islands, Israel, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Republic of Georgia. She currently holds several roles on campus, such as the Chair of Graphics for Baruch Student Government and the President of the Baruch Pre-Law Society, while serving as a Senior Campus Ambassador for WiTNY at Cornell Tech and the National Internal Communications Manager for AIESEC United States.

In Spring 2019, Annmarie was granted a Mayoral Service Award for completing more than 1,000 service hours for the year. She is a William R. Kenan Scholar, a Max-Berger Pre-Law fellow, and a Dr. Wendy Heyman Public Interest fellow. She is also the recipient of a 2020 Critical Language Scholarship for Swahili. Annmarie intends to pursue a career as an international human rights lawyer, in addition to working as a legal consultant in the music industry.

Virtual Celebration

Emilia Decaudin

Emilia Decaudin is a 21 year old activist and student in her senior year at the City College of New York, where she studies Political Theory and Intellectual History, as part of the CUNY BA program.

In September 2018, Emilia was elected as the youngest-ever member of the New York State Democratic Committee, representing the 94th Assembly District in Westchester County. She came out as the first-ever transgender member the following Summer, and in October of 2019, she spearheaded a successful effort to amend the rules of the committee to remove unnecessary references to the gender binary and to accommodate the election of gender non-binary members. She is continuing her efforts to foster inclusion of transgender and non-binary New Yorkers through her project Binary-Free NYC.

Emilia was born and raised in Westchester County, New York, in a family of French immigrants. She currently resides in Sunnyside, Queens, where she is now running for Democratic District Leader for the 37th Assembly District, Part A.

Virtual Celebration

Tayba Aziz

Tayba Aziz is a first-generation college student majoring in Biology, minoring in Anthropology and Chemistry at the City College of New York. She is actively involved in extracurriculars on and off-campus. On-campus she has served in various positions in
CCNY Circle K, a collegiate organization affiliated with Kiwanis. Her roles included club Treasurer, President, and Club Building and Strengthening Chair where she led a committee to train club officers of over 40 schools. She also is involved in biology honors research where she studies vocal learning in zebra finches.

Off-campus, she has completed over 363 hours of community service, held over 46 service events, and helped fundraise over $12,000 to provide clean water to a village in Eswatini. Her most impactful service experience was with Einstein Community Health Outreach, a free health clinic in the Bronx. Her work with ECHO inspired her to pursue a career in medicine and to work in underserved communities as a primary care physician.

Virtual Celebration

Samah Islam

Samah Islam created her own major through CUNY BA in Narrative Medicine and Health Sciences. She was elected to the Macaulay Scholars Council as the CCNY class of 2020’s freshmen representative and went onto becoming VP of IT/Communications her sophomore year, then President for two years in a row–the first time in MSC history.

She was an athlete on CCNY’s Fencing team and two-year President of City College’s Illustrious Mentorship Program (CHiMP), a Macaulay Peer Mentor and Macaulay Ambassador. She’s worked with 596 Acres on removing nonprofit organizations from the tax lien sale list and this year the organization successfully passed a bill protecting those places.

She interned in International Sales and Marketing at Penguin Random House and with Career Development at Macaulay, working on the Healthcare Career Fair.

She is a Laura Schor Scholar and Thomas W. Smith Fellow. And all of this is still probably not enough for her South Asian mother.

In the Fall, she will be studying Occupational Therapy at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Virtual Celebration

Christian Ralph Buonamassa

Christian Ralph Buonamassa is an Accounting major and Computer Applications in Business minor at Baruch College.

He represented the Baruch Class of 2020 in the Macaulay Scholars Council for four years, serving as the VP of Finance & VP of Campus Affairs. Christian was the President of the Baruch Chapter of the Macaulay Business Club, and Co-Founder of the Macaulay Italian Cultural Society.

Christian recently completed an Assurance Internship with PwC in their Alternative Investments Division. He will be interning with Deloitte this summer as well. Over the past four years he’s also interned at Macaulay, Capstone Capital, C&K LLP, EY, & Goldman Sachs.

Through his studies at Baruch College, Christian has earned the Nathan Glassman Award, the Philip Zimmerman Prize Scholarship, and the NYSSCPA’s “Excellence in Accounting” Scholarship. He also received the Susan A. Locke Award from the Baruch Honors Program, and the NYC Mayoral Service Award.

Christian plans to begin his career in Audit with one of the aforementioned Big Four Accounting firms, and intends to become a CPA.

Virtual Celebration

Rebecca DelVecchio

Rebecca DelVecchio is a Political Science and International Studies double major with minors in Spanish, Legal Studies, Business, and Public Administration. Currently, she works as a Field Organizer at Max Rose for Congress where she started in Summer 2018 as a volunteer. In Fall 2017 and Spring 2018, she was a youth programs intern at the Center for Court Innovation. In Summer 2018, she started working at United Activities Unlimited in the prevention department focusing on social emotional learning for youth. In Spring 2019 she interned at the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office in the executive bureau. In Summer 2019 she interned in Congressman Max Rose’s Washington D.C. office and was a fellow at Biden for President. She studied abroad in Florence in Winter 2018 and in Buenos Aires in Winter 2020. After taking a few years off, she plans to go to law school.

Virtual Celebration

Shelly Zou

Shelly Zou majors in Biology and double minors in Chemistry and Psychology. In Spring 2017, Shelly became a Resident Assistant at The Towers residence hall. In the following Fall semester, she co-founded a service-oriented club called Humanizing that has partnered with City College clubs and Macaulay’s Service and Green Initiatives to encourage greater involvement in community service. Starting her junior year, Shelly began research in Dr. Osceola Whitney’s neuroscience laboratory at the Center for Discovery and Innovation and has achieved Honors in Biology. She serves as the Director of Volunteer Services of the CCNY Biology Club, previously holding the position of Director of Outreach. In Winter 2020, Shelly received the Schor Scholars Opportunities Fund to study abroad in Cape Town, South Africa. Over her gap year, she hopes to gain clinical exposure before applying to medical school. In her spare time, Shelly enjoys gardening, crafting, and piecing together puzzles.

Virtual Celebration

Ashley Mei Torrenti

Ashley-Mei Torrenti is an International Marketing major, with a Law Minor and an Interdisciplinary Minor with Honors in NYC Studies. She plans on extending her graduation to pursue a Pre-Veterinarian track and continues to volunteer at Peace River Wildlife Center.

Since joining the Macaulay family, Ashley-Mei has served in several leadership positions, including the executive board for Macaulay Business Club and the Macaulay Marauders Quidditch Team. For the past three years, Ashley-Mei has served as the President of the Marauders and will be continuing her time as the newly elected coach! In 2018 she served as an Honors Ambassador for Baruch College and became a Peer Mentor in the Fall of 2019. She is known for her passion for spearheading several fundraising events for Macaulay and her clubs. While an undergraduate student, she has studied abroad twice, studying antiquities in Florence, Italy (Winter 2019) and brushing up on her Spanish in Santander, Spain (Summer 2019). This winter, she worked as an intern for Clean All, LLC for which she was awarded the Gala Scholars Award.

Virtual Celebration

Florence Adeosun

Florence Adeosun is a Journalism and Creative Writing Major and a Theatre Minor. She is a director for the non-profit organization, Relume Foundation. She helps run their social media, is a volunteer SAT tutor for the organization, writes press releases for Relume, and she has helped in medical charity trips to villages in Nigeria. In 2019, she received the Arnold Picker Award of Excellence in Journalism. She also participated in the production of Godspell by the Macaulay Theatre Club. Florence plans on being an editor for a news organization and continuing her philanthropy in the future.

Virtual Celebration

Jadyn Marshall

Jadyn Marshall is a Creative Writing major at Hunter College and holds a Certificate in Publishing from City College. She is one of Hunter’s Spring 2020 valedictorians. She studied abroad in London, England in Summer 2019, as a Meyer Scholar, and in Florence, Italy in her final semester.

In Spring 2018 she interned at Penguin Random House, where she reported on manuscripts, copyedited Mad Libs for inclusivity, and worked on gift book plans for children’s book franchises. Previously she interned at Story Pirates, where she helped manage the influx of 15,000 stories submitted annually by elementary school children, and at Jill Grinberg Literary Management. She volunteers for Scan the World, where she learned how to photograph statues for the organization’s democratized 3D cultural heritage archive. She taught other Macaulay students to do the same as a project leader during Macaulay Community Service Day 2019. She has received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Athens, Greece next year, and will later pursue graduate work in literature and secondary education.