Events
College Celebrates Outstanding Student Leaders
RALEIGH, N.C. (April 21, 2023) – Wake Tech continued its celebration of Spirit Month and honored outstanding student leaders during a special ceremony Thursday night on the Southern Wake Campus.
The event was filled with numerous recognitions, including Khadijah Scarborough as the college's first recipient of the statewide Dallas Herring Achievement Award and several exemplary students honored with Wake Tech's inaugural Torch Awards.
The Torch Awards recognize students who best exemplify the qualities of service, engagement, academics and leadership. This includes community service involvement, campus club or organizational participation, outstanding achievement and campus or community leadership. Wake Tech's torch symbolizes a beacon of light and fire that students are guided to, leave behind and carry with them to light the way along their path for the rest of their lives.
Twenty-two students were honored with the new Torch Award, each receiving a certificate, acrylic award and medallion that they will wear at graduation.
Torch Awards
- Yan Yu
- Anamari Thomas Carter
- Marianne Valino
- Natalie Hahn
- Agustin Alvarez
- Chrissty Berry Aracena
- Atalya Sigler
- Jennifer Caputo
- Xena Gabrielle Aguilos
- Annika Hedemark
- Jennifer Aguilera
- Isabella Palencia
- Coleman B. Pilkington
- Emma Denman
- Barbara McDonald
- Alexandria Anthony
- Christopher Dickerson
- Crystal Buenrostro
- Dayana Alchoufi Abou Saleh
- Ismaaeel Ali
- Tadiwanashe Lee Nsompa
- Tykeila S. Stewart
Sig Hutchinson, honorary Wake Tech alumnus, was the guest speaker. He gave the student leaders advice about three ways to influence people – be genuinely interested in others and smile, remember a person's name and be a good listener.
Ten students were recognized for their outstanding Student Applied Benchmarking projects in which they designed solutions to problems with the help of college employees. The top three students received scholarships from Balfour Beatty. Sara Yamadi received a $1,000 scholarship, German Gonzalez received a $600 scholarship and Megan Gallagher received a $400 scholarship.
Leaders in the following student groups and organizations were also recognized and received a certificate and pen set:
Student Ambassadors
- Anamari Thomas Carter
- Di Liao
- Danielle Jones
- Emily Jones
- Anna Kotolupova
- Xena Gabrielle Aguilos
- Jordan Scott
- Kathrine Irons
- Nada Mohammed Arshad
- Vera Polyakova
- Agustin Alvarez
- Elijah Coats
- Gabriel Morgan
- Grace Wisniewski
- Isabelle Closser
- James Cappola
- Robert Slemmer
- Timothy Derossett
Student Orientation Leaders
- Sarah Dakin
- Kirstin Barbour
- Chrissty Berry Aracena
- Di Liao
Student Government Association
- Annika Hedemark
- William Guevara
- Kelsey Bell
- Ernesto Gallegos Torres
- Andrew Pratt
- Taj Hewitt
- Austin Medlin
- Josh Saucedo
- Thalia Taybron
- Naseem Hassan
- Brisa Garcia-Casares
- Quinn Anderson
- Betsy Sarmiento-Zagada
- Kevin Reza-Villa
- Jackelyn Perez-Romero
- Jennifer Aguilera
- Bryan Sanchez-Martinez
- Christina Bortnick
- Cricket Wellum
- Skyler Perrone
- Danielle Jones
- Sali Mohammed
Pathways Success Scholars
- Tadiwanashe Lee Nsompa
Fostering Bright Futures
- Alejandra Basham
- Lisa Drevenak
Applied Student Benchmarking
- Mana Aoi
- German Gonzalez
- Zachary Vickers
- Joseph Giardina
- Agustin Alvarez
- Alejandro Collazo-Lopez
- Mercedes Morales
- Megan Gallagher
- Sara Yamadi
- Grace Abraham
The ceremony started with a special recognition for Dallas Herring Award recipient Scarborough, a 2022 graduate of Wake Tech's Associate Degree Nursing program who was a participant in Fostering Bright Futures, a student success program that assists students transitioning from foster care to independent young adulthood. She is currently a pediatric mental health nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, and hopes to continue her education and become a family nurse practitioner.
Established by the North Carolina Community College System in 2010, the Dallas Herring Achievement Award is given annually to one current or former North Carolina community college student who best embodies Herring's philosophy of "taking people where they are and carrying them as far as they can go."
Scarborough said she is honored to be recognized and thanked faculty, staff and her mentors at Wake Tech for seeing her potential and inspiring her to strive for success despite her challenges.
"We all have little Khadijahs inside of us. The resilience to keep pushing, the mindset to change the circumstances and the faith to believe that you can do anything in this world," Scarborough said. "Imaginable is achievable, and I'm standing proof right here that I'm enough, you're enough and anything is possible. We all have the ability to go all the way."
Crystal Buenrostro was also recognized as a nominee for the systemwide Gov. Robert Scott Student Leadership Award, which honors outstanding student leadership and service.
