The nearly 2,900 student employees affiliated with Cornell Student and Campus Life (SCL) have performed many important tasks this academic year – from revamping communication systems for the Cornell Store to supporting Cornell Dining during a union work stoppage.

SCL celebrated these and many other achievements at the inaugural Student Employment Awards Ceremony, held April 11 in the Memorial Room in Willard Straight Hall.

Credit: Jacob Mroczek/Student and Campus Life

The event honored 12 Cornell students and one staff member, highlighting their exceptional contributions within SCL.

“Today, we celebrate not just the work of our student employees but the extraordinary ways they go above and beyond their academic responsibilities,” said Brandon Fortenberry, senior manager of dining training and development, as he welcomed around 75 honorees, guests, nominators, supervisors and SCL leadership.

“Through these awards, we honor those who have demonstrated outstanding dedication, initiative and leadership,” he said, “contributions that strengthen our campus community and elevate the student employment experience.”

Every year the National Student Employment Association designates a full week in April as National Student Employment Week and gives out five Student Employee of the Year awards and one Supervisor of the Year award. The names and nomination letters of SCL’s winners were sent to the national association, to compete against other student employees nominated across the U.S.

Inspired by the spirit of community that flourished in the wake of disaster back home in New Orleans, Rachel Cannata ’25 quickly found a way to give back when she arrived in Ithaca. She found work at Catholic Charities of Tompkins and Tioga counties through the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement’s Community Work-Study Program, which enables students to work at community nonprofit organizations and schools.

Cannata, the Student Employee of the Year winner in the Community Service category, works as an assistant in Catholic Charities’ Clothing Closet, sorting through donations, hanging up clothes, training new volunteers and assisting those in need of free clothing. People come to the Clothing Closet after house fires, floods and during general times of financial hardship.

Her nominator said that Cannata ensures a welcoming, dignified environment, and that her ability to connect with individuals from diverse backgrounds has made services more accessible and inclusive.

“I think sometimes people feel that if they don’t have some kind of extraordinary idea for how to innovate community service, they maybe won’t make the effort to just help where they can,” Cannata said. “This experience has taught me that you just have to seek out opportunities to be able to get to know your community and help it where you can.”

The ceremony included awards given out annually from Cornell Dining. Five student leaders received Outstanding Student Manager awards, and two students received the Brad Ginsburg ’13 Award for Outstanding Student Service.

The staff member recognized was Mia Ferraina, a public service career coach at Cornell Career Services who supervised 10 student employees this semester. The students who nominated her for Supervisor of the Year said Ferraina truly values their input and regularly seeks feedback from them.

They also noted that her ability to balance the demands of being a leader while understanding the unique challenges of being a student makes her a standout supervisor.

“Our student staffers improve our systems and our efficiency by sharing their personal experience,” said Ferraina, who also won the regional Supervisor of the Year award from the Northeast Association of Student Employment Administrators. “I think they help us be more relevant, they help us be accessible, interesting, understood and approachable to students.” 

The awards and winners:

Student Employee of the Year

• Community Service: Rachel Cannata ’25
• Critical Thinking: Annie Stewart ’25
• Diversity and Inclusion: Janice Indajang ’25
• Innovation and Technology: Andres Castellanos ’25
• Leadership: Petros Pisinos ’25 

Supervisor of the Year 

• Mia Ferraina, Public Service Career Coach, Cornell Career Services  

Brad Ginsburg ’13 Award for Outstanding Student Service 

• West Campus: Lydia Sun ’26
• North Campus: Andrew Doty ’26 

Cornell Dining Outstanding Student Manager Awards  

• North Campus Board: Anna Chen ’25
• North Campus Retail: Matthewjordan Rueda ’27
• Ag Quad: Shivani Tripathi ’25
• Central Campus: Nylicia Campos ’26
• West Campus: Aryk Maraj ’27

Laura Gallup is a communications lead for Student and Campus Life.