SUNY Plattsburgh Students Celebrated for Excellence with Chancellor’s Award

Three SUNY Plattsburgh students were among 197 from 64 campuses statewide to receive the state university’s highest honor for academic excellence and leadership.

The SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence acknowledges students for integrating outstanding achievements into many different aspects of their lives, including academics, leadership, diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, campus involvement, civics and service, research and development, or creative and performing arts. It is the highest honor bestowed upon a student by the University.

Seniors Lauren Gonyo and Sascha Menn from the Plattsburgh campus and Data Murdie, a junior at the Queensbury campus, will be feted at a ceremony in Albany with Chancellor John King.

Gonyo is graduating in May with a bachelor’s in nutrition and dual minors in psychology and chemistry. The Plattsburgh native plans to continue her education at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut where she wants to study to become a pathology assistant.

“This specific program allows me to sit for the pathology assistant certification exam and begin my career as a pathology assistant,” she said.

‘Jumping up and Down’

She was in her food science lab with Dr. Cecilia Gregoire, assistant professor of nutrition and her adviser, when she receive word.

“I immediately started jumping up and down because I was extremely excited and happy,” Gonyo said.

She told Gregoire, “who was also extremely happy for me,” she said. Gonyo credited Gregoire with helping her realize that she doesn’t “have to work with nutrition and can explore other options like pathology assistance.

“She helped me get in contact with a past student who let me job shadow them to better understand what I wanted and liked,” Gonyo said.

Menn will graduate in May with a degree in anthropology and minors in archaeology, biological anthropology, gender and women’s studies and medical anthropology. A Plattsburgh native, she transferred to SUNY Plattsburgh in 2022 from High Point University in North Carolina.

“I was beyond honored and in shock,” Menn said of learning she had received the award. “If someone told me three years ago, when I transferred to SUNY Plattsburgh, that I would have been awarded this honor, I would not have believed them

Moving Anthropology Department

“When I was notified about this award, I was helping pack up the anthropology department for the move from Redcay to Beaumont, and I remember gasping. My friends asked what was wrong, but I knew I wanted to tell my family first.”

Menn said she hadn’t told them she had been nominated, so the shock was felt at home, as well. As for the anthropology department, which submitted her name for consideration, she informed faculty at the department’s farewell party, she said.

“I made the announcement to my professors and friends that I was awarded the Chancellor’s Award, and after that — that’s when the excitement finally set in and, and it became real,” she said.

Menn will attend the University of Bradford in Bradford, England, for her master’s in human bioarchaeology and palaeopathology.

“Afterwards, I want to continue my education and go to a Ph.D. program in biological anthropology and bioarchaeology,” she said. At that time, she wants to work with the next generation as an undergraduate professor and researcher.

Praise for Faculty

Praising her professors at SUNY Plattsburgh, Menn thanked them for being “so supportive of what I want to do, helping me achieve my goals, allowing me to venture past the classroom and do more than I could have ever imagined or asked for in the last three years of being at SUNY Plattsburgh.”

Data Murdie’s journey to SUNY Plattsburgh began at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, earning an associate’s degree in broadcast media production last August. They took advantage of SUNY Plattsburgh’s Queensbury campus and dual admissions program, transferring in to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

The junior from Rock City Falls, N.Y., is majoring in psychology with a minor in human development and family relations. It was her adviser, Michelle Bilodeu-Lanne, from SUNY Adirondack who nominated her for the award.

“This is not an award I was expecting to achieve, so to be even nominated was a huge honor,” they said. It was Bilodeu-Lanne with whom they shared the news first, one of the people instrumental in “the process of getting me through college.

“I have an excellent support system,” they said. Self-identifying as queer transgender, the first-generation college student served as student speaker at their graduation from SUNY Adirondack. They plan to continue their education by attending the University of Albany for a master’s in social work.

— Story, Photos by Gerianne Downs

— Data Murdie Photo by Emma Volks