{"id":31470,"date":"2026-05-15T18:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/?post_type=news&p=31470"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:32:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:32:38","slug":"congratulations-to-our-ahs-achievement-award-and-excalibur-recipients","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/news-stories\/congratulations-to-our-ahs-achievement-award-and-excalibur-recipients\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations to AHS Dean’s Award, Achievement Award and Excalibur Award recipients!"},"template":"","news_categories":[15,14],"news_tags":[],"class_list":["post-31470","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-honors-and-recognition","news_categories-student-scholarships-and-awards"],"acf":{"intro_text_subtitle":"","hide_subtitle":false,"intro_text_body":"

At the conclusion of each academic year, three awards are presented at the AHS Awards Nights and AHS Commencement Ceremony:<\/p>\n

1) Dean’s Award
\n2) Achievement Award
\n3) Excalibur Award for Teaching Excellence<\/p>\n

The Dean\u2019s Award<\/a> is presented to one outstanding graduating student who has been active in the AHS community while maintaining a strong academic record. Recipients demonstrate significant service to the college and advocate for their fellow students’ needs.\u00a0 While remaining active as student leaders, the recipients have also maintained high academic standards.<\/p>\n

2025 – 2026 Dean’s Award Recipient: <\/strong>Lauren Dimayuga – Physical Therapy<\/p>\n

One outstanding graduating student is selected from each program as the AHS Achievement Award<\/a> recipient. The faculty select students based on their overall academic performance and potential to become outstanding practitioners in their field, and who have demonstrated leadership or provided service to the campus or their profession.<\/p>\n

The 2025-2026 AHS Achievement Award recipients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Denisse Silva<\/strong> – BS in Disability and Human Development program
\nMaggie Zheng<\/strong> – BS Health Information Management program
\nKarl Marcel Ramirez Manlapid – <\/strong>BS in Kinesiology program
\nLeslie Hernandez – <\/strong>BS in Nutrition program
\nGeorgetta Laririt – <\/strong>BS in Rehabilitation Sciences program
\nAmanda Dazo Ricafrente – <\/strong>MS in Biomedical Visualization program –
\nKelly Parke – <\/strong>MS in Disability and Human Development program
\nRachel Patrick – <\/strong>MS in Health Information Management program
\nKusha Gherwara – <\/strong>MS in Health Promotion and Rehabilitation Sciences program
\nAlyssa Squeo<\/strong> – MS Nutrition, Coordinated Program –
\nMahvish Nazar\u00a0 – <\/strong>PhD in Disability Studies
\nRudri Purohit<\/strong> – PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences program
\nBrandon Paras\u00a0 – <\/strong>Doctor of Physical Therapy program
\nSarah Basha – <\/strong>Post-professional – Doctor of Occupational Therapy program
\nLauren Dimayuga – <\/strong>Entry-level Doctor of Occupational Therapy program<\/p>\n

The graduating class also selects one faculty member from each academic department as the recipient of the Excalibur Award for Teaching Excellence<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0The Excalibur Award is presented to teachers who are role models in their profession, who provide encouragement for learning in the classroom or clinical setting, who help guide students in the achievement of their goals, and who are supportive of the students\u2019 individual efforts.<\/p>\n

The 2025-2026 Excalibur Award recipients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karrie Hamstra-Wright – <\/strong>Kinesiology
\nSherry Wang – <\/strong>Nutrition
\nOrit Schwartz – <\/strong>Rehabilitation Sciences
\nRob Gould – <\/strong>Disability and Human Development
\nFelecia Williams\u00a0 – <\/strong>Health Information Management
\nAmami Antia-Obong – <\/strong>Biomedical Visualization
\nTanvi Bhatt- <\/strong>Physical Therapy
\nJenica Lee – <\/strong>Occupational Therapy<\/p>\n","intro_text_excerpt":"","content_author":"Eileen Doran","content_sticky":false,"intro_text_include_image":false,"news_include_thumbnail":false,"components":false,"SEO_meta_description":""},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31499,"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31470\/revisions\/31499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_categories?post=31470"},{"taxonomy":"news_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahs.uic.edu\/inside-ahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_tags?post=31470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}