Yale honors 10 student workers who made key campus contributions

Yale College this week honored 10 undergraduate students who made key contributions to the university community through their work in laboratories, offices, dining halls, and other on-campus jobs.

Recipients of this year’s Y-Work Awards for Outstanding Undergraduate Student Employees included a senior who helped bolster support for fellow students with world-changing ideas; a researcher who helped develop a custom AI-powered chatbot at the Digital Ethics Center; an Army veteran who helped manage the Department of Anthropology’s biological anthropology labs; and a peer counselor who provided support to economics students over three academic years.

All of them have exhibited “dedication and professionalism in the workplace as well as their initiative and innovation to go above and beyond the call of duty,” Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis said during an awards reception at the Yale Schwarzman Center on May 1.

“The impact they have had on their place of work has been such that they will be greatly missed when they graduate, and in many cases their impact will last far beyond their four years here at Yale,” he said.

The students, and their award citations, follow:

Astri Doub ’24, Student Funding Coordinator, Tsai CITY (Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale)

Supervisor: Matthew Gira, Director of Student Programming, Tsai CITY

“Astri leads Tsai CITY’s student funding team in making decisions for our Exploration, Milestone, and Ecosystem funds. She also leads the team with the Innovators Prize as part of Startup Yale. Astri helps us distribute over $100,000 of funds to students so they can solve real-world problems. Examples of Astri’s initiative and impact include the fact that she started hosting office hours with students every Friday afternoon so that they would be better prepared to apply to funding. Her supervisor notes that the quality of applications went up significantly and that the office hours support helped students who may not have applied in the first place. Astri also piloted an 8-week post check email which is laying the foundation for how Tsai CITY can support students and provide resources like mentorship and software tools in the future.”

Nicolas Gertler ’27, Undergraduate Researcher, Digital Ethics Center

Supervisor: Joanna Carmona, Program Manager, Digital Ethics Center

“According to Nicolas’ supervisor, ‘Nicolas took the initiative to explore novel avenues in AI application by spearheading the development of a custom chatbot trained on Luciano Floridi’s corpus of literature. This groundbreaking effort marks a significant milestone in academia, as it represents the first instance of leveraging generative AI to disseminate scholarly insights to the public.’ Nicolas also serves as Chair of the AI Issue Advisory Council and AI & Education Advisor at Encode Justice. His supervisor emphasized Nicolas’ ‘unwavering commitment, exceptional reliability, and unparalleled professionalism.’”

Elizabeth Joslin ’24, Laboratory Assistant, Yale Biological Anthropology Laboratories

Supervisor: Gary Aronsen, Supervisor of Yale Biological Anthropology Laboratories

“Elizabeth is an Army veteran and an Eli Whitney Scholar. Her duties ranged from basic cleaning and lab hygiene to inventory and assessment of collections, cataloguing, experimental design and analyses, and faculty/student support. Her supervisor notes that Elizabeth, ‘dove into her work with enthusiasm and academic rigor.’ Among other projects, she analyzed skeletal material as part of a collaborative effort with the CT State Archaeologist and participated in field schools and other programs which provided direct benefit for working with the Lab’s primate collections. Elizabeth’s supervisor shares that, ‘In short, the functions of our laboratories would not be where they are now without Ms. Joslin,’ and that she is, ‘one of the best assistants I have ever had.’”

Aqua Lake ’25, Social Media Assistant, Yale Alumni Association

Supervisor: Carissa Violante, Associate Director, YAA Digital Marketing

“Aqua’s main responsibilities involve content creation for the YAA’s public-facing social media accounts. This includes capturing some of the most important content for the YAA's accounts like our Reunions weekend celebrations. Aqua is also responsible for generating ideas, suggesting social media trends that the YAA can adapt in a professional manner, and covering on-campus events when YAA staff cannot attend. Aqua’s supervisor notes that content Aqua has produced, ‘brings joy to the more than 13,400 followers on the YAA's Instagram account and had populated the vast majority of the YAA's TikTok presence’ and went on to say, ‘Whenever Aqua and I brainstorm an idea together, his resulting videos are better than I could have imagined every single time… He is the epitome of a creative professional.’”

Daevan Mangalmurti ’24, Senior Student Fellow, South Asian Studies Council (SASC)

Supervisor: Kasturi Gupta, Program and Institutional Partnerships Director, Council on South Asian Studies

“Daevan’s responsibilities as Senior Student Fellow range from writing news and managing communication for the Council, to engaging with student groups on campus and mentoring junior student fellows. Daevan’s supervisor referred to him as ‘our student ambassador of choice,’ and noted the ways in which he has hosted distinguished visitors with grace and that he demonstrated, ‘unwavering composure and resilience’ in when accompanying SASC staff and faculty on a trip to India. His supervisor shares that, ‘He has gone out of his way to mentor and encourage junior student fellows, and to create a profound sense of camaraderie among the group. This energy and mutual support enlivens the SASC office and community at large. Throughout my fifteen years with the council, I have yet to encounter a student who has embraced the role of passionate advocate for the council as fervently as he has from the outset.’”

Grace Miller ’24, Peer Tutor, Department of Economics

Supervisor: William Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics

“Grace was a peer tutor for ‘Economics 116 (Introductory Macroeconomics)’ in five consecutive semesters, from Fall 2021 through Fall 2024. She ran drop-in peer tutoring hours, did one-to-one tutoring of identified students with need, and occasionally ran review sessions ahead of exams. Grace’s supervisor shared, ‘In “Econ 116” we have been blessed to have many wonderful peer tutors over the years, but Grace has exceeded all of them in impact.’ Grace’s supervisor also shared that students have frequently mentioned her by name in the course evaluations as essential to their positive experience in the course. One student’s comment says it all, ‘[Grace] singlehandedly helped me do well in this course — her review sessions for the exam were literally game-changing… Please promote Grace and hire her forever, she is incredible and is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had (not even being hyperbolic here; Grace is that good!).’”

Braiya Nolan ’25, Lab Tech, Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases

Supervisor: Chantal Vogels, Research Scientist, Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases

“Braiya supports a research project on the impact of dengue virus genetic diversity on Wolbachia-based disease control. Her responsibilities include mosquito rearing, cell culture, RNA extraction, qPCR, next-generation sequencing, and data analysis. Braiya’s supervisor shared that, ‘complex logistics and extensive prep work make her job challenging, but Braiya never fails to impress the entire lab and often makes me forget that she is still in undergrad’ and goes on to note, ‘[Braiya] is always eager to learn new skills and is willing to jump in wherever her help is most needed (even if that means adding single beads to thousands of tubes!). Without her help, we wouldn't have been able to execute the research projects at the scale that we are currently doing. As a result of her hard work, she will be listed as co-author on several manuscripts.’”

McKenna Picton ’24, Student Assistant, Office of Veteran & Military Affairs

Supervisor: Holly Hermes, University Liaison for Veteran & Military Affairs

“In her role as Student Assistant, McKenna works with professional and student staff to create a radically inclusive environment though planning events, programs and services that support community, education, and advocacy efforts across the University. Her supervisor shared that, ‘she researched, produced, and implemented the University’s first Month of the Military Child campaign, reaching hundreds of student and staff families. She created a campaign to show that Yale supports both the military family and the military member. Most notably, as part of her programming charge, she developed and launched a student veteran mentorship program that reaches across all of Yale Graduate and Professional schools as well as Yale College. Focus group feedback had demonstrated that our community needed and wanted a way to connect at a mentorship level and she created the solution. Her initiative and energy is unmatched.’”

Adam Taylor ’24, Student Manager at Branford & Saybrook Dining Halls

Supervisor: Heather Tapper, General Manager and Area Service Lead, Branford & Saybrook Dining Halls

“According to Adam’s supervisor, his role is to ‘ensure that operations run efficiently, that service is excellent, and he handles any issues that may arise, from broken equipment to guest feedback and to student needs to employee issues.’ Adam also trains every new student manager. His supervisor mentioned that he has successfully navigated everything from covering for co-workers to dealing with the dish machine breaking down while having to continue with service. In Adam’s supervisor’s words he is, ‘committed and focused, leads by example, is a positive influence on peers, and finds ways to make others’ jobs easier.’”

Evan Cheng ’25, Museum Collections Assistant in the Invertebrate Paleontology Division, Yale Peabody Museum

Supervisor: Susan Butts, Director of Collections and Research, Yale Peabody Museum

“Evan is responsible for a wide range of tasks including specimen photography, specimen cataloguing, digital asset management, high resolution imaging with digital microscopy, teaching others to high resolution microscopy, developing displays for the museum, leading tours, and creating and running activities for the Peabody EVOLUTIONS high school after school program. Evan’s supervisor wrote, ‘Evan has continuously been enthusiastic to learn new tasks and help his co-workers learn new skills. His skills in macrophotography are unparalleled. His photographs have been used by international researchers for publication in scientific journals and many of his images will be part of exhibits when the Peabody reopens.’ His supervisor goes on to call Evan ‘our go to problem solver’ and one whose ‘diligence and commitment to the job has positively influenced other students who have come to work in the lab.’”