Nine students receive SUNY Chancellor’s Awards

Nine students and recent graduates representing Cornell's four contract colleges have been chosen to receive the 2026 State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.

The highest student honor conferred by SUNY, the award recognizes exceptional achievement in areas such as academics, leadership, campus involvement, community service, the arts, and diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. A systemwide recognition ceremony for awardees was held at the end of April at the Albany Capital Center.

Enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), College of Human Ecology (CHE), College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), this year's recipients have all earned GPAs near or exceeding 4.0.

The 2026 honorees are:

Trisha Bhujle '26 (CALS), of Lewisville, Texas, an environment and sustainability major with a minor in international relations, researches the intersection of wildlife conservation and food systems. Her international, grant-funded work includes interviewing villagers in Swahili in Tanzania as a Laidlaw Scholar and invitations to speak at the IUCN World Conservation Congress and other symposia. Bhujle has also served as a research assistant across multiple labs and at the University of Oxford Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, contributing to several peer-reviewed papers. A chapter from her undergraduate thesis is under review at Oryx, while her children's book on spotted salamander migrations has already been published. A member of Quill and Dagger, she has held leadership roles with the CALS Committee on Diversity and Inclusion and Anabel's Grocery, earning recognition as a Changemaker by the United Nations Millennium Campus Network. For her work with the Cornell NatureRx Steering Committee, Bhujle received the Matthew A. Kleiner Health Leadership Award from Cornell Health and the Resilience Award from the Cornell Campus Sustainability Office.

Francesca Buchalski, D.V.M. '26 (CVM), of Allentown, New Jersey, is an equestrian who competes in dressage and eventing and has distinguished herself in equine medicine. A recipient of numerous scholarships, including the Coyote Rock Ranch Scholarship and the Dean Warnick Scholarship, she has contributed to equine research projects and published in academic journals. Buchalski organized more than 20 lectures and eight hands-on laboratories featuring faculty and visiting equine professionals as president of the Cornell chapter of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. Outside the classroom, she volunteered at a local alpaca breeding facility, served as a course assistant and peer coach, and helped revive the veterinary college's Ultrasounds a cappella group. Ranked second in her class of 121, Buchalski graduates with distinction and membership in the Phi Zeta honor society. She plans to pursue an equine internship and a career in ambulatory equine medicine.

Lauren Chuhta '26 (CALS), of Cambridge, New York, has built an interdisciplinary record in agricultural development, food systems and impact evaluation through majors in global development and communication. Her research, volunteer work and internships have taken her to Washington, D.C., Mali, Kenya, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Dominican Republic. Across these experiences, she has contributed to mixed-methods evaluations for international nonprofits, agricultural cooperatives and youth programs and is conducting an impact analysis for the World Food Prize Foundation Youth Program. Chuhta uses her interdisciplinary training in communication to make research accessible to academic, policy and public audiences, including as a communications assistant in global development. Recognized as an Obama Voyager Scholar, she has demonstrated campus leadership as co-president of the Global Development Student Advisory Board, where she helped create the Big-Little peer mentoring program and launch a year-end gala. A member of Quill and Dagger and Der Hexenkreis, Chuhta also leads the 40-person trumpet section of the Big Red Marching Band.

Robert Farbman '25 (ILR), of Woodbridge, Connecticut, graduated in December 2025 with a major in industrial and labor relations and a minor in law and society after transferring from Fordham College Lincoln Center in his second year. He built a strong foundation for a legal career by serving as a labor law research assistant to Yiran Zhang, Proskauer Assistant Professor of Employment and Labor Law, and working with the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research in Zambia through ILR's Global Service-Learning program to study children's rights. Farbman also spent a semester abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. At the end of his junior year, he was awarded the John O'Donnell Prize in Labor Law for the top paper in labor law. Outside of classes, Farbman sang with the Key Elements A Cappella, participated in the Cornell Undergraduate Law Review and helped new students transition into the school as an ILR Peer Mentor.

Jiayi Guo '25 (CHE), of Jinan, China, graduated in December 2025 with a major in design and environmental analysis and a minor in healthy futures. A Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, she pursued translational research that supports healthier human-environment relationships and presented her work at numerous academic conferences. She contributed to a transportation equity needs assessment in Ithaca as a Laidlaw Scholar, received support from the Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement to lead community-engaged youth development projects and used an Alan D. Mathios Research and Service Grant to study Chinese children's feelings about climate change. Under Guo's co-leadership at Cornell University Sustainable Design, the City of Ithaca achieved LEED Gold certification. She also coached undergraduates as a career assistant with the Human Ecology Career Exploration Center and performed with the Amber Dance Troupe.

Kamala Karuppiah '25 (ILR), of East Brunswick, New Jersey, graduated in December 2025 with a major in industrial and labor relations and a minor in global health and health equity. She completed a senior honors thesis on women re-entering the workforce and, as a Laidlaw Scholar, conducted comparative research on the integration of doctors with disabilities in seven countries. Her summer research took her to Australia as an intern with Sydney Executive Plus and to India, where she evaluated the impact of a water, sanitation and hygiene intervention as part of the ILR India Global Service-Learning program. Karuppiah further developed her academic interests through co-curricular experiences with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor and the Communications Workers of America Local 1180. A longtime member of the Mock Trial Association, she held multiple leadership roles and was recognized with an outstanding attorney award.

Judit Laidlaw '26 (CALS), of Natick, Massachusetts, is a nutritional sciences major interested in early cognitive development. As an undergraduate researcher with the Cornell Choline Cognition Research Group, she developed a novel coding system to quantify infants' attention behaviors - work that will culminate in her honors thesis. To translate research findings into practical tools, she co-authored and illustrated two evidence-based children's books on nutrition and vaccine education. She has also served as a teaching assistant for upper-level courses in nutrition and anatomy. Laidlaw was a four-year member of the Cornell Women's Rugby Football Club, which she headed as captain for one season. She volunteers as a firefighter and EMT with the Cayuga Heights Fire Department, contributing over 3,500 hours while mentoring new first responders and engaging in community outreach. She received the department's 2025 "Die Hard" Award for responding to more than 25 percent of annual 911 calls.

Viviana Maymí, Ph.D. '24, D.V.M. '26 (CVM), of Tampa, Florida, completed the doctoral portion of her combined D.V.M./ Ph.D. program in the Rudd Lab, investigating how disease-fighting immune cells develop and lose effectiveness over time. She published this research in six peer-reviewed articles and will graduate in the top ten percent of her D.V.M. class. Maymí has served on several CVM committees and as a student representative to the Council on Education during a review of Cornell's veterinary program. Committed to mentoring students underrepresented in the sciences, she has also held leadership roles in the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science and helped organize youth science outreach through Expanding Your Horizons and Fall into Science. She traveled to Guatemala with FARVets to support animal sterilization and education initiatives and volunteers with the Pet Loss Support Hotline, providing grief support to pet owners.

Laurel Whidden '26 (CHE), of Park City, Utah, is a global and public health sciences major with minors in fine arts, anthropology and inequality studies. She has pursued advanced, research-intensive coursework and published five peer-reviewed articles in the Cornell Healthcare Review, where she received the Fall 2024 Outstanding Artist Award for excellence in health communication and visual storytelling. Her interdisciplinary research portfolio includes competitive fellowships for community-based projects in Ecuador and Cambodia, work with the Cornell Master of Public Health Program and an ongoing internship with the UCLA Art and Global Health Center. Applying her background in art, Whidden designed the center's Through Positive Eyes newsletter and exhibition on HIV/AIDS art activism and created Art4Nthaka Yathu (Art4OurLand), a youth-led climate justice initiative in southern Malawi. As vice president Cornell's Global Health Student Advisory Board, she leads campus-wide initiatives that integrate the arts into public health education.