Stanford Alumni Association awards honor outstanding Stanford students
Among this year’s honorees are graduating seniors Tina Wong, recipient of the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award, and Labib Tazwar Rahman and Selaine Rodriguez, recipients of the Outstanding Achievement Award.
The Stanford Alumni Association has announced the recipients of its annual awards honoring outstanding Stanford students.
The awards include the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award and the Outstanding Achievement Award. This year, 221 graduating seniors are also receiving the Award of Excellence, and 125 graduate students are recipients of the Community Impact Award.
J.E. Wallace Sterling Award winner
Tina Wong (Image credit: Courtesy Stanford Alumni Association)
The J.E. Wallace Sterling Award is named for J.E. Wallace Sterling, who served as Stanford’s president from 1949 to 1968 and as chancellor until 1985. The award recognizes a graduating senior whose undergraduate leadership and volunteer activities have made the largest impact on the Stanford community. Faculty and staff nominate students for the award. This year’s recipient is senior Tina Wong.
Wong is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Prior to transferring to Stanford from the College of San Mateo in 2019, she served for four years in the U.S. Army as a health care specialist and medic. Wong’s nominators and references praised her stewardship of Stanford’s Office for Military-Affiliated Communities (OMAC).
“… Tina has done as much or more than anyone to advance the services to OMAC students,” wrote one nominator.
Wong has served as a co-lead for Transfer 101, a student-led course for incoming transfer students, and served as a Teaching Assistant for the training class, instructing the next generation of student leaders for this vital program. She was also an ambassador to the Office of Admission and the nonprofit organization Service to School, which provides free college application counseling to military veterans and service members.
Wong is praised for her support of Stanford’s transfer student and veteran student communities during the pandemic. She is noted for her candor, stellar moral principles, valued perspectives, kindness, analytical skills, and diplomacy.
Outstanding Achievement Award winners
The Outstanding Achievement Award is granted to J.E. Wallace Sterling Award finalists. These top seniors have made a significant impact on the campus community with undergraduate activities that demonstrate the strong potential for continued service to the university and the alumni community. Faculty and staff nominate students for this award.
Labib Tazwar Rahman (Image credit: Courtesy Stanford Alumni Association)
Labib Tazwar Rahman is honored for his volunteerism and community leadership at Stanford and beyond. He is a disability rights activist who has brought insight and innovation to the university. According to a nominator, “Labib’s philosophy for creating social impact is about creating systems that outlive him.” Rahman is the founder of InclusionX, an organization promoting inclusion for people with disabilities and mental illness through online therapy and programs in mental health, reproductive health, inclusive computing, and arts education. He also created the Joy of Computing project for neurodiverse students using a personalized multimodal learning approach where other students act as peer trainers.
Selaine Rodriguez (Image credit: Courtesy Stanford Alumni Association)
Selaine Rodriguez is a first-generation and low-income (FLI) student committed to serving those communities. As section leader for the CS 198 program, she instituted office hours to provide FLI students with individualized support and additional assistance. As vice president of the Society of Latinx Engineers (SOLE), she connected under-class students interested in engineering with upper-class mentors. At Stanford, Rodriguez also served in numerous organizations, planned an international politics conference, and helped develop a diversity training program for professors. She is an accomplished Mariachi musician and served as president of Mariachi Cardenal de Stanford for two years.
Award of Excellence winners
The Award of Excellence recognizes the top 10% of the graduating class. These graduating seniors demonstrated a sincere commitment to the university through involvement, leadership, and extraordinary Stanford spirit. Faculty and staff nominate students for this honor. This year, 221 were named Award of Excellence recipients. A full list of honorees is provided here.
Community Impact Award winners
The Community Impact Award recognizes outstanding graduate students. Throughout the past year, these 125 students fostered a sense of belonging and inspired enthusiasm among fellow grad students. They enhanced the Stanford community through exemplary leadership of a student organization, creation of an event or program, or other unique campus contributions. Examples of this year’s contributions include programs that support first-generation college students, women in STEM fields, international students, academic initiatives, diversity equity and inclusion, and graduate life. Faculty and staff provide nominations for this honor. This year’s awardees include students from all of Stanford’s seven schools. A full list of honorees is provided here.