Students honored for excellence, leadership in various categories
URI honored students at the 33rd annual Rainville Awards Ceremony. Photo by Michael Nolfe.
The annual A. Robert Rainville Leadership Awards at the University of Rhode Island recognize students in the categories of employee excellence, servant leadership, student leadership and team excellence.
At this year’s 33rd annual Robert Awards, James Cocozza won the Employee Excellence Award, Naomi Pajarillo won the Servant Leadership Award, Marland Chang won the Student Leadership Award and Diversity Dialogues won the Team Excellence Award.
Over 100 students and student organizations were nominated for the awards, with three finalists being selected in each category.
Cocozza ‘22, a pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy double major from Cranston, Rhode Island, was the recipient of the Employee Excellence Award. He has been a resident assistant for Housing and Residential Life for six years and has had residents from freshmen to seniors during his time. He has also been a part of the Student Senate, Student Conduct Board, Best Buddies and was an undergraduate research assistant within the College of Pharmacy.
“Without the residents, we wouldn’t have this position,” Cocozza said in his acceptance speech. “Just know all the RAs out there do a great job, and they really go out of their way for their residents to support them, especially when it comes to mental health, crisis situations and everyday things.”
His fellow finalists included Kaylee Goyette ‘22 and Kendra Walsh ‘21.
Pajarillo ‘21, a cell and molecular biology major from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was the recipient of the Servant Leadership Award. While at the University, Pajarillo has been a Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (MARC U-STAR) trainee, student researcher, president of the Seeds of Success organization and co-founder of the LGBTQ+ Community Union.
Pajarillo said her proudest accomplishment at URI was helping create a saliva-based COVID-19 assay in Professor Angela Slitt’s lab.
“For those who don’t know, being in research can be really difficult, and I really appreciate the mentorship my lab has given me to be able to give back to others,” Pajarillo said in her acceptance speech.
Her fellow finalists included Naleen Camara ‘21 and Annika Fisher ‘21.
Chang ‘21, a communicative disorders major from Cranston, Rhode Island, was the recipient of the Student Leadership Award. Chang, a veteran, became the president of the Student Veteran’s Organization shortly after joining in 2018. He helped grow the organization from 30 members to over 80.
In his acceptance speech, Chang thanked Rachael Garcia, assistant director of veteran affairs and military programs at URI, as well his wife and daughter for motivating him to come back to school and “do more with his life and his service.”
His fellow finalists included Raquel Ortiz ‘21 and Yeury Liriano ‘21.
Diversity Dialogues, a student organization that facilitates workshops on diversity, equity and inclusion on campus, was the recipient of the Team Excellence Award. Thus far, the group has educated over 1,500 students at URI on social justice issues, including other organizations and academic programs such as Greek Life, URI 101 and education majors.
Maya Moran ‘21, one of the founders of Diversity Dialogues, thanked the Office of Community, Equity and Diversity in her acceptance speech, for helping the team make their idea come to life.
“We’re really happy that our voices and our initiatives and our mission is getting out there,” Moran said. “I hope that seeing us be the recipients of this award really shows [that] this work is very important, and it needs to continue to happen beyond the time that we graduate and for the next however many years we need this to keep being talked about.”
The organization’s fellow finalists included the Campus Recreation Stream Team and the IT Help Desk.
In 2020 the Rainville Awards had to pivot to a social media format because of COVID-19, according to Assistant Director of the Office of Student Involvement Maureen McDermott. This year’s ceremony was held on April 13 with a small group in the Memorial Union Ballroom, as well as a live stream option for those at home.
In addition to highlighting the achievements of URI students and student organizations, McDermott also congratulated and highlighted the achievements of President David Dooley as he prepares for retirement.
“As he completes his tenure this June with his retirement, I wanted to take a moment to share a few of his many accomplishments, including over $900 million in infrastructure improvements … an increase in student retention, and an increase in diversity of our faculty and student population and expanded our partnerships with the international higher education,” McDermott said.