Two extraordinary students graduating with 2023 Provost Awards

By BZ Zuniga

There will be two CSUMB Provost Award winners at graduation this year. Spencer Hart Winter has been chosen for the Provost’s Award for Exemplary Academic Achievement, and Ana Maria Treadwell-Delgado is receiving the Provost’s Graduate Award for Exemplary Academic Achievement.

Ana Maria Treadwell-Delgado

Treadwell-Delgado is a multilingual and culturally competent instructional designer with experience in project analysis, development, and implementation. She is passionate about instructional theory, learning design, adult learning, performance improvement, and educational technology. 

She has earned a master's degree in instructional science and technology, and a bachelor's degree in world languages and cultures from CSUMB. As an instructional designer, Treadwell-Delgado says her mission is “to design and implement solutions that lead to improvement and change …” 

She considers her greatest accomplishment being a mother of two: “As I see them grow and become their own [people], my heart swells with pride. I hope to have served them well.”

During her undergrad time at CSUMB, one of her favorite professors was Maria Zielina. She enjoyed analyzing Latin-American literature in Zielina’s courses, especially deciphering symbolism. 

“Literature has been beyond fascinating ever since,” Treadwell-Delgado said. 

During her grad school years, she enjoyed learning and working with all of the MIST faculty.

After graduation, she is going on a trip with her husband and children to Spain, Italy and, finally, to Colombia to visit her family.

Spencer Hart Winter

Spencer Hart Winter is graduating with a dual major in biology and human development and family science. 

He was a WAVE Fellow at the Qian Lab at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena this past summer, where he worked on projects which improved the function and behavior of catalytic DNA-based logic circuits and designed and implemented DNA-based circuitry. 

He was an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Center, Barry Goldwater, and Sally Casanova scholar. He was the Vodopia-Hasson poster competition winner at Caltech, and won the CSU Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement. 

He used his Bunkyo Gakuin travel scholarship from Cabrillo College  to work in a cultural development internship in Bunkyo Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. And his NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program will help fund his PhD program in bioengineering at Caltech. 

In his career, he hopes to advance intelligent behavior in DNA-based soft robots. Winter encourages students to not be afraid of exploring new subjects. 

“I came to CSUMB as a preschool teacher doing a bachelor’s degree ‘late’ in order to improve my job prospects,” he said. “I'm leaving as a scientist heading to one of the top engineering schools in the world for my PhD.”

He is getting married in June and will be starting his PhD program in bioengineering at Caltech this fall.  

The two winners of this year's Provost Award both plan to remain in California.