CSUMB President Quiñones awards two students top honors

By Mark Muckenfuss

Two Cal State Monterey Bay students are honored each year with the President’s Award for Exemplary Student Achievement. One award goes to an undergraduate student, the other to a grad student. 

This year, President Vanya Quiñones chose business major Sara Walter and Lucas Raymond, a master’s student in environmental science, as the recipients. 

"We have such exemplary students at Cal State Monterey Bay and all the nominees for our student awards exhibited a strong Otter spirit,” Quiñones said. “Sarah stood out because in addition to her academic success and her engagement in internships, she also showed a commitment to supporting other Otters through her club and OSU board service.

"Lucas has made a mark at Cal State Monterey Bay as the coordinator for the College of Science Natural Sciences Seminar series,” she added, “which brought industry professionals to campus to speak to students. But beyond that, he has supported our local region through his work on the Central Coast's annual water quality report that ensures we all have safe water for drinking and municipal uses."

Walter’s CSUMB experience began when an accounting presentation caught her attention. She was still trying to decide if CSUMB was the school for her when she walked into a mock accounting class during Admitted Otter Day. Professors Gary Schneider and Shaowen Hua were outlining what was then a minor course of study and the career opportunities available in the field. 

“Their presentation not only swayed me to go to CSUMB but also to do accounting,” Walter said. 

The Sacramento native transferred to CSUMB after attending Cosumnes River College. She packed a lot into her two final years of undergraduate studies. She became president of Theta Alpha Sigma, through which she promoted women’s issues and worked at the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center. She was also president of the accounting society, where she organized guest lectures by local business leaders. And, Walter was secretary of the Otter Student Union Board. 

Following an internship at Moss Adams in Sacramento this summer, Walter plans to study for her CPA exams. She hopes to work as an auditor or public accountant. 

Such a profession, she said, “is kind of a culmination of everything I love about my classes. It's about doing the detective work to find out if a company really is being truthful.”

Walter credits Hua, Schneider and Professor Heiko Wieland with her success. 

“They have really supported me throughout my journey at CSUMB, and I couldn’t be where I am without them,” she said. 

The president’s award, she said, is the highest academic honor she’s received.

“Having this award that represents not only my academics but my engagement in the community is definitely the peak,” she said. “I think it kind of means all my hard work has been worth it.”

Graduate winner Lucas Raymond said this is the first real academic award he has received. 

“I was honored that the work that I conducted was deemed worthy enough for this,” Raymond said. “I didn't expect to get anything out of it like this.” 

He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Virginia Tech in 2022, then spent a year as an entomology lab assistant at UC Riverside. He found he enjoyed the field work more than the lab. He sought out master’s degree programs in environmental science.

“I was looking for a school with kind of a small department,” he said. “I had the chance to speak to multiple faculty at CSUMB. It just felt like I was home. What I really liked was how connected they were in the community. The research that is conducted here is really applicable to what is going on within a 10- to 20-mile radius. It was real-world applications.”

During his time at CSUMB, Raymond was part of several research studies, including analysis of steelhead trout migration in the Carmel River and comparing the use of traditional fertilizers to aquaculture from wastewater on growing green onions. The onions grew equally well under both applications, pointing to a possibly cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative. 

“My experiences at CSUMB have empowered me to make meaningful contributions to the Monterey area and the field of environmental science at large,” Raymond said. 

He will return to the East Coast and begin his PhD studies in the same subject at the University of Virginia this fall. He envisions a career as a researcher at a university. 

 “At CSUMB, I’ve been able to receive not only a top-notch education,” he said, “but research guidance that has set me up for success in my future.”