Awards recognize Outstanding student/leaders

By Roger Ruvolo

Each year Cal State Monterey Bay honors students who have excelled not only in their subject fields but also as leaders on campus. 

This year, the Outstanding Senior Scholar-Athlete award goes to baseball player Drew Aguiar. Yefry Mata Diaz is the honoree as the Outstanding Senior Award for Social Justice. And Consuelo Rodriguez is the winner for the Alumni Vision Award. . 

Drew Aguiar 

A right-handed pitcher for the nationally-ranked Otters, Drew Aguiar has put together a stellar record with a low earned-run average and high strikeout ratio. In fact, in just two seasons, Aguiar ranks among the top 10 pitchers in Otter history in 11 categories.

But some CSUMB baseball fans may not be aware that Aguiar is also an achiever in academics, twice making the all-CCAA Academic Team.

A 25-year-old senior, Aguiar sports a 3.809 grade-point average and expects to graduate in May with a major in humanities and communications. 

Yefry Mata Diaz 

A co-founder of Voces Unidad, Yefry Mata Diaz said the group has pushed for better access to higher education for historically underserved students through “advocacy to action, securing funding for conferences, expanding networks and addressing barriers to participation.”

“Drawing on my lived experience as a formerly incarcerated, first-generation Honduran student,” he wrote in the essay that accompanied his nomination, Mata Diaz looked into “systemic inequities [that] can limit access to leadership opportunities, resources, and support.”

One of the changes Mata Diaz cited in his essay was creation of an HSI Senator position within Associated Students. He wrote that the seat was approved after collaboration with the Dean of Students and the co-chairs of the HSI Advisory Council. He currently fills that role as senator-at-large. 

Mata Diaz wrote he will pursue a master’s degree at Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, “where I plan to keep creating opportunities and supporting communities.” 

Consuelo Rodriguez 

The Alumni Vision Award is given to a student who manifests the vision through personal example, voice and initiative. It found just such a student in Consuelo Rodriguez, a molecular biology major who aspires to become a cardiothoracic surgeon. 

Achieving that objective gives her a chance to “build something bigger than what I grew up around,” Rodriguez wrote. 

While at CSUMB, Rodriguez has served as AMSA president and continued the traditional Dinner with Docs program that puts students, many of them first-generation, into contact with medical professionals. 

Upon achieving her goal, Rodriguez wrote she will “serve patients with respect and compassion, especially people who feel overlooked in healthcare.”