May 7, 2026

On Wednesday May 6th, our department gathered for its annual Year-End Graduation and Awards Celebration.

 

It was a wonderful time to reflect on the past year, and to recognize our amazing students. Congratulations to our awardees! We wish you continued growth and success!

Awards

Prestigious Non- Departmental Awards

Graduate College dissertation completion fellowship (AY 25-26):

Chae Eun Lee

Korean Government Scholarship Program (AY 25-26):

Haneul Choi

ROK Ministry of Education HK Global Fellowship (Fall 2025):

Cory Lemke

SLCL dissertation completion fellowship (AY 26-27):

Martine Gallardo

SLATE Conference Travel Award (AY 25-26):

Amy Atiles

Amelia Tighe

SLS Annual Conference Graduate Student Travel Award (Fall 2025): 

Haneul Choi

Eleanor Sand

CEAPS Graduate Student Conference Travel Grant (Spring 2026): 

Chae Eun Lee

Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant (Spring 2026): 

Paul DeNijs

Best student presentation award at Midwest Association of Language Teachers (Fall 2025):

 Xinyi Ma

Yulin Pan

IGI Graduate Summer Research Fellowship (2026):

 Haneul Choi

Sogang University Language Scholarship (Summer 2026):

 Cory Lemke

 

Graduate Teacher Certificate from CITL:

Daiana Logacheva 

Zeynep Canpolat

Polianna Ferreira Da Silva Torres 

Huyen Nguyen

Anlu Zhu

 Carlos Doncel Black

Juan Camilo Gutierrez Rodriguez 

Polina Iurchenko

Victoria Patellos 

Ahn Vo

 

Image
Sasha Radford
Caption
Sasha Radford receiving Mary A. Hussey Award for Excellence in ESL Teaching

Departmental Awards: MATESL

Peter Strevens Award for Academic Excellence

Sasha Radford

Mary A. Hussey Award for Excellence in ESL Teaching

Sasha Radford

Peter Strevens Award for Excellence in Teaching in the IEI

Laiane Rezende Benites De Castro

Image
Laiane Rezende Benites de Castro receiving Peter Strevens Award for Excellence in Teaching in the IEI
Caption
Laiane Rezende Benites de Castro receiving Peter Strevens Award for Excellence in Teaching in the IEI

 

Learn more about MATESL Departmental Awards and past recipients here. 

 

Departmental Awards: Linguistics and Less Commonly Taught Languages

Henry R. Kahane Award for Outstanding TA in Non-Western Languages

Priyanka Gupta

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Priyanka Gupta receiving Henry R. Kahane Award for Outstanding TA in Non-Western Languages
Caption
Priyanka Gupta receiving Henry R. Kahane Award for Outstanding TA in Non-Western Languages

Silver Jubilee Award for Outstanding TA in Linguistics

Saman Jamshidi

Mai Mohamed Eida

Isela Silvera

Image
Isela Silvera, Saman Jamshidi, & Mai Mohamed Eida receiving Silver Jubilee Award for Outstanding TA in Linguistics
Caption
Isela Silvera, Saman Jamshidi, & Mai Mohamed Eida receiving Silver Jubilee Award for Outstanding TA in Linguistics

C.W. Kim Research Award in Linguistics

Joshua Dees

 

Linguistics Student Leadership Award

Saman Jamshidi

Josh Ramanathan

 

Linguistics Student Organization Award

LSO Community Leader Award: Anna Stephanov

LSO Linguistics Ambassador Award: Elif Varlik

LSO Professional Development Award: Amy Atiles

 

Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Linguistics Award

Lilyanna Williams – Linguistics

Josh Ramanathan –CS+Linguistics

Image
Josh Ramanathan & Lilyanna Williams receiving Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award
Caption
Josh Ramanathan & Lilyanna Williams receiving Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award

 

Learn more about Linguistics Departmental Awards and past recipients here. 

Degrees

BA in Linguistics

Nuh Abdur-Rahman

Theodore Aramovich

Magdalena Beczko

Raleigh Bowman 

Theo Brady 

Brendan Burke

William Cashman

Zaavon Christie

Lincoln Dickens 

Aidan Foshay 

Ruby Goodman Lee

Phillip Hutcherson

Aleksandra Korza 

Amanda Li

Salma Lopez 

Abbey Mullen

Andrea Palacio 

Nicole Wee

 Lilyanna Williams 

Kiwin Wu 

Shuyi Wu

Shiyuan Zhang

 

BS in Computer Science and Linguistics

Saad Ahmad 

Murray Ahmed

Aryan Amberkar 

Simon Anari 

Marcus Cai 

Man Geun Chun

Jaydon Fleisch

Jade Fleishman

Keene Huynh

Hyeonjin Kim

Yaash Kokkalera 

Steven Li 

Sky Liu 

Emma Maxwell

Aadhiraj Nayar

Josh Ramanathan 

Shreya Rao 

Ojas Rayaprolu

Rachel Roberts

Eitaro Sakurayama 

Emma Shu

Lucy Wu 

Tommy Yeon 

June Yoo 

Leyi Zhang 

Kenny Zhou 

Alan Zhukovsky

 

BA in Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language

Trista Hansen

 

MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Graduating May - August 2026

Sasha Radford 

Nghia Quang (Jake) Bui

Nataliya Spiridovich

Ekaterina Shutenko

Laiane Rezende Benites De Castro

Mun Kyung Jung

Sasan Mansouri

Nihan Sanic

Helen Mugo 

Rita Seroja Br Ginting

Mehmet Sahin

Eda Yildirimer

 

MA in Linguistics

Cory Lemke

Sibel Arikoglu

Tai Armstrong 

Haneul Choi

Mikaela Martins 

Melika Rajabi 

Eleanor Sand 

Anna Stephanov

 

PhD in Linguistics

August 2025

Brennan Dell 

Elizabeth King

December 2025

Britni Moore

May 2026 

Abraham Ulloa

 Daniel Stelzer

 

Farewell:

This Spring, we are sadly bidding farewell to several esteemed faculty members who have done great service for our department and its students. 

Charlie Dold (lecturer, ESL)

Monica Ghosh (lecturer, ESL)

Rosana Gómez-Cayapú  (lecturer, ESL)

Abdulsamad Humaidan (lecturer, ESL)

Lydia Newkirk (visiting assistant professor, Linguistics)

We wish these faculty members all the best in their next endeavors!

 

Congratulations to all award winners and graduates! Thank you all for another wonderful year!