Congratulations to Honors Scholar Designation Completers, Honors Awardees, and Graduates!
A great big congratulations to all of our Honors Awardees, all completers of the Honors Scholar Degree Designation (Designees), and all Graduates and Transfer Students who have taken Honors classes at Oakton in the last few years!
Below is the list of Honors Scholar Designation completers and Honors Award Winners by discipline. You can read more about all of them in the Honors Student Showcase.
· John Abregana: Completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community, all in one year. He plans to transfer to the University of Illinois at Chicago to pursue a Bachelors degree in Information and Decision Sciences.
· Ana Adamadze: Completed 24 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community, all in one year. She received the Honors Scholarship on coming to Oakton and the Graff-Stacewicz Public Intellectuals Scholarship at Oakton. She will be continuing at Oakton next year.
· Stephanie Adaza: Completed 15 credits in Honors classes, including an Honors Independent Study, and will complete the remaining 3 credits this summer. She served as Secretary of the Honors Student Organization (HSO). She plans to transfer to Loyola University, Chicago.
· Kenio Antoine: Completed 22 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community, all in one year. He received the Honors Scholarship on coming to Oakton. He plans to continue at Oakton next Fall, and then transfer to a four-year university to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing, and eventually become a Nurse Practitioner or Physician’s Assistant.
· Hannah Cardenas Avila: Completed 15 credits in Honors classes, including an Honors Independent Study, and will complete the remaining 3 credits this summer. She plans to transfer to the Honors Program at Elmhurst University to pursue a Bachelors degree in Chemistry with a minor in Philosophy.
· Emma Batalia: Completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. She plans to transfer to the Illinois State University to pursue a Bachelors degree in Financial Accounting.
· Kate Capilitan: Completed 19 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. She plans to transfer to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations and hopefully continue on to Law School.
· Jonas Ceviker: Completed 23 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. He served as the President of the HSO. He plans to transfer to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Grainger School of Engineering to pursue a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering.
· Kelly Croke: Completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. She served as the Secretary of the HSO. She plans to transfer to the University of Dayton in Ohio to pursue a Bachelors degree in Secondary Education with a concentration in History.
· Tehilah David: Completed 12 credits in Honors classes, including 2 Learning Communities, and will complete the remaining 6 credits this summer. She plans to transfer to a four year school to pursue Museum Studies.
· Jessica de la Rosa: Completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. She plans to transfer to a four-year university to pursue Arts Education.
· Leslie Deloya: Completed 12 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community, and will complete the remaining 6 credits this summer. She received the Honors Scholarship on coming to Oakton.
· Fatima Elgarawany: Completed 16 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community, and will complete the remaining 3 credits this summer. She plans to transfer to Lake Forest College and pursue a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies.
· Amelia Grzywacz: Completed 12 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Communities, and will complete the remaining 6 credits this summer. She will continue at Oakton next year studying Environmental Studies.
· Giselle Gube: Completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including 2 Learning Communities. She served as the Treasurer of the HSO. She will be continuing at Oakton next year.
· David Jimenez: Completed 23 credits in Honors classes, including an Honors Independent Study course. He received the Honors Scholarship on coming to Oakton. He plans to transfer to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.
· Brandon Khamharn: Completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. He served as the Treasurer of the HSO. He plans to transfer to Lake Forest College to study Pre-Law and pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.
· Mark Lazo: Completed 18 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. He will continue at Oakton next year and then plans to transfer to a 4-year university to study Cinematography and Film Production.
· Sophia Maglalang: Completed 22 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community. She plans to transfer to DePaul University to pursue a Bachelors degree in Marketing.
· Sofija Pjevic: Completed 19 credits in Honors classes, including an Honors Independent Study course. She plans to transfer to Lindsey Wilson College.
· Sokunthida Sear: Completed 19 credits in Honors classes, including the Interdisciplinary Lab. She plans to transfer to the University of Illinois at Chicago to pursue a Bachelor degree in Biochemistry.
· Aliki Stamati-Chaidaropoulou: Completed 20 credits in Honors classes, including 1 Learning Community and the Interdisciplinary Lab. She has transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago and is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences.
Honors Disciplinary Awards and Scholarships 2024-2025:
The following students were awarded discipline-specific awards by nomination of the faculty of Oakton’s Honors Program. Please follow the link above to read more about their accomplishments. Many have also submitted Honors coursework to our Student Projects Showcase.
Honors Student of the Year, and Honors S.T.E.M. — David Jimenez
Honors Public Intellectual, and Honors English — Ana Adamadze
Honors Environmental Studies — Fatima Elgarawany
Honors Humanities — Noah Rosenberg
Honors Philosophy, Elmhurst/Oakton Honors Transfer Scholarship — Hannah Cardenas
Honors Social and Behavioral Sciences — Brandon Khamharn
Honors Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies — Nat Cisneros
Honors Peace and Social Justice Studies — Kate Capilitan
All photos by Oakton Student Employee Rachel Hansen
Students in the Honors Program in 2024-2025 shared the following projects completed in Honors classes:
John Abregana: “You Might Be Learning All Wrong—Here's How to Get It Right!” from Honors Speech.
Hannah Cardenas-Avila: “Ethnographic Profiles of Two Jewish Communities in the Greater Chicago Area” from Honors Religious Diversity in America.
Jonas Ceviker: “Determination of an Optimal Model for Predicting Launch Angle of a Projectile for Maximum Distance with Respect to the Height of the Origin” from Honors General Physics 1 (video presentation).
Tehilah David: “Belonging: A Mind Map Discussion” from the Honors Learning Community of Native American Literature with Environmental Ethics.
Fatima Elgarawany: “Coping with the Invasive Rusty Crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) in the Chicago Region” from Honors Animals and Society.
Nimra Deivassagayame: “Investigating Anti-Biofilm Activity of Curcumin Nanodispersion Formulation Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa” from the Honors Interdisciplinary Lab.
Amelia Grzywacz: “The effects of prepared Sage (Salvia Officinalis) on the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa” from the Honors Interdisciplinary Lab.
David Jimenez: “Leibniz: the Father of Calculus” from Honors Calculus 1.
Madeline Mooney: “Examining the Effects of Initial Spin-Kick Alignment on Gravitational Wave Observables in Binary Black Holes” and “The Influence of Quadratic Drag on Airborne Objects” from Honors General Physics 1.
Riley Phoebus: “Roman Catholicism and Reproductive Rights” from Honors Religious Diversity in America.
Aliki Stamati-Chaidarapoulou: “Effects of Ethylparaben on Staphylococcus aureus & Lactobacillus plantarum Biofilm” from the Honors Interdisciplinary Lab.
