The University of New Mexico has selected six students as winners of the 2005 Clauve Awards. The awards are given to seniors who are outstanding in community involvement and academics and have strong leadership skills, vision, drive and dedication. The students will all be recognized at an awards ceremony scheduled for April 14 at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Building.
Saraswati Khalsa
Khalsa is a political science major who intends to become a physician. She is the cultural secretary of the India Students Organization and organized two classical Indian music concerts, the Holi Festival, a movie screening and welcome back BBQ in that capacity. She is also serving as the executive director of the ASUNM Community Experience and has organized Spring Storm activities, a blood drive, food drive, a giving tree and Fall Frenzy campus clean up activities.
Khalsa is a counselor for the American Cancer Society summer camp, and is currently co-teaching a class called “Globalization Sucks…or does it?” Although born in Espanola, she has lived most of her life in India, and intends to return to India for a year before pursuing a medical degree.
Onawa Lynn Lacy
Lacy is an English major with a pre-law concentration and a minor in Native American studies. She helped to found the first chapter of a Native American sorority, Alpha Pi Omega at UNM. She led the first pledge class, and has been active in recruiting new members. While attending UNM, Lacy also served as Miss Indian New Mexico and Miss Indian World. Lacy is currently planning for the Miss Albuquerque Scholarship Pageant. Her long-term goal is to become a tribal attorney for the Navajo nation.
Keith Lopez
Lopez is a secondary education major with a minor in communication arts. He will graduate in May with a history of active involvement as an Associated Students of the University of New Mexico senator. Lopez is currently co-teaching a Freshman Interest Group “The Innocence of the Hip-Hop Culture” and has developed presentations for parents about their student’s transition into college. He also worked as a family connection orientation leader and has done workshops on time management for students. His long-term goal is a career in student affairs and higher education.
Benito Martinez III
Martinez is a chemical engineering major active in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society of Mexican-American Engineers. He co-founded the Hispanic Engineering and Science Organization at Highland High School.
He has worked as a peer mentor for the Amistades Peer Mentoring Program and has had several internships in public and private organizations. He has also been active as an assistant baseball coach at Highland High School.
Pedro Arturo Ramos
Ramos is a mechanical engineering major serving as president of the Hispanic Engineering & Science Organization on campus. His research involves mirror turbulence modeling T and I shaped arrays. He has had several summer internships in major corporations. He organized career fairs for high school students and served as a senator for ASUNM.
Ramos is also a member of the Golden Key Honor Society, the Mortar Board Honor Society, the Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.
Kevin Stevenson
Stevenson is an applied mathematics major working as an undergraduate research assistant at the Center for High Technology Materials on experiments concerning the use of a corner-cube retro-modulator for optical communication. He is the ASUNM president and has also served as the president of the Interfraternity Council. He has worked to restore the charter to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and has volunteered for a number of organizations, including Cuidando Los Ninos.
Stevenson led a student lobbying effort to block proposed changes in the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship that would have been detrimental to UNM students and has been an active member of the University Planning Council and the Finance Committee of ASUNM. His long-term goal is to be a college professor.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627