OUTSTANDING STUDENTS
Three Students Earn SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence
Kappa, the international honor society
for two-year college students. Both have
flourished despite limitations imposed by
a non-secular education prior to coming
to RCC. For Zuhair, time constraints from
full-time work to support her family and
caregiver support for an ill relative proved
no hindrance to a successful and fulfilling
college experience.
R
CC students Yehides Moskovits,
Chaya Wagschal and Ummaikhair
Zuhair have overcome challenging
life circumstances to excel in and out of
the classroom. Despite facing adverse
conditions, they have attained a peak
level of achievement to earn the SUNY
Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence,
the highest honor bestowed by New York’s
state university system. The students will
receive their awards at Commencement on
May 21, when they are due to earn their
associate’s degrees.
The Chancellor’s Award for Student
Excellence honors students for combining
academic excellence with other aspects of
their lives, including leadership, campus
involvement, community service, arts,
athletics and/or career achievement.
Moskovits and Wagschal are students
in RCC’s Sam Draper Students Honors
Program and members of Phi Theta
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Yehides Moskovits was ill-prepared for
college when she enrolled at RCC out of
an all-girls Orthodox high school. “Coming
to RCC was a huge step into the outside
world,” she said. “At first it was like a
foreign planet.” She earned her high school
equivalency while at RCC and adapted
exceptionally well to her educational
environment, posting a 3.9 GPA as she
pursues an AA Honors degree in Liberal
Arts and Science: Humanities and Social
Sciences.
“RCC prepared me for a four-year school
with its academic and social experience,”
she said. “Everyone has challenges
to overcome, but I prefer to focus on
opportunities. I want to take responsibility
for my future.”
Moskovits was one of 200 community
college students nationwide to receive a
$1,000 scholarship from Phi Theta Kappa
as a Coca-Cola Leader of Promise Scholar.
She co-founded the Humans of RCC club,
which gathers and shares stories of students
of diverse backgrounds, establishing
communal bonds between previously
unconnected individuals. Their most
successful event, “Meet and Eat,” featuring
a speed-dating style of meeting people and
international cuisine, drew a record total of
more than 120 students.
Moskovits served as a student blogger
for Campus Communications, a student
ambassador, and an intern in the Multi-
Media Production Center. She intends to
transfer to a four-year school and pursue a
career as a physician. Instrumental in her
academic journey were Honors program
mentors Dr. Katie Lynch and Dr. Thomas
Butler. “The people in the Honors program
are like family to me. It’s more than
academics. They care about my future.”
Chaya Wagschal, like Moskovits, had some
catching up to do entering RCC. She
obtained her GED during the first semester
and, starting with remedial courses, made
tremendous strides academically, earning a
3.95 GPA in the Honors program. She is
poised to receive an AS in Liberal Arts and
Science: Mathematics and Science. “When
you have to work hard for something, you
appreciate it more,” she said.
Deeply involved in the Student
Government Association, Wagschal
initiated an SGA project, Global Gallery,
decorating the hallway from the Cultural
Arts Center to the Fieldhouse with flags of
countries representing RCC students and a
student-created mural.