Kutztown University presented its annual Chambliss Student Academic Achievement Awards to Samantha Evans of Kutztown; Claire Santa of Breinigsville, and Jonathan Fernezan of Allentown on April 16, 2021 at a virtual event.

Students were nominated by university employees for meeting one or more of the six areas of achievement, which include: successfully completed research project(s), original artwork of high quality, artistic performances (music, chorus, drama, etc.) of high quality, original writing in literature or meritorious writing in other fields, noteworthy achievements in athletics and outstanding service to the Kutztown University community.

The Academic Achievement Awards were established in 2004 through a donation provided by Dr. Carlson Chambliss, KU professor of astronomy from 1970-2003.

The purpose of the awards is to recognize the exceptional individual achievements of a select group of KU graduating seniors.

Specially designed coin medallions of gold, silver and copper were presented to the students.

Silver medal winners included:

Samantha Evans

is a chemistry and biochemistry major graduating in May from Kutztown.

She was awarded the Chambliss Academic Achievement Award Silver Medal in the category of successfully completed research project.

Evans has performed extensive research using KU’s scanning electron microscope.

She is touted by her professors for her problem-solving ability throughout the research process.

She proved original hypothesis for beam penetration identified in aluminum and magnesium peaks.

She received a research grant from KU’s Undergraduate Research Committee to present her abstract to the National American Chemical Society Conference for a poster presentation.

A first-generation student, Evans has been accepted to multiple nationally-ranked graduate programs in chemistry.

Claire Santa,

from Breinigsville, is an environmental science and biology major graduating in May.

She was awarded the Chambliss Academic Achievement Award Silver Medal in the category of successfully completed research project.

Santa’s research spans four years at KU.

Her research has taken her to the Utah desert for geological field work, where she mapped, sampled and analyzed rocks that contained microfossils of bacteria found on Utahraptor dinosaur bones.

Santa presented her research at the national Geological Society of America meeting in Phoenix, Ariz.

She’s worked with scanning electron microscopes at both West Chester and Kutztown University and was involved in two additional research projects last spring.

Her biological research is based on how soil bacteria and essential oils can be used to combat blight disease in tomatoes, instead of harsh pesticides.

She has presented this research here in Pennsylvania and also in Cleveland, Ohio.

She is also researching biofumigation methods to control parasites in organic swine production at the Rodale Institute.

Santa is a member of the Botany Club and Geology Club.

The Copper Medal winner was Jonathan Fernezan, a computer science/information technology major graduating in May from Allentown.

He was awarded the Chambliss Academic Achievement Award Copper Medal in the category of outstanding service to the Kutztown University community. Fernezan is a student veteran of distinction.

He has served in the U.S. Army Reserve since 2014 as a multichannel transmission systems operator and enrolled at KU in 2017 after one year of active duty in the Middle East.

Since his time at KU, Fernezan has added value and contributed to the success of many university organizations, academic clubs and community organizations.

He serves on the KU Student Conduct Review Board, is a computer science student ambassador and secretary of the esports club.

He also worked with Facilities as an IT intern, is a computer/network technician at ResNet, tutor for the computer science department, had two internships with Guardian Life Insurance as a network engineer, is a volunteer firefighter and is chair of the IT committee for his fire department.

Fernezan was awarded the American Legion 2020 Veterans Scholarship, the Army Achievement Medal and has been accepted into the Alpha Tier of SALUTE Veterans National Honor Society, the highest tier of recognition.