Announcement of 2022 Alumni Key Award, Campbell Award, and Dean's Citation Recipients; Baccalaureate Service Speaker

The Class of 2022 recipients of the Alumni Key Award, Campbell Award, and Dean's Citation have been announced, as well as the Class of 2022 GS student who will speak at this year's Baccalaureate Service.

Alumni Key Award | Jarrell E. Daniels ’22

This year’s Alumni Key Award recipient is Jarrell E. Daniels, a Bronx, New York native and Truman Scholar. The Alumni Key Award is given to a graduating senior for exceptional achievement and ongoing commitment to leadership and service to the Columbia School of General Studies community. 
 
In 2019, one year after coming home from prison, Jarrell founded the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council (JAYC) at Columbia’s Center for Justice. JAYC is an eight-week leadership and life skills development program for disadvantaged youth and local government officials to co-author policy proposals aimed at transforming systems, driving institutional change, or addressing community challenges.

Jarrell’s commitment to youth development and policy reform led to him giving a TED Talk that highlights the factors that led to his incarceration and introduces an innovative approach to collaborative education between community members and public officials. Jarrell is an aspiring civil rights attorney and social enterprise executive whose primary focus is bridging the divide between lawmakers, community members, and business entities. After graduating with a degree in African-American studies and sociology, Jarrell will work to develop sustaining policies and best practices for effective community-centered interventions as a lawyer and business owner.

Campbell Award | Michael Higgins ’22

This year’s Campbell Award recipient is Michael Higgins. The Campbell Award is given to a student leader who shows exceptional leadership and Columbia spirit as exemplified by Bill Campbell ’62CC, ’64TC. 

Michael is the co-founder and chair of The Food Pantry at Columbia, a student-run initiative to bring awareness of food insecurity and hunger to the Columbia University community. Over the past six years, The Food Pantry at Columbia has provided approximately 10,000 disbursements to students from every school within the University. Michael graduates with a degree in urban studies with a specialization in geographic information systems, and has been accepted into the Nonprofit Management Program at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies. In addition, Michael is currently the mobile food pantry manager at the New York Common Pantry.

Dean’s Citation | Serengeti Timungwa ’22

This year’s Dean’s Citation recipient is Serengeti Timungwa. The Dean’s Citation is awarded to a graduating student who has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to outstanding leadership and service to the Columbia School of General Studies community throughout their academic tenure. 

Serengeti has been an outstanding leader amongst her peers in the GS community, first joining the General Studies Student Council (GSSC) in the fall of 2019 as first year president, serving as vice president of policy during 2020-2021, and then as student body president of the GSSC in the current academic year. Throughout her time on GSSC, Serengeti has been incredibly passionate about furthering policies that help GS students, dedicated to increasing student representation in various spaces on campus to ensure student voices are always weighed into crucial decisions. 
 
She led the charge in successfully advocating for a tuition freeze during the 2020-2021 academic year and flexible grading policies during the pandemic and recent TA strikes, worked to further democratize GSSC’s constitution and make it more gender inclusive, and advocated for emergency COVID-19 aid for GS students, all in collaboration and with the support of several administrators at GS and other members of the Columbia community. Most recently, she helped create a referendum on Latin diplomas. During her time here, she also worked full time at the Center for Reproductive Rights as senior legal associate, serving on the Louisiana and Texas teams whose cases landed in the Supreme Court. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political science, Serengeti will join Goldman Sachs as an analyst. She hopes to attend law school in the near future, with an interest in consumer data privacy laws, financial regulation, and civil rights.

Baccalaureate Service Speaker | Ariel Katz ’22

Ariel Katz, a graduate of the Joint Degree Program with List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary, is one of eight graduating students selected to speak at this year’s Baccalaureate Service, a multi-faith service celebrating the completion of each undergraduate’s academic career from all four colleges at Columbia. 

During her time as a Columbia GS student, Ariel explored her interest in psychology through research at Columbia’s Developmental Affective Neuroscience (DAN) Lab. As a research assistant and study coordinator, Ariel investigated how early life experiences impact the psychopathology and social-emotional development of adolescents. On campus, she served as president of the List College Student Council, where she coordinated with students and faculty to implement social events, mentorship programming, and academic advising for other Joint Degree Program students. In an effort to foster and learn more about the diverse community around her at Columbia, Ariel volunteered as a peer listener for Nightline and as a student leader of the Multi-Faith Fellowship. Ariel graduates with a degree in psychology from GS, along with a degree in Hebrew Bible from JTS, and will be pursuing a doctorate in school and clinical psychology starting in the fall.