Columbia GS Student Honored at the 2nd Annual Beacon Awards
Chris Mendell, Jr. ‘24GS recently received a Beacon Award for his history in the military and his experiences at Columbia GS.
On January 18, the Ellis Island Honors Society and American Immigrant Society held their second annual Beacon Awards in downtown NYC. The ceremony highlighted young leaders who give back to their communities and demonstrate vision and innovation. GS student veteran Chris Mendell, Jr. ‘24GS was awarded the 2023 Beacon Award for his history in the military and his experiences at Columbia GS.
Mendell is a veteran of the Nevada and New York Army National Guard, where he served as an intelligence analyst. While serving, he became a member of the Honor Guard team, where he participated in giving military funeral honors to nearly 2,000 veterans and service members as a Military Funeral Honors Specialist. In 2022, Mendell was also selected as the Face of the National Guard in the Department of Defense magazine publication, Futures Magazine.
Along with his dedicated service, the Beacon Awards society was also impressed with Mendell’s involvement as a Columbia Space Initiative student. In 2019, Mendell participated in a research project to investigate spaceflight induced blindness. Mendell’s team was Columbia’s first undergraduate group to launch a scientific payload into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket. He is now the team leader and is developing another payload to send to the International Space Station. The payload will investigate tau proteins, also seen in cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's and CTE, in a microgravity environment. The project will also design the payload to be fully autonomous and act as a blueprint for other scientific payloads. The goal is to reduce the need for astronaut involvement and cost from $700,000 to $60,000, or roughly 1/10th of the industry standard.
Mendell’s commitment to improving the lives of at-risk youth also factored into his award nomination. Originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, he grew up in a dysfunctional home and experienced many struggles as a kid. Mendell spent his high school years thinking he would become a DJ in Las Vegas but decided to embark on a military journey to improve his life. “I've always been shooting for the stars, but sometimes my shots were wildly inaccurate, and I needed bumps along the way,” said Mendell. “In 2018, I received one of those bumps. That year I was randomly assigned to work an event for the Ellis Island Honor Society on behalf of the military—I was part of the military team presenting the American flag and led that portion of the ceremony— and that event inspired me to apply to Columbia.”
In 2014, Mendell visited high schools in Las Vegas and spoke to various groups of troubled students. This initiative led him to create Think Tank, a small group of Columbia students dedicated to making a difference. Think Tank is currently brainstorming a project to assist disadvantaged NYC high school students and improve their educational opportunities.
Mendell hopes to curb the shortage of engineers and STEM professionals by inspiring students to reach for the stars, as he once did, “I was a troubled student in high school, so this is a topic near and dear to my heart,” he said.