When molecular and cellular biology senior Long Trinh was a child, her family fled Vietnam to the United States in a homemade boat to escape the Viet Cong.
Now Trinh, who will graduate on Dec. 20, is one of six students who will be receiving the Centennial Awards, which are given to UA student leaders and volunteers.
The award, which is being offered for its 19th year, is given to two students from undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs.
A volunteer at Kino Community Hospital and an intern at Tucson Medical Center, Trinh has also won several scholarships and awards, including memberships in Alpha Epsilon Delta Medical Honorary, and Phi Beta Kappa.
Sheila Liezel Contapay-Tabilin will also receive the award for undergraduates.
Contapay-Tabilin, a nursing senior and mother of two, is considered to have made several contributions to the College of Nursing through her role as the college's student representative to the Alumni Council, the Undergraduate Student Retention and Progression Committee and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Search Committee.
As president of the Student Nurses' Association during last year's nursing shootings, Contapay-Tabilin worked to bridge interaction between students and faculty as a means to provide support for students.
Though she has received the Outstanding Student Award from the Asian Pacific American Student Affairs, as well as admission to Phi Kappa Phi, Contapay-Tabilin said receiving the award was unexpected.
"I was surprised I got nominated, I didn't think I'd get it," said Contapay-Tabilin, who will be in the first in her family to receive a four-year college degree. "I did a lot I guess."
Award-winners at the master's level are Valerie Kading and William Broussard. Though they will not be graduating this year, both will be recognized for the achievements at the UA and in the Tucson community.
Kading, who is completing her Master's degree in nursing, has worked as a behavioral health case manager for the mentally ill while maintaining a 3.9 GPA.
Kading, who is working part-time as a nurse at Northwest Medical Center, wants to research psychiatric issues for Filipino American women when she graduates next year.
Broussard is working towards his Master's in English as well as his Ph.D. in Rhetoric Composition and the Teaching of English.
A former football player for Northwestern University, Broussard founded a satellite-writing center in the UA athletics department called CATS CLAW after noticing that the UA writing center wasn't always able to cater to the schedules of student athletes.
CATS CLAW has seen a success, having worked with nearly 300
student athletes, and Broussard plans on opening another satellite center in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Student Center in fall 2004.
Doctoral-level recipients for the Centennial Award are Gabriel Ramon Sanchez and Karletta Chief.
Sanchez, who is working on a doctorate in political science, has served as a coordinator for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and has been heavily involved in mentoring programs for Latino graduate students.
After completing his doctorate, Sanchez says he plans to work toward the educational empowerment of minority students, particularly those in high school.
Chief, who is working toward her doctorate in hydrology and water resources from the College of Engineering, has drawn recognition for her research on hydrologic effects on wildfires.
A member of the Navajo Nation, Chief is looking forward to seeing her family. They will be coming to Tucson for the ceremony.
Chief said she is most looking forward to seeing her grandmother.
"She doesn't usually leave the reservation, but she's always been really supportive," Chief said.
"It will be a nice way to end the fall semester."