2022 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence Winners Announced

Two brilliant SUNY Fredonia seniors – Jules KA Hoepting and Anders Lewis – received the 2022 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence at a ceremony April 26 in Saratoga Springs.

A system-wide award, it recognizes students for outstanding achievement who have demonstrated the integration of SUNY excellence into many aspects of their lives in areas such as academics, leadership, involvement in campus, community service or the arts. It is the highest honor awarded to a student by the university.

“Now more than ever, it’s time to celebrate the accomplishments of our students who have helped each other through this global pandemic and focus on getting the most out of their college education, and this year’s CASE winners are in head of the class,” said SUNY Acting Chancellor Deborah F. Stanley. “It is a great honor for me to celebrate the courage, leadership, and accomplishments of this year’s recipients, and I applaud their hard work and desire to do more for their campuses and fellow students. For my part , I can’t wait to see what they do next.”

Ms. Hoepting is a Communications – Public Relations major, Summa Cum Laude graduate, with minors in Writing & Rhetoric and Environmental Studies. She served as the editor of the student newspaper The Leader this year and authored an article in 2021 on Fredonia Village’s plan for logging around its reservoir. She received the 2020 Terry Mosher Writing the Natural World Award for her essay “Water Like Man.” For a public relations capstone project, she shot photos, wrote articles, edited, and designed a newsletter for a local nonprofit, Greystone Nature Preserve. Her photography was featured in the Fredonia 2022 showcase at the Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery on campus.

Hoepting is a member of the national communications company Lambda Pi Eta and completed an internship in the fall of 2021 at SUNY Fredonia’s Office of Marketing and Communications. She has also served as a campus tour guide and event planner for the admissions office, sustainability committee member, and president’s ambassador.

Mr. Lewis is a senior music education graduate, graduating Summa Cum Laude with his bachelor’s degree, and has been named to the Dean’s List every semester. He is enrolled in the university’s multi-award Master’s program in Music Education (Mus.B. and MM), which will end in 2023. A bass player, Mr. Lewis has demonstrated strong academic, leadership and service community, and has served as the College Symphony Orchestra Librarian since 2021. He was selected and completed the honors program at SUNY Fredonia.

Lewis is currently a student teacher in Lancaster, NY at Frontier High School and served as a substitute teacher in January 2019 and 2020 in the Clarkstown Central School District. He contributes to the SUNY Fredonia community through leadership roles, including Vice President of the Fredonia Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, President of the Fredonia Bass Society, and Mentor in the Student Orchestra. He also participated as an intern in the Freedom summer program in New York, helping campers who explored concepts of identity and social justice through art and dance.