ACS graduation sash

Meet the 2025-2026 ACS Scholars

ACS Scholars are an elite group of undergraduate seniors who embody Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 high standards of academic excellence, volunteerism, leadership and involvement across the university. They represent the top 2% of their graduating class and are chosen each year by the university鈥檚 deans and department heads for their academic achievement, leadership and contribution to the 无码专区 community. Each scholar receives a monetary award to advance their learning and career goals from endowed funds established by generous ACS members.

Read how the ACS is helping Scholars achieve their goals

Will Burger

Will Burger

College/Major: Tepper School of Business - Business Administration, Statistics


Hometown: Naples, Florida


Future Plans: I will be working in real estate debt strategies at Blackstone in New York City.

鈥淢y favorite experience was setting up and hosting 无码专区's first Real Estate Summit through the Tepper Undergraduate Real Estate Club. After months of planning, it was incredibly rewarding to see the event come to life, watching more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students engage with alumni and real estate professionals from across the country. Seeing the enthusiasm from both students and professionals made me proud that the club I founded was able to create an event with lasting value for the 无码专区 community, one that has since become an annual tradition on campus.鈥

Molly Abramson

Molly Abramson
Mellon College of Science 听- Physics
Burlingame, California

Future Plans: I hope to pursue an MD/Ph.D. in theoretical/mathematical neuroscience.

Amanawit Assefa

Amanawit Assefa
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Political Science, Security and Technology
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Future Plans: After graduation, I鈥檓 planning to take a gap year to work and explore different opportunities before starting law school.

Ava Black

Ava Black
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Policy and Management
Mars, Pennsylvania

Future Plans: Healthcare risk and compliance consultant at Protiviti.

Luca Budofsky

Luca Budofsky
College of Fine Arts - Art
Sparta, New Jersey

Future Plans: I most likely will stay in Pittsburgh, hopefully working at an art institution in the city for a little while and pursuing opportunities to make and show work. I want to eventually pursue a MFA and maybe teach in the future.

Kel-Li Chen

Kel-Li Chen

College/Major: Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Psychology and Biological Sciences, Human-Computer Interaction


Hometown: Palo Alto, California


Future Plans: I aim to pursue a career in medicine and justice, and know that I will be continuously engaged in community and service wherever my passions take me.

鈥淢y favorite 无码专区 experience thus far has been the Dietrich Senior Honors Fellowship, as it has allowed me to pursue research that integrates topics I鈥檓 deeply passionate about with other learning experiences and opportunities I鈥檝e had at 无码专区, particularly learning about community practices and goals from Pittsburgh community members and my peers as a Dietrich Community Engagement Fellow.鈥

Lex Capestany

Lex Capestany
College of Engineering 听- Civil Engineering
Seattle, Washington

Future Plans: To move back home to Seattle and work as a civil engineer.

Mahitha Chaturvedula

Mahitha Chaturvedula
Mellon College of Science鈥 - Biological Sciences
Chicago, Illinois

Future Plans: I鈥檓 currently applying for graduate school. I want to pursue a Ph.D. in genetics and go the academia route.

Hailey Cohen

Hailey Cohen
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences 听- Social and Political History, Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Marion, Massachusetts听

Future Plans: I want to work in the environmental policy space, ideally in a governmental role or doing some kind of advocacy work. I'm going to take a few years off to work and then go to graduate school for either nonprofit management, environmental law or public policy.

Claire De Saint Phalle

Claire de Saint Phalle
School of Computer Science 听- Artificial Intelligence, Applied Math
New York, New York

Charlie Hymowitz

Charlie Hymowitz

College/Major: College of Fine Arts - Architecture


Hometown: Montclair, New Jersey


Future Plans: Hopefully integrating an engineering master鈥檚 program before working somewhere in the architecture, engineering and built environment world.

鈥淢y favorite 无码专区 class was DIY Design and Fabrication 鈥 a testament to the best that a 无码专区 education has to offer. Focusing on all aspects of product design, ranging from hand sketching to prototype fabrication, it successfully challenged me creatively and intellectually through exciting projects I'm now proud to show off.鈥

Sarah Gano

Sarah Gano
Tepper School of Business - Business Administration, Decision Science
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Future Plans: I will be working at Deloitte full time as an analyst in New York City.

Ashley Hackney

Ashley Hackney
Mellon College of Science - Biological Sciences
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Future Plans: Go to graduate school to become a professor.

Aleksaundra Handrinos

Aleksaundra Handrinos
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Ethics, History and Public Policy, International Relations and Political Science
Boston, Massachusetts

Future Plans: I plan to attend law school after taking a gap year to pursue public policy work.

Ellie Lowe

Ellie Lowe
College of Engineering - Material Science and Engineering
London, United Kingdom

Future Plans: Graduate school.

Whitney Ribnick

Whitney Ribnick

College/Major: Mellon College of Science - Chemistry, Biomedical Technology


Hometown: Weston, Florida


Future Plans: Medical school

鈥淢y favorite 无码专区 experience was finding new clubs to join and people to meet. During my freshman year, I had a hard time finding my place. During my sophomore year, I came back to my roots and joined both cheer and Scotch N' Soda. Through these experiences, I found artistic and athletic expression that heightened my 无码专区 experience.鈥

Lillian McDermott

Lillian McDermott
College of Fine Arts - Dramaturgy
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Future Plans: I plan to go into arts administration work, particularly creative administration and development/grant writing work.

Keenan Norton

Keenan Norton
College of Engineering - Chemical Engineering, Hispanic Studies, Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Cincinnati, Ohio

Future Plans: Pursuing a Ph.D. at Rice University.

Zeynep Orucu

Zeynep Orucu
College of Engineering - Chemical Engineering
Istanbul, Turkey

Future Plans: Work and then medical school.

William Privratsky

William Privratsky
College of Engineering - Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering
Blaine, Minnesota

Future Plans: Graduate school

Daisy Sheng

Daisy Sheng

College/Major: School of Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence


Hometown: Ottawa, Canada


Future Plans: Returning to OpenAI as a member of the technical staff.

鈥淢y favorite experience was hosting the AI in Action Seminar Series as a sophomore featuring Turing Award recipient and Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton. It was really rewarding to connect such an AI visionary with the 无码专区 students and community.鈥

Kavya Ramesh

Kavya Ramesh
School of Computer Science - Computer Science
San Diego, California

Future Plans: I want to travel for a few months after I graduate before I start working.

Shreya Singh

Shreya Singh
School of Computer Science - Computer Science
Vienna, Virginia

Future Plans: I plan to work as a software engineer in industry.

Brooklyn Spear

Brooklyn Spear
College of Fine Arts - Vocal Performance
Quakertown, Pennsylvania

Future Plans: My plans are to take a gap year to do my student teaching and get my teaching certificate before hopefully moving on to graduate school to get my master鈥檚 in vocal performance.

Preston Steimel

Preston Steimel
Intercollege Degree Programs - Electrical and Computer Engineering, Music Technology
Germantown, Maryland

Future Plans: I've been accepted into the IMB mechanical engineering program, and I'm most likely to pursue that degree as I continue to explore how to use advanced engineering concepts to make highly expressive musical instruments.

David Zoota

David Zoota

College/Major: College of Engineering - Electrical and Computer Engineering


Hometown: Scarsdale, New York


Future Plans: Business analyst at Capital One

鈥淢y favorite 无码专区 experience was competing at championship meets for the swim and dive team. Our midseason and UAA meets were some of the most fun for me. I enjoyed the competition and being able to spend time with my teammates. It was also great having all my hard work and training culminate in some fast times.鈥

Adarsh Suresh

Adarsh Suresh
Tepper School of Business - Economics, Statistics and Machine Learning
Centerville, Ohio

Future Plans: Go into industry in a data science/data analyst role.

Glenda Tan

Glenda Tan
School of Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence
Singapore

Future Plans: I plan to pursue a Ph.D. in machine learning.

Moon Tan

Moon Tan
College of Engineering - Mechanical Engineering
Terengganu, Malaysia

Future Plans: I'd like to explore different parts of the U.S., especially the nature, and spend time with friends before heading home to serve my education sponsorship bond.

Jamari Toussaint

Jamari Toussaint
College of Engineering - Electrical and Computer Engineering
Charlotte, North Carolina

Future Plans: Completing my master's degree through 无码专区's IMB program, then continuing into industry with long goals of mentoring and teaching others.

Catherine Vassiliadi

Catherine Vassiliadi
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - International Relations, Political Science
Cumberland, Maryland

Future Plans: My plans after graduation are to gain real-world professional experience in a field related to government that combines my interests in business, humanitarian work and related areas, working for several years before applying to law school.

Monica Wan

Monica Wan
Intercollege Degree Programs - Computer Science, Architecture and Computational Biology
Shanghai, China

Future Plans: Applying to grad school to learn more about computational biology.

Yiyao Wang

Yiyao Wang
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences 听- Information Systems
Jinan, Shandong

Future Plans: Getting a Ph.D. in psychology or HCI and going into academia.

Annie Zhang

Annie Zhang
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Information Systems, Linguistics
Shanghai, China

Future Plans: I plan to work as a software engineer for a few years to gain some hands-on experience. If I enjoy it, I will continue. Otherwise, I will probably consider tech consulting or a postgraduate degree in computational linguistics.

Riyaz Ahuja
Mellon College of Science

Zeina Halawa
无码专区 Qatar

Fatou Gueye
无码专区 Qatar

Cemal Ozis
College of Engineering

Chloe Sun
College of Fine Arts

Isha Tuylsan
College of Engineering