2022 Borealis Night of Excellence honors CFANS community accomplishments and contributions
May 5, 2022
The CFANS Alumni Society, Undergraduate Student Board, Graduate Student Board and Postdoc Board co-hosted the 2022 Borealis Night of Excellence, held in-person on Thursday, April 21, 2022. This annual event recognizes outstanding alumni, students, staff, faculty and friends for their service to the College and for their professional achievements.
This year, 16 Borealis Award recipients were honored along with Alumni Society scholarship recipients, Mentor Program honorees and Borealis Circle inductees. Emcees Roberta Ryan (Alumni Society), Kendal Schmidt (Graduate Student Board) Erin Treiber (Postdoc Board) and Lillian Prybil (Undergraduate Student Board) presented the awards.
New this year, the Community Builder Borealis Award was awarded to Myah Walker, BS ‘10 Animal Science.
“It means so much to know that the impact that I am making in this world is being seen by others, and I just encourage everybody else to say yes to opportunities of making change,” said Walker.
Upon receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, alumna Mary Ann Bannerman (BS ‘72 Home Economics) shared, “My experiences have been... meeting so many wonderful people across the state of Minnesota and I’ll long be thankful to the University of Minnesota for those experiences.”
The 2022 award recipients are:
Student Leadership Award — Undergraduate Student — Trey Feuerhelm, Forestry and Natural Resource Management
Student Leadership Award — Graduate Student— Sonali Raghunath (MS ’19 and PhD ‘22 Food Science)
Exemplary Undergraduate Student Organization — Ag Business Club
Exemplary Graduate Student Organization — CFANS Graduate Student Board
Outstanding Club Advisor — Matthew Russell, Forest Resources
Exemplary Staff — Tammi Pekkala Matthews, Entomology
Exemplary Faculty — (less than 5 years)— Amelia Lindsey, Entomology
Exemplary Faculty — (more than 5 years)— Jim Anderson (BS ’87 Agronomy), Agronomy and Plant Genetics
Exemplary Post-Doc — Benjamin Cull, Entomology
Little Red Oil Can (individual or group of individuals) —Ryan Murphy (MPS ’14 Horticulture)
Outstanding Friend — Chris Gindorff, Hy-Vee
Community Builder (New) — Myah Walker (BS ’10 Animal Science)
Rising Star (New) — Emily Krekelberg (BS ’13 Animal Science, MS 18 Agricultural Education)
Alumni Service — Michael Mulder (BS ’81 Agricultural Education)
Distinguished Alumni — Paul Hugunin (BS ’89 Agricultural Business Administration)
Lifetime Achievement — Mary Ann Bannerman (BS ’72 Home Economics)
Thank you to all who submitted nominations for the 2022 Borealis Awards! Learn more about the Borealis Night of Excellence Awards.
