President’s Award for Excellence in Leadership
Each year, the LCU Fund invites partner schools to nominate a scholar in her final year of studies who has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in her home and / or school community. Prior recipients of the President’s Award for Excellence in Leadership are now serving on the front lines of health care, inspiring future generations as educators, providing comfort and guidance as religious leaders, working towards community change as non-profit leaders, and creating art that reflects the beauty of the world around us.
2026 Award Recipient
Sevara Ibragimova
Sevara came to the United States from Uzbekistan as a first-generation immigrant and a mother. She went on to earn her MSEd in Higher Education Administration from Baruch College's Marxe School with a 3.9 GPA. She presented her research at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and was selected as a delegate to Harvard's HPAIR conference.
Today she's a Career and Experiential Learning Advisor at LaGuardia Community College, helping students from underrepresented backgrounds find internships and career pathways. On her own time, she founded the New American Career Hub, a free initiative that has helped more than 20 immigrants from Central Asia and beyond navigate the U.S. job market.
Her next goal is a PhD studying how institutions shape educational opportunity.
"Leadership… is not a title; it is an action."
Nora Pantoja
Nora just completed her MFA in Juilliard's Drama Division. She served as her class's representative for all four years and as Drama's representative to student government. A Cuban American artist and former theatre teacher, she organized visits for students from Miami, many from immigrant families, to tour Juilliard and take workshops so they could picture themselves there.
Outside the rehearsal hall, she leads worship at her church and volunteers with the Bowery Mission, serving people experiencing homelessness.
Her division director, who has taught at Juilliard for forty years, wrote that if he were starting any new venture, Nora is the first person he'd want on board.
Isabella Gonzalez
Since 2019, Isabella has worked full-time as a paraprofessional at a District 75 school serving students with disabilities. At the same time, she's earned a 3.97 GPA as a psychology student at The City College of New York. On Saturdays she volunteers with the school's Saturday Arts Academy, where students explore art, music, and dance.
She's a first-generation college student preparing for a career in art therapy, because she's seen art help students express what words can't.
"When you're left to wonder if you'll be able to afford higher education, rent, or groceries, it's a bit hard to focus on studying."
Ashleigh Hillen
Ashleigh came to painting by way of science, with a degree in environmental studies and a master's in entomology from Virginia Tech. Now an MFA candidate in painting at the New York Academy of Art, Ashleigh is working with researchers in Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. The thesis is a series of paintings of women and queer scientists at work in the field, focused on the person rather than the specimen.
Ashleigh's leadership has taken many forms: co-founding a fossil fuel divestment campaign as an undergraduate, leading backpacking trips for adjudicated youth, volunteering on a sexual violence crisis hotline, and now teaching at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and mentoring fellow students at the Academy.
LCU support means fewer hours working outside school, more time for the thesis, and less reliance on loans.
Andrea Rishoi
Andrea graduated summa cum laude from Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing this spring and received the Dean's Award for Professionalism. Along the way, she tutored classmates in Health Assessment, Pediatrics, and Maternity Nursing. She also mentored students in later cohorts, did naloxone training through a harm-reduction program, and represented her school at the AACN Student Policy Summit on Capitol Hill.
Before her LCU grant, she was splitting her focus between an accelerated nursing program and extra shifts at work. "I was able to work less and give my education the time and focus it required."
Now a registered nurse, she's building her career in emergency nursing, caring for patients who often face barriers to care elsewhere.
Oluwatobi Odofa Aboyeji
Oluwatobi graduated from Lehman College in June with a BS in Health Services Administration and a 3.9 GPA. She is now pursuing her master's in Health Education and Promotion there.
At GLO Emergency Shelter, she helped families facing housing instability with intake, benefits applications, and service planning, and she earned an Outstanding Performance Award. Today she's serving a 10-month NYC Civic Corps placement with Lighthouse Guild, connecting volunteers with people who are visually impaired.
"With the support of the LCU Fund, I was able to continue an educational journey that women in my family before me did not have the opportunity to pursue."
