Kevin Sutton Receives SUNY Chancellor's Award

2016 Apr 7

Kevin Sutton of Afton, NY, is among a select group of State University of New York students chosen to receive the 2016 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence. SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher presented the awards to the students at a reception in their honor Tuesday, April 5, at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany.

The Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence is the highest honor that SUNY bestows upon students. It is presented annually to SUNY students who demonstrate academic excellence and integrate it with accomplishments in other areas, such as leadership, career achievement, campus involvement, athletics, community service, or creative and performing arts.

For his outstanding academic credentials and performance, Sutton receives SUNY Oneonta’s most prestigious merit-based award, a Presidential Scholarship, while pursuing a double major in mathematics and theatre. In 2015, he received a competitive college grant for undergraduate research to develop software used for textual analysis of theatrical works. Sutton’s broad involvement in several facets of student life complements his academic achievement. As a member of both the Gender and Sexuality Alliance and LGBTQA Speakers’ Bureau, he advocates for and educates peers about gender and sexuality equity and inclusion. Having participated in extensive co-curricular leadership training, he has earned Platinum status—the highest level of recognition—in the college’s Leadership Education and Development program. A dedicated member of SUNY Oneonta’s theatre club, Mask and Hammer, Sutton was inducted into the Alpha Psi Omega national theatre honor society in 2013, and this year, theatre department faculty selected him to be the assistant director of a college production.

Since 1998 when the Chancellor's Award program was implemented, 80 SUNY Oneonta students have received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.