The Integrated Concentration in Science (iCons) program is excited to announce this year’s recipients of the Crowley-Nowick Award are Sriya Munugoti ’25, biochemistry and molecular biology, and Jack Minella ’24, environmental science.
The Crowley-Nowick Award for iCons Student Philanthropy and Leadership was established through a gift from Peg Crowley-Nowick ’86, president of medical affairs consulting for Lumanity. Each year, the award is given to two iCons students who embody a strong sense of community in the iCons program.
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Munugoti is a rising junior on the biomedicine/biosystems track. Outside of iCons, she is a research mentor at the Office for Undergraduate Research and Studies (OURS) and works in the S. Thai Thayumanavan research lab studying immunotherapeutic discovery. She is also head media editor and nonfiction editor for the official student-run literary journal, The Jabberwocky.
Minella is a rising senior on the renewable energy track and is president of Sunrise UMass Amherst, an organization that works to further sustainability and champion climate justice on campus. Minella also serves as the secretary of sustainability in the Student Government Association (SGA) and is co-president of Challah for Hunger, a service group that focuses on fighting food insecurity by selling homemade bread to raise proceeds for the Amherst Survival Center and Swipe Out Hunger.
“iCons, to me, functions like a game of Jumanji,” Munugoti said. “Whether it be within a cohort, a track or in a team project, it’s impossible to beat the game and save the island without every member of the team applying our unique habits and skills to clear different obstacles and become well-rounded thinkers.”
Minella also recognizes the value of community within iCons. “iCons was the first place where I began to have a sense of community at UMass. I felt extraordinarily lucky to find other people who wanted to be actively engaged with one another even though we were at home due to COVID-19, and I felt even luckier to find community in a group so dedicated to pursuing and effecting change,” Minella said.
Both are grateful to have been recognized by their peers for this award and look forward to the opportunity to build on the community they have found within the program.
iCons is a unique certificate program in the College of Natural Sciences that prepares undergraduates to be problem solvers, leaders and innovators in science and technology. Faculty recruit students across a diverse range of science and engineering disciplines to identify real-world, global problems and find cutting-edge solutions. The program positions students for high achievement in graduate school and their careers.
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