UVA Darden School Announces Second Year Student Awards Recipients

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business today announced the names of 17 Second Year students who received awards for their pioneering spirit, dedication to service, tenacity and excellence. The awards given include the G. Robert Strauss Marketing Award, the C. Stewart Sheppard Distinguished Service Award, the William Michael Shermet Award and the Samuel Forrest Hyde Memorial Fellowship.

Peter Rodriguez, senior associate dean for degree programs and chief diversity officer at Darden, opened the annual Second Year student awards ceremony in a sunny and cool Flagler Courtyard.

Darden Professor Tom Steenburgh presented the first award of the morning, the G. Robert Strauss Marketing Award, to Jonathan O’Connor. This award recognizes the student who, in his or her First Year, showed the most innovative thinking, the ability to develop unique solutions to real-world problems, flair and charisma in presenting ideas, and provocative insight when challenging classmates’ viewpoints.

Sarah Wilcox Elliott, director of student affairs at Darden, presented the C. Stewart Sheppard Distinguished Service Award to Chiraj Jain and Patrice Yao. The award recognizes students who, in their First Year, provided exceptional service of a nonacademic nature to Darden or the University of Virginia.

Professor Bob Conroy announced the 15 winners of the William Michael Shermet Award, which recognizes students who have demonstrated academic excellence in the First Year program and, by their determination and constructive attitude and service, have also provided an example of responsible competitive spirit for their classmates.

The Shermet Award winners included:

• Jason Anderson
• Matthew Attanucci
• Matthew Attaway
• William Besash
• David Cockerill
• Bryan Furman
• Brandon Guichard
• Chiraj Jain
• Amanda Miller
• Martha Page
• Brandon Prather
• Matthew Priest
• Andrew Robertson
• Kyle Simmons
• Yue Zhu

The final but most esteemed award of the morning, the Samuel Forrest Hyde Memorial Fellowship, recognizes the student who contributed the most to the welfare of the Darden School during the First Year and, through personality and devotion to the objectives of the School, showed the greatest promise of achieving a useful career.

Rodriguez announced Brandon Guichard, also the recipient of a Shermet Award, as the recipient of this high honor. In addition, Guichard received another surprise when his parents, who reside in Winchester, Virginia, emerged from the crowd to congratulate him. Guichard’s father, Darden alumnus Kent Guichard (MBA `83), received a faculty award for academic excellence when he was an MBA student.

Darden’s Dean Bob Bruner was on hand to congratulate the students for their outstanding achievements.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate our Second Year students for their significant impact on their fellow students and the Darden community,” said Bruner.