2025 Student Honors and Awards Ceremony

Dr. Henry “Cody” Miller is an associate professor in the Department of Education and Human Development. Before joining SUNY Brockport as an assistant professor in 2019, he taught public high school English from 2012 to 2019. He was awarded his PhD from the University of Florida in 2019. He has over 40 peer-reviewed articles in national and international journals as well as multiple publications in public-facing venues. Dr. Miller regularly publishes and presents at conferences with undergraduate and graduate students. He has won multiple local and national awards for his teaching, scholarship, and service including the 2022 National Council of Teachers of English LGBTQ Advocacy and Leadership Award, the 2023 Brockport Presidential Teaching Excellence Award, the 2023 Brockport Faculty-Student Engagement Award, the 2024 Journal of Literacy Innovation Best Article Award, and the 2024 National Council of Teachers of English Intellectual Freedom Award.

Currently, Dr. Miller is working on two major research projects. The first project is based on a national survey of teacher experiences of text selection in this moment of proliferating book-banning legislation. He is working on this project with Brockport colleagues, Drs. Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko and Natalie Sue Svrcek. The second project is a study of teachers across the country who use superhero narratives in their classrooms. He is conducting this study with Drs. Christian Hines at Texas State University and René M. Rodríguez-Astacio at Fresno State. This academic year, Dr. Miller has begun publishing and presenting this data.

Catrina Utter is a senior from Rochester, NY, majoring in business administration with a concentration in management and a minor in music business. She transferred to Brockport in January 2023, seeking a transformative undergraduate experience.

Catrina seeks ways to embrace opportunities to connect, give back, and grow, first by joining the Leadership Development Program to improve her leadership skills, gaining certifications in both Green and Gold levels. She also volunteered to join the Leadership Conference Committee to help organize the 2024 Annual Leadership Conference, which gave her valuable experience planning events. Later, she became involved at the Academic Success Center as a freshman registration assistant and evolved into roles such as peer mentor coordinator and office assistant. She is also a student ambassador for the School of Business and Management and serves on the Dean’s Student Advisory Board. She participated in Brockport’s student-led marketing agency, Brockport Brand Builders, and held the role of consumer discretionary industry director for the Wade Student Investment Fund.

This year, in addition to this recognition, Catrina earned the School of Business and Management Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award. Last year, Catrina received the George Rich Student Philanthropy Award, which recognizes a student who made significant contributions to the College community. This award presented the opportunity to contribute to a cause, which led to a donation to the Leadership Development Program. She was also awarded the Robert J. and Nancy Marino Business Leadership Scholarship, highlighting her commitment to leadership and academics.

In her senior year, Catrina stays committed to building connections and helping students through her internship at the Career Design Center, where she supports them in their professional development journey. One of her most significant projects was the development of a financial literacy workshop. She generated interest in the project by surveying students about which topics were important and their preferred learning methods. The survey was then included in the Career Design Center Newsletter and distributed to staff, faculty, and the Brockport Student Government president. The response rate exceeded expectations, and she is now formatting the workshop to focus on investing and retirement options – information that students will need post-graduation as they begin their careers.

One referee described Catrina as “by far, the best student I have ever hired… she wants to know how and why things are done the way they are and assisted in creating new processes that helped us work more efficiently.” Catrina has managed to engage in these activities while still maintaining a 4.0 GPA, earning her a spot on the President’s List. These experiences have allowed her to make a lasting impact and support hundreds of fellow students. As Catrina’s time at Brockport concludes and she embarks on her Human Resources Information System (HRIS) summer internship with Constellation Brands, she remains committed to upholding integrity and leaving a meaningful, positive impact in her new role.

Asch Nighthawk earned her Master of Science in Environmental Science and Ecology and graduated with a 4.0 GPA in Winter 2025. They began their higher education journey at the University of Portland, where they received their Bachelor of Science in Biology. In addition to this award, Asch was the recipient of the School of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Graduate Student Award.

Asch is dedicated to learning more about Earth’s ecosystem and the birds that may inhabit them. Their passion for nature has led them to receive the Northern New York Audubon Grant (2023 and 2024) and the American Ornithological Society Student Research Grant (2024). These grants provided the opportunity to research the Eastern whip-poor-will for their thesis. Asch was able to research breeding ecology and behavior that would help them assist in conservation throughout New York State. They also presented this research at local and global conferences, including the American Ornithological Society Conference in 2024. Asch also teaches less experienced volunteers at the Braddock Bay Observatory about proper techniques for bird banding.

After graduation, Asch will travel outside the mainland United States to continue their exploration of birds and ecosystems worldwide, including Europe and Micronesia, a region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. Afterward, they will pursue a doctoral program abroad to pursue a career researching nocturnal birds globally.

Academic Awards

• School of Arts and Sciences
• School of Business and Management
• School of Education, Health, and Human Services