Rise and shout! Across various disciplines, BYU students have been recognized for their world-class accomplishments.
While it’s impossible to recognize every award-winning student, these highlights capture the considerable work and creative capabilities of our Cougars during the past academic year.
Dallin Bundy (College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences)
Dallin Bundy was named a 2025 Truman Scholar, and the fifth BYU student in five consecutive years to receive this award. The Truman Scholarship awards $30,000 to junior students who are dedicated to a career in public service to attend graduate school. This year, 54 out of 743 nominated students across the United States were selected as 2025 Truman Scholars.
Bundy has always loved public service. He was involved in BYUSA, worked with several campaigns canvassing door-to-door, and is currently the BYU College Republicans president. Through his experiences, Bundy aspires to attend BYU law school to achieve a juris doctorate degree. He would then go into government and public policy work. Bundy plans to use a law background and legal education to pursue how public policy is written, enforced, and how governments best serve people.
“I am so glad I came to BYU, because we approach education with the gospel in mind. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has strengthened me in so many ways,” Bundy said. “Our ultimate mission is to help people understand the gospel of Jesus Christ in connection with their character and intellectual pursuits. BYU to me has been both motivating and empowering yet grounding.”
Zach Valentine (College of Life Sciences)
Zach Valentine is the first-ever BYU student to receive a Schwarzman Scholarship. The Scholarship funds a Masters of Global Affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing for about 140 students worldwide each year. Valentine hopes to utilize this opportunity to pursue his passion for providing medical care to vulnerable populations. He first became aware for the difficulties Chinese-speaking communities faced with the U.S. healthcare system on his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in New York City. Since then, he has been volunteering at the International Refugee Committee, guiding people to the right medical care. After graduating from BYU in April 2025, he is preparing to start the one-year program in Beijing this fall.
“If I were to give advice, it would be to not be scared but to trust in yourself and trust in the process,” Valentine said. “It’s a lot of work going through the whole process and rewriting. But it is through writing that you figure out your own voice and articulate who you are and where you want to go.”
Katelyn Cranney (College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences, Kennedy Center)
Katelyn Cranney is BYU’s first-ever Knight-Hennessy Scholar. The Knight-Hennessy Scholarship offers funding for up to three years of graduate studies in any field at Stanford University. In April 2024, Cranney graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics and a minor in international development.
Cranney is a first-year Ph.D. economics student at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. Cranney’s research in behavioral, labor, and development economics is the driving force behind her efforts towards closing gender gaps in global labor markets. Cranney is currently researches ways workforce inequality can be reduced using AI adoption technology.
Levi Handcock and Joshua Ebbert (College of Computational, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, College of Life Sciences)
Levi Handcock and Joshua Ebbert received the Barry M. Goldwater scholarship for STEM undergraduates this year. The prestigious Goldwater Scholarship awards up to $7,500 to students who show exceptional promise in STEM research. Handcock is a Physics and Astronomy student working with Richard Sandberg. Ebbert is a Life Sciences student and works with Dennis Della Corte in Physics.
Miaja Coombs (College of Computational, Mathematical and Physical Sciences)
Miajia Coombs from the Department of Geology was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This fellowship is a prestigious award that provides three years of funding to exceptional STEM graduate students pursuing research-based degrees. 7 BYU students in total received this fellowship and 19 BYU students were given honorable mentions.
Other Awards
BYU Marriott School of Business students won the Deloitte FanTAXtic competition, a national tax case study competition where students analyze and present solutions to complex tax scenarios! John Barrick coached a team of five students—Canyon Esplin, Chris Gibbons, Hyrum Draper, Lincoln Gardner, and Marlee Lotaki—that competed against the best in the nation. BYU competed against 71 universities and “truly represented BYU with distinction.”
The Fall 2024 BYU Journalism Capstone team received a national award at the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas this April. They worked with WGN-TV in Chicago and proposed recommendations for news organizations to reach Gen Z, including embracing short-form and trend-based content.
BYU Healthcare Leadership students Oliver Zaug, Gregory Hutchins, Tatiana Pryor, and Dallin McLean won $7,500 at the CLARION 2025 National Case Competition on April 12th.
BYU dance students Skylar Schmidt and Mo Crump, along with faculty member Liz Dibble, choreographed pieces that were selected to be performed in the Gala concert at the High Desert region conference, and both pieces were selected as alternates to the national festival.
BYU's PRSSA Bateman Competition team won a Golden Spike award in the Tactics category. PR student Adah Shippen was a finalist for PR Student of the Year.
BYU Geography students Sophia Budge, Alex Guglielmo and Tyler Schaumann competed in the national GeoBowl at the annual Association of American Geographers in Detroit, Michigan. They were part of a six-person team representing the Great Plains-Rock Mountains region and advanced to the final round.
BYU Advertising students Abish Lopez, Joel Garcia, Jeremy Lewis and Ariela Hernandez were named among the American Advertising Federation's Most Promising Students for 2025.
The Broadcast Education Association awarded BYU students in the Journalism and Sports Media program six awards at the Festival of Media Arts. Students include Annabelle Jones, Emma Butler Price, Chloe Peterson and Wilson Gustaveson.
The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation announced five winning entries and one honorable mention for BYU journalism students in this year's Gracie Awards. Student winners: Sydni Merrill, Miori Kennedy, Emma Butler Price, Lynnette McConkie, Annika Ohran, Jackie Durfey, Emily May and Jessica Spencer.
Bailey Tucker, a BYU student performing with the International Folk Dance Ensemble, was named Female Freestyle Utah State Champion in Clogging from America on Stage.
