Meet Our 2025 SUNY Chancellor's Award Winners

Three Onondaga Community College students are winners of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence! Each year SUNY recognizes students for outstanding achievements that demonstrate the integration of SUNY excellence within many aspects of their lives in areas such as academics, leadership, campus involvement, community service, or the arts. This is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon any SUNY student.

OCC's 2025 SUNY Chancellor's Award students are:

• Karar Abed immigrated to the U.S. from Iraq when he was in 7th grade and struggled in school as he learned the English language. By 11th grade, he was taking college courses at East Syracuse Minoa High School. He received his diploma in 2023 and enrolled at OCC that fall. He was part of the Lillian Slutzker Honors College, earned membership in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and was in the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program which connected him with a summer research opportunity at SUNY Binghamton. He also volunteered at the V-A Hospital and assisted with cancer research at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Karar earned his Mathematics & Science degree in just three semesters. He transferred to SUNY-ESF where he is studying Biochemistry. His goal is to become a heart surgeon. “I met people at OCC who changed my life and I am forever grateful to them. I learned that a better tomorrow is not a gift we wait for, but a destiny we create.”

• Sharif Jafari is a native of Afghanistan who immigrated to the U.S. in 2021. He settled in Syracuse and learned English at the North Side Learning Center. Two years later, he graduated from Corcoran High School with honors. He came to OCC for the Educational Opportunity Program’s Pre-Freshman Institute which helped him adjust to life on a college campus. He became an officer in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, a member of the Lillian Slutzker Honors College, the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, the Unity Day committee, worked with Career Services as part of the Empire State Service Corps, and tutored fellow students in Math at the Learning Center. He majored in Mathematics & Science with a minor in Electrical Technology, and plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. “When I was in high school, I didn’t have any idea where I was going or what I was doing. I came to OCC as a first-generation college student. Coming here was the biggest change in my life. Now I know what I am doing and what I want to do in the future. A great part of my life is at OCC.”

• Heather Patrick was diagnosed with Autism at age 16, graduated high school in her home state of Massachusetts at age 21, and eventually made her way to Central New York and OCC. She excelled in the American Sign Language program, was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society, and became its Vice President of Fellowship. She credited OCC’s Office of Accessibility Resources with supplying the framework for her success. "They put a plan in place so I could take all my tests at the Testing Center. I wouldn't have been able to make it into PTK without those accommodations." Her contributions to the college included starting the Autism Club, serving as Secretary of the ASL Club, and becoming OCC's Student Disability Ambassador to SUNY. She plans to work as an aide or assistant in a Pre-K or Kindergarten Special Needs classroom.

The students will be recognized during a ceremony in Albany April 29.