Highlander Joseph J. Armendarez has been named the outstanding undergraduate sudent in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Cal State San Bernardino.
Armendarez will receive a bachelor’s degree with a dual major in psychology (with a 3.56 grade point average) and one in human development (with a 3.73 GPA), with a minor in Spanish, at the commencement ceremony on June 16, at 8:45 a.m.
He has earned both departmental and university honors, served as president of Psi-Chi, the international honor society for psychology, and earned extensive academic accomplishments and distinctions at CSUSB. He also studied abroad at the University Complutense in Madrid, Spain, in 2008.
Armendarez has been a scholar of the Minority Access to Research Careers grant, awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health, which included a research fellowship last summer at the University of Notre Dame. He is the co-author of two manuscripts currently under review for publication, one in the Psychological Bulletin and one in Memory and Cognition. He has also co-authored four manuscripts that are in preparation for submission and has presented at 10 regional and national conferences.
The 26-year-old has worked as a research assistant in multiple psychology labs with five CSUSB professors, including Jason Reimer, associate professor of psychology, who nominated Armendarez for the award.
“I am sure that Joseph’s disposition and ability to work well with others has facilitated completion of his degree while balancing his other obligations, such as volunteering in multiple research labs, advising other undergrad students and serving as a student leader on campus,” said Reimer.
Armendarez is the recipient of numerous other awards, including the departmental Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award; the Aubrey Bonnett Scholarship; the Evelyn Magnuson Scholarship for Academic Excellence and Education, and the Psychology Department Outstanding Undergraduate Service Award.
He has been employed as an assistant teacher in both CSUSB’s Infant Toddler Lab and the University Center for Developmental Disabilities, for which he has been honored and recognized. This spring, Armendarez was accepted to the University of Rhode Island, where he will pursue his Ph.D. in school psychology.
Graduation ceremonies will be streamed online on the university’s academic computing and media live webcast page at http://acm.csusb.edu/videoproduction/livevideo.html. For more info, visit http://commencement.csusb.edu.