Three SUNY Oswego students have earned the 2025 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, the highest honor presented to students by the SUNY system.

Earning Chancellor’s Awards for Student Excellence (CASE) were:

  • Halle Collins, cinema and screen studies, creative writing
  • Sky Minkoff, linguistics
  • Layla Sprague, biology, physics

Presented officially in Albany this year on April 29, the awards recognize students for outstanding achievements throughout their SUNY experience in areas including academics, leadership, campus involvement, community service, and the arts. This year’s recipients include a wide range of honorees, including veterans, parents, policy issue advocates and athletes.

“SUNY represents academic excellence, and our students have worked tirelessly to not only excel in their academic studies, but also stepped up as community leaders,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. “Congratulations to this year’s CASE awardees who’ve distinguished themselves amongst their peers through their work ethic, determination, and commitment to their fields of study.“

Collins, who transferred to SUNY Oswego as a junior, has provided extraordinary leadership in civic engagement and the arts, nominators noted.

Serving in multiple roles in the Student Association, including chief of staff and chief justice, Collins was an intern at the Urban Institute, a premiere non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. She interned twice with Vote Oswego, the campus voter mobilization and participation drive, which led to an opportunity to participate on a panel at the White House about civic and youth engagement. 

She also has provided leadership to many campus arts organizations, including Women in Entertainment, The Great Lake Review and the university newspaper The Oswegonian.

A first-generation transfer student, Sprague has achieved an impeccable academic record, impressive research acumen, and extensive campus and community involvement, nominators said.

Sprague has received five scholarships and participated in research projects in two different disciplines, biology and physics. She also received two grants to support her research and has presented her intensive research projects four times to a range of audiences.

Her deep commitment to community is demonstrated through her service with the Red Cross, YMCA and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and match) activities. Sprague has also worked as a nursing assistant at Oswego Hospital.

A nontraditional student, Minkoff has an extraordinary academic record, transformative leadership style and unwavering dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice, nominators wrote. 

Minkoff’s experience as a neurodivergent student who experienced barriers prompted them to create and coordinate a peer-led academic program for neurodivergent students called Hack Your Brain. They are also a tutor for numerous subjects, a teaching assistant and the recipient of two Dean’s Writing Awards and three scholarships.

Through an independent study, Minkoff is supporting the language retention of the Onondaga Eel Clan to protect native histories, stories and culture.