Worth Sharing: Professors and Students Impress on State, National, Global Levels

The following is a listing of professional achievements by Chico State faculty, staff, and students. Submit your professional achievements to ucomm@csuchico.edu.

Awards, Honors, and Activities

Tatevik Avetisyan Artoonian (College of Agriculture) was selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as part of the 2023 class of E. Kika De La Garza Fellows. This prestigious award brought 30 faculty and staff members from Hispanic-Serving Institutions across the nation to Washington D.C. to learn more about USDA services and programs, and to forge deeper connections between their universities and the USDA.

Its been a busy year for Artoonian, who began 2023 presenting at the Annual Global Convening of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research; an initiative that brought over 120 researchers and stakeholders from around the globe to Livingstone, Zambia. Artoonian also published two peer-reviewed articles in 2023, including “Identification and Assessment of Supply Chain Risks: The Case of Food Hubs,” co-authored by Robert S. Shupp, published by Agribusiness: An International Journal, and “Social Entrepreneurship in Agri-Food Systems: The Case of Food Hubs,” published by International Food and Agribusiness Management Review.

Music, theatre, and dance professor Natalya Shkoda had her recorded performances of Ukrainian composer Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938) broadcast more than a dozen times nationally and internationally on radio stations in Canada, England, and the United States. These include Winnipeg’s Classic 107 (Winnipeg, Canada), WTJU 91.1 “Classical Sunrise” (Charlottesville, Virginia), WMNR “Overnight Classics” (Monroe, CT), WNYU 89.1 “Sassy and Classy” (New York University), and BBC Radio 3 “Breakfast” (London, UK)

In November, Shkoda’s piano students Victoria Alesandroni, Gavin VonRaesfeld, and April Smirnoff performed in the Music Teachers’ Association of California Butte Branch Fall Recital at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chico. Also that month, Shkoda’s piano students Evan Gregg, Smirnoff, and Gavin VonRaesfeld successfully performed at the Level 6 in the California Association of Professional Music Teachers’ statewide virtual Piano Festival and were also selected to participate in its statewide Festival Celebration in 2024.  

Smirnoff performed “What Child is This?” from Celebration Piano Duets by Robert Vandall, together with Shkoda, in the CAPMT Festival Celebration North in Danville on January 6, 2024.  Gregg performed March, Op. 65 No. 10, by Sergei Prokofiev in the CAPMT Festival Celebrations South in Los Angeles, California, on January 6, 2024.  In December 2023, Smirnoff was awarded the Second Prize in Piano in California in the 2023 OPUS Music Competition.