The Caesar D. Sereseres Outstanding Service Award has been established in the School of Social Sciences to commend graduating seniors who have demonstrated outstanding service within key educational, leadership, and outreach programs in the School of Social Sciences and campus community. The award honors the more than two decades of outstanding service given to the school and the campus by Caesar Sereseres, political science associate professor and associate dean.  

The inaugural recipients are:

Vanessa Chavez
International Studies

Chavez studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, interned in Washington, D.C. for Congresswoman Lucille Royball-Allard, and was selected for the prestigious Princeton University Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Fellows Program, hosted by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs. While at UCI, Chavez completed the Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP), was a Sage Scholar, and served as the executive administrator for Community Service and Leadership Program in the School of Social Sciences.

Margaret Chang Liao
International Studies

Chang Liao was co-chair of UCI’s Model United Nations program and helped restore the program to fiscal solvency during her tenure. For the last three years, she has been the primary student leader of the Global Connect Educational Initiative and has been a major contributor to the development of the Global Scope Curriculum Guides. As the site supervisor at El Toro High School, Chang Liao has been responsible for teaching more than 60 high school students. She has also mentored 65 Global Connect academic undergraduate interns during weekly training classes. 

Aaron McCullough
Sociology

McCullough is also an SAEP alumnus. This year, as president of the international honors society in social science, Pi Gamma Mu, McCullough coordinated a number of outreach events on the campus in addition to off-campus outreach programs which raised funds for local underrepresented schools.  McCullough has also held a number of leadership roles in Global Connect, including undergraduate co-chair and site supervisor.  As the program’s curriculum editor, he was responsible for assembling and creating the curriculum used by the students in the Global Connect program.

The inaugural recipients will be honored at the School of Social Sciences Order of Merit ceremony to be held Friday, June 15 prior to commencement.