Commencement Profile: Watoii T. Rabii
Watoii Rabii will receive the President’s Medal for Outstanding Undergraduate Student and SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence at the 139th Commencement celebration, Saturday, May 14, in the Sports Arena. He will deliver the student address at the 2:00 p.m. baccalaureate ceremony.
Rabii earned a bachelor of arts in sociology and a minor in psychology while maintaining a GPA of 3.9 in his major. He has earned the enthusiastic praise of his professors and mentors, who see in him not a promising student but an accomplished scholar.
During his first year, Rabii distinguished himself by the scope and depth of his reading, his passionate intellectual engagement, and the quality of his presentations, earning the Outstanding First-Year Student Award for Scholarly or Creative Achievement. At the end of his first year, he traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to present at the 21st International Conference on the First-Year Experience.
After coming to Buffalo State, Rabii’s innate intelligence, motivation, and self-discipline quickly won him several prestigious scholarships. He was accepted to the Ross B. Kenzie Scholars program, which fosters leadership as well as academic achievement. He also was accepted to the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement program, which provides research opportunities to students interested in pursuing a doctoral degree, and to the Dr. Anna P. Burrell Diversity Scholars program, which seeks to enhance student diversity by supporting academically talented students. He was named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in 2010 and 2011.
His presentations include “The Role of ADHD Symptomatology, Parenting, and Peer Functioning in Predicting the Social Adjustment of College Students” at the McNair Research Symposium in June 2010, and “Geometry and Fetishization of Dreamworlds” at the Ethnographic Dreamworlds conference held at Buffalo State in March 2009.
Rabii has been of service to both the college and the community, as a tutor and mentor to students in one of the university’s learning communities, a tutor for students in the Educational Opportunity Program, and a volunteer at the Asarese-Matters Youth Center.
Rabii earned a bachelor of arts in sociology and a minor in psychology while maintaining a GPA of 3.9 in his major. He has earned the enthusiastic praise of his professors and mentors, who see in him not a promising student but an accomplished scholar.
During his first year, Rabii distinguished himself by the scope and depth of his reading, his passionate intellectual engagement, and the quality of his presentations, earning the Outstanding First-Year Student Award for Scholarly or Creative Achievement. At the end of his first year, he traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to present at the 21st International Conference on the First-Year Experience.
After coming to Buffalo State, Rabii’s innate intelligence, motivation, and self-discipline quickly won him several prestigious scholarships. He was accepted to the Ross B. Kenzie Scholars program, which fosters leadership as well as academic achievement. He also was accepted to the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement program, which provides research opportunities to students interested in pursuing a doctoral degree, and to the Dr. Anna P. Burrell Diversity Scholars program, which seeks to enhance student diversity by supporting academically talented students. He was named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in 2010 and 2011.
His presentations include “The Role of ADHD Symptomatology, Parenting, and Peer Functioning in Predicting the Social Adjustment of College Students” at the McNair Research Symposium in June 2010, and “Geometry and Fetishization of Dreamworlds” at the Ethnographic Dreamworlds conference held at Buffalo State in March 2009.
Rabii has been of service to both the college and the community, as a tutor and mentor to students in one of the university’s learning communities, a tutor for students in the Educational Opportunity Program, and a volunteer at the Asarese-Matters Youth Center.
Media Contact:
Mary A. Durlak, Senior Writer | 7168783517 | durlakma@buffalostate.edu