This year the top undergraduate awards given by the College of Letters and Science honor one student who created a new opportunity for their peers to show their art and another who helped build an undergraduate research community around AI ethics.
The 2026 Herbert A. Young Award was given to Jack Jacobs. The 2026 Leon H. Mayhew Memorial Award was given to Morgan Strong.
Jack Jacobs, 2026 Herbert A. Young Award
Jack Jacobs, a double major in political science and philosophy, was only in his second year at UC Davis when he learned research opportunities in philosophy were scarce. A few months later, Professor Qiannan Li got in touch and asked if he was interested in studying AI ethics. Li had just received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to build a high-performance and ethical AI.
Jacobs jumped at the opportunity to join the AI Ethics Lab that Li founded. He started with just one other student researcher. Since then, the project has grown to more than 20 students contributing to projects, including a chatbot designed to support the wellbeing of older adults.
“It’s been rewarding to see the lab grow from a limited scope, offering philosophy students the chance to do this sort of research,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs has also been active in the Campus Rotaract Club of Davis, which is part of the Rotary International service organization he has been involved with since before college. He joined the board of the UC Davis Rotaract Club when he first arrived and, when he became president his junior year he was one of only two students involved.
He set out to rebuild the club immediately. He invited friends to join, and membership soon grew to 15 students. He has helped expand the club’s connections with other local Rotary clubs and will leave behind a thriving community as he goes on to study law at the University of Chicago Law School.
“I would tell students that they should seek out opportunities as often as they can,” said Jacobs. “While not everything will come to fruition or work out, if you can make connections with professors and fellow students, you can make your four years extremely rewarding.”
Morgan Strong, 2026 Leon H. Mayhew Memorial Award
Morgan Strong, a double major in art studio and design and a minor in museum studies, was regularly telling friends she couldn’t hang out because she spent her free time working in the art studio. She wanted to show her work to her friends and see the work of her peers who weren’t in her class.
With support from her professors and the Department of Art and Art History, Strong founded Art Walk, a quarterly exhibition of UC Davis student artists in the legendary TB9 ceramics studio and the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Building. Both locations are where the student artists made the work on display.
Art Walks as a concept have long existed worldwide, but this was the first at UC Davis. An inspiration for this effort was "Art Attack," a department-wide exhibition of work, spearheaded by Robin Hill, that ended years ago.
“I wanted to revive the tradition, creating a sustainable exhibition led by undergraduates for undergraduates,” said Strong.
Strong, also minoring in museum studies, has been working as an intern at the Manetti Shrem Museum as well as Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. In addition to her work in the arts, Strong was captain of Rogue Ultimate, UC Davis’ premiere women's ultimate frisbee team.
After graduating from UC Davis, she hopes to work in museum curation or design, ultimately pursuing a career in the arts.
“I've been trying to maximize my college experience, where I'm learning as many different skills as possible,” said Strong. “I'm just diving in and doing that for everything.”
About the awards
The Herbert A. Young Award is given to an outstanding senior in the College of Letters and Science based on their academic accomplishments and extracurricular activities.
The Leon H. Mayhew Memorial Award is presented to an undergraduate majoring in music, art or literature for their academic achievement and service to the university.
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