The School of Computer Science has named rising seniors Rachel Holladay and Ananya Kumar the recipients of this year's Mark Stehlik SCS Alumni Undergraduate Impact Scholarship.

Now in its second year, the Stehlik Scholarship recognizes undergraduate students near the end of their Carnegie Mellon careers whose reach for excellence extends beyond the classroom. Awardees are working to make a difference in SCS, the field of computer science and the world around them.

Holladay, a native of Slidell, La., is an active undergraduate researcher and has done exciting gesture research in the Robotics Institute's Personal Robotics Lab. She's an integral part of the school's Women@SCS and SCS4All organizations, mentors CMU's Girls of Steel FIRST Robotics team, and will serve as co-committee lead for this year's SCS Day — the school's annual celebration of its members' non-computing talents.

Kumar, who is originally from Singapore, served as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science last semester, and has performed research on topics ranging from lunar localization to programming language theory. He's an active member of CMU Debate, and will be the organization's vice president in the upcoming academic year. In his first two years at CMU, he participated in the regional ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest and the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

"This award recognizes people who are finding interesting ways to leverage our environment besides just taking classes," said Assistant Dean for Outreach Mark Stehlik. "Rachel and Ananya are both discovering ways to enhance their experiences while also simultaneously finding ways to enhance others' experiences: Ananya in the context of fundamental research, and Rachel in the context of more applied research and outreach."

Holladay and Kumar join Gillian Rosen (CS 2016) as Stehlik Scholarship recipients. Rosen earned the inaugural award this past academic year in recognition of her excellence in the classroom, undergraduate research with Robotics Professor Howie Choset, and participation in numerous campus activities.

Read more about the Stehlik Scholarship on the award's webpage.