Ellianna Schwab

City College of New York 2017 Valedictorian

City College’s Class of 2017 Valedictorian is the first of her siblings to attend college.

Ellianna Schwab is graduating from the Macaulay Honors College at CCNY with research honors in physics and a 3.9 GPA.  She’s also reaching for the stars. Her stellar work at City has culminated in a BS degree. It’s also earned her acceptance to top-ranked astrophysics PhD programs, including Columbia University and UC Berkeley. Schwab thanks her alma mater for preparing her brilliantly for the next step in her dream to become an astrophysicist. “Throughout my undergraduate career, my research has been supplemented and motivated by CCNY’s rigorous coursework in theoretical physics,” she says. “I am excited about my future as an astrophysicist, and I am deeply grateful to City College for providing me the pathway to achieve this dream.” She completed her coursework at an accelerated pace, her research honors degree in only three years.

Along the way, Schwab picked up several top honors. For her research on star-like objects known as brown dwarfs, the American Astronomy Society presented her its prized Chambliss Student Poster Award (2015). There was also the 2016 Goldwater Scholarship, awarded to the most promising research-bound students nationally in the STEM fields, and, this spring, a coveted NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

The latter recognizes and supports exceptional students pursuing graduate-level research. “Her future in physics and astronomy will be grand. She personifies the very mission of City College,” sums up her mentor, CCNY physicist James Hedberg.”