Every academic year, each department in the Craig School of Business at Fresno State selects a high-achieving senior to receive its Outstanding Student Award. One of these winners is chosen as the Craig Undergraduate Dean’s Medalist. For 2025, that was Robynn Huber from the Department of Management – but all of these outstanding business students have their own inspiring stories. Here are some glimpses of these students’ unique paths to success.
Accountancy: How to create a plan for college success
Emily Velicescu started college not sure about her goals. But, by being open to opportunities and embracing the power of networking, she’s made a confident transition from college to career. Her story shows how every student can create their own college success plan.
Graduating summa cum laude, Velicescu is halfway to earning her CPA license, has a job offer from Moss Adams and was named the 2025 Outstanding Student from the Department of Accountancy. She made it this far by working hard, paying attention to her interests and accepting opportunities and help.
Step 1: Pay attention to what you like to work hard at.
Velicescu found her path by paying attention to the classes she enjoyed. “I came in thinking I wanted to do accounting, but I wasn’t quite sure,” Velicescu said. “In my ACCT 4B class, I was just really loving the teacher and the content, and I would really strive to get a perfect score on the exam. I was like, ‘Wow, I must really enjoy this, because I’m trying so hard.’ So I thought, I obviously do enjoy this. OK, I’ll stick with accounting.”
Step 2: Take advice from experienced professionals.
Velicescu also took advantage of opportunities to meet with working professionals in her field. Getting advice from professionals with first-hand experience helped her define her career goals.
“In my ACCT 128 class, our professor [Dr. Susan Henderson, chair of the Accountancy Department] brought in a partner from PwC to speak to our class about the CPA license. I asked her, Is a CPA license really that important?’ And she said, CPA license all the way. It’s so important in the accounting field,” Velicescu said.
Velicescu investigated the CPA license more, decided it was the right path for her, and consulted with Henderson on how to prepare to take the CPA exam.
Step 3: Network with peers.
Velicescu found her next mentor among her fellow students. While volunteering for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, she met Jonathan Court, an accountancy student two years ahead of her who graduated as the Outstanding Student from the Accountancy Department in 2023.
“Through VITA I met Jonathan, who had just done an internship at Moss Adams,” Velicescu said. “He said he already had a job offer for a year after he graduated, so that he would have time to take the CPA exams before he started working. I was like, wow, that’s exactly what I want to do. We became friends and he gave me advice about getting an internship and studying for the CPA exams. I learned so much from him, and I’m just so grateful I met him.”
Step 4: Pay it forward.
Having benefited from the mentorship of others, Velicescu pays it forward by teaching the value of mentorship to others.
“In my final year, I’ve really tried to push on every younger classmate I know, that finding a mentor and mentoring others is so important. You never know what you’re going to learn from somebody. And your experiences can definitely help someone else.”
— Emily Velicescu
Velicescu’s advice for the students who follow her is simple: “Be the most involved you can with the Craig School of Business, in whatever club you choose. Get to know your faculty better. Be involved and network. You never know who you’re going to meet and what they can teach you and what you could teach them.”
Economics: Farm roots nourish interest in rural development
Yerali Lopez Torres knows hard work and rural poverty first-hand, which drives her interest in studying rural economic development. The daughter of immigrant farm workers and the first in her family to attend college, Lopez Torres is now a magna cum laude graduate, the author of an honors thesis on rural poverty and the 2025 Outstanding Student from the Department of Economics.
Lopez Torres grew up in the rural community of Parlier, where her parents, who are originally from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, work in the fields as agricultural laborers. She said her background has taught her to appreciate her parents’ hard work and the importance of education.
“When I was 15 I worked in a field with my parents,” Lopez Torres said. “I did only blueberry picking, which was considered an easy job. It was really hard on my body, and I understood why my parents said they had a hard day of work. That’s what solidified me into getting an education. My parents said, ‘You see the hard work we do, this is why you need to go to college.’”
Lopez Torres started at Fresno State thinking she would major in computer science, but she soon developed a stronger interest in economics, because it gave her tools to analyze the needs of her own community.
“Before I got into economics, I thought it was about the macro level, interest rates, inflation, things that affect the whole United States,” Lopez Torres said. “But when I started looking into it, I saw the social impacts of economics and how it affects our community. You see how everyday people are struggling just to maintain a job and buy food. I got interested in questions like, how do you get economic growth in rural communities? How do you reduce poverty rates?”
Lopez Torres’ interest in rural economic development culminated in her honors thesis, “Interactive Effects of Technology and Human Capital on Rural Economic Development,” which explored whether technology can alleviate rural poverty levels.
“I’m interested in agricultural mechanization, AI and new technologies. I’m looking at whether agriculture technologies could potentially reduce poverty rates or maybe increase per capita income in these rural counties,” Lopez Torres said.
Lopez Torres said, for example, the community of Parlier has persistent poverty, but it also encourages strong community ties, which has motivated her studies and her research.
“If we grow up in a small community, we create bonds with each other, we see the struggles we face. We feel that if one time I help you, you’re going to help me another time. I want to help my community and find initiatives we can take.”
— Yerali Lopez Torres
Helping others has always been a priority for Lopez Torres. During her time at Fresno State, she volunteered with the Bulldog Pantry and the Tzu Chi College Association, which provides access to medical care to rural communities. Now that she’s graduated, she intends to pursue a career in finance and a master’s degree in economics.
Finance: Work to serve others
Dino Gianndrea, the 2025 Outstanding Student from the Department of Finance, Real Estate and Business Law, measures success not by how much money or power he can accumulate for himself, but how much he can help others.
“I like to serve others. Whenever I have the opportunity to volunteer, it feels great. My deeper purpose in life is to make others happy.”
— Dino Giannandrea
Gianandrea, a summa cum laude graduate, focuses not on his academic achievements, but the volunteer work and the friendships he has made as a member of the Craig Business Scholars organization.
“The Craig Scholars do a lot of volunteer events,” Giannandrea said. “We’ve brought new, incoming students on tours of the business school, we’ve worked with Beautify Fresno and we’ve done purely social events. I’ve met a lot of great people. It’s really nice to have a group of friends getting together to help others.”
Giannandrea plans to continue working at his father’s pest control business and take over the company when his father retires. The first in his family to go to college, Gianandrea majored in finance to bring technical expertise to the family business. He has already put his education into practice by working on financial statements and payroll.
With his strong belief in the importance of friendship and serving others, Giannandrea advises students to be open to making new connections in college.
“Expand your network, open up your opportunities, make friends. Be a sponge and soak up all the knowledge that you can while you’re here,” he said.
Information Systems and Decision Sciences: Use data for the public good
For data analytics major Paola Luna Rubalcaba, data isn’t just numbers — it’s a key to understanding the social impacts of policy. Luna, a magna cum laude graduate and the 2025 Outstanding Student from the Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences, learned about applying data to real-world problems in an experiential learning project.
“Last summer I was at Carnegie Mellon University, where I worked on a summer-long project collecting data on the racial composition of Pittsburgh,” Luna said. “We identified an issue that Black women do not receive the same prenatal and postnatal care. That kind of data analysis is good for making data-driven policy solutions. Numbers help people visualize how big an issue is and what the social aspects can be.”
Using her education to help communities in need is the cornerstone of Luna’s personal values. Throughout her time at Fresno State, she has pursued educational opportunities that benefit real people, working with the Capital One HSI Immersion Program, the Accenture Case Project, the Addressing Maternal Mortality Project and West African Vocational Schools, as well as serving the campus community with Fresno State Technology Services.
Luna’s interest in community service grew naturally from her rural California background. She grew up in Cantua Creek, California (population 520) and feels close to her hometown and its tight-knit Latino community, and she would like to work on rural economic development.
“I have a soft spot for helping rural communities. As of now, I am looking to work for a financial nonprofit that is helping Latinos, like on land loans.”
— Paola Luna Rubalcava
In addition to her degree in business administration with an option in data analytics, Luna earned a certificate of special study in finance, giving her a broad background to work on economic development issues.
Luna has been an active member of the Hispanic Business Students Association and served as the organization’s vice president. Luna praised the club and Fresno State for opening life-transforming opportunities to her and other students from rural areas.
“When I was in high school, I didn’t really see the opportunities that were available, because I grew up in a rural area,” Luna said. “But now it’s like the opportunities are endless. I’ve learned to build my hard skills of data analytics and programming. And I’ve also learned soft skills, how to communicate, how to lead, how to make friends. I’m a believer in creating your own opportunities wherever you go.”
Marketing: Success through ethics and service
David Ashkharian believes that the key to success, whether in education, career or life, is acting ethically.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that if you do the right thing and you consistently do what you need to do, you will grow in your career.”
— David Ashkharian
“A lot of people like to take shortcuts, do things that they shouldn’t do when people aren’t looking. But if you always do what’s right, you will go far, and even if you don’t think people notice, they will notice,” Ashkharian said.
This approach is clearly working for him. Ashkharian, the 2025 Outstanding Student from the Department of Marketing and Logistics, graduated summa cum laude, was on the President’s List for eight semesters and is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honors society.
Ashkharian is also already well established as a marketing professional, having parlayed a marketing internship after high school into a position as a social media marketing manager that he has held for four years, throughout his entire college career.
A strong sense of ethics is the key to Ashkharian’s early success as a marketer. In a profession that many people associate with hype and hard-sell tactics, Ashkharian believes the most effective marketing tool is honesty and respect for his customers.
“In my job, I’ve learned that simpler is better,” Ashkharian said. “In social media if you stay consistent, if you’re as genuine and truthful with people as possible, people will gravitate toward you and connect with you.”
Ashkharian has had an uncommon opportunity as a college student to study marketing in the classroom and immediately put what he learned into his professional work. “Everything I’ve learned in the classroom, I’ve put into practice in the workplace, so I can understand how to do it better, or how to get a better grasp of it,” Ashkharian said.
The highlight of Ashkharian’s college career has been getting involved in student organizations and leading the Marketing Club, which has taught him much about leadership and the importance of serving others.
“Taking the position of president of the Marketing Club has been my peak college experience,” Ashkharian said. “Being able to see how a leader needs to work with a team, how to run an organization, how to put on events. I’ve learned that being a leader is about serving others, being humble and understanding that it’s about helping students get what they need. It’s been the most challenging part of my college career, but it’s pushed me to become better, and I love that.”
Now that he has graduated, Ashkharian plans to continue his marketing career and pursue his entrepreneurial goals.
