By Suzy Alstrin
Two students received the honor of Student of the Year. Salvador Castillo (RU-Dec 2023) and Luciano Fisicaro (RU-2024) received the traditional and non-traditional honors at the recent Evening of Honors ceremony held on April 9th.
Castillo, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, was also honored with the School Student Achievement Award for the School of Humanities, Sciences, and Technology. He cheerfully expressed, “It makes me really proud to be recognized and I’m grateful to have been at Reinhardt.”
During his years at Reinhardt, Castillo became a member of the Alpha Chi and Beta Beta Beta honor societies, maintained a perfect grade point average, worked in the biology lab, and represented Reinhardt at several science conferences. A strong contributor to the men’s cross country team, Castillo broke the Eagles’ record in the 5k during his last race and competed at the national meet. As a volunteer at high school running and science events, Castillo shared his passion and commitment to the community.
Castillo plans to attend graduate school. Until then, he will spend at least a year in the genetics lab at the National Institute of Health in their Intramural Research Program. Reflecting on being honored and for his time at Reinhardt, he stated, “I learned a lot really valuable skills in and out of the lab that I’ll carry with me. Because of the experiences I had, I realized I want to do research. What’s also special is how amazing the professors are, how much mentoring I got, and the mentoring I was able to do.”
Luciano Fisicaro traveled from Argentina to Reinhardt to obtain his degree and play collegiate tennis. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management and hopes to pursue a career that involves mentoring young athletes.
While at Reinhardt, Fisicaro maintained a 4.0 grade point average, was inducted into Alpha Chi honor society, and received the Academic Degree Program award for General Business. Regarding being named student of the year he says, “I’m very proud and it is a big honor to receive this type of award. It is an incentive to keep going. I never expected to receive it since a lot of students and athletes here are very successful. I share this recognition with my coaches, teammates, and my family. Without them, it would be impossible for me to be here.”
As successful captain of the men’s tennis team, the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) named Fisicaro the player of the week in mid-March, he won several singles and doubles matches in the AAC tournament finals and volunteered with youth tennis. After competing at the NAIA championship in mid-May, he plans to travel to New York to do an OPT (Optional Practical Training) working as club head coach.
Fisicaro describes his time at Reinhardt as enriching and enjoyable. He shares that everyone “made my time at Reinhardt something magical.” He expects some challenges in the next chapter of his life but says he’s excited and ready, “I am eager to pay it forward by empowering others to chase their dreams and achieve success.”
