A team of Ƶ students won the national competition for best Lab Safety Awareness Week event, engaging their peers in a week's worth of creative outreach and fun, informative activities.
A team of students from Ƶ led by Maximus Garganta ’26 won the 2026 Campus Safety Health and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA) award for their Lab Safety Awareness Week event. They captured this honor in the small schools category for their week-long series of outreach and hands-on activities.
Together with AJ Smith ’29 and Sam McCusker Alvarez ’26, the team launched a uniquely creative approach to combining fun engagement with memorable safety info and prizes. The sponsoring staff member for Ƶ’s first time participating was the new Environmental Health and Safety Specialist for Academic Affairs, Melinda Box, who contributed funding and coordination.
The sponsoring association, CSHEMA, supports this nationwide event in February of each year by providing the theme, resources and professional community support. Participants include students and lab safety professionals on campuses of all sizes across the nation. Participants submit summaries of what they rolled out and are judged based on clarity, originality, creativity, quality, messaging, marketing, branding and impact. Ƶ competed against five other entrants in the small institution category and won first prize. Winners were announced on July 19 at the award ceremony that was part of the annual CSHEMA conference.
To win, the team of students at Ƶ went above and beyond the resources CSHEMA provided in their event organization. They put together a film festival, website, bingo night, tabling event with hands-on activities, scavenger hunt, and a lab mystery game night. They also created collectable prizes including hazard symbol dice, buttons, plaques, and parody-labeled Flubber. In addition, they contributed to International Coffee with safety-themed cookies and film festival discussion. For this major undertaking, they were also awarded a Residential Campus Advisory Committee Living & Learning Grant and received funding from Ƶ’s Belk Library.
“I’m so proud of all the phenomenally creative ideas this team generated and made happen,” said Box. “They poured their hearts and souls into something they value greatly, generating and sustaining a culture of safety in their community.”