Marcella Manivel earns President’s Student Leadership & Service Award
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (5/28/2025) – School of Mathematics PhD candidate Marcella Manivel has been honored with the 2025 University of Minnesota President’s Student Leadership & Service Award. The award recognizes Manivel’s exceptional leadership and service to the University of Minnesota and the surrounding community.
Since her arrival to the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities in Fall 2021, Manivel has demonstrated unwavering dedication to mentorship, service, and student leadership. She has served the department and the broader community in more than half a dozen different roles, including as President of the graduate student group Gender Minorities in Mathematics, mentor for the Directed Reading Program, instructor and counselor for the Girls Excel in Mathematics Summer Camp, mentor and organizer for the Mathematics Project at Minnesota (MPM), volunteer for Queer Science Day, and organizer of the graduate student Number Theory Seminar. The list goes on even further if you include her work outside of UMN – to say her outreach resume is formidable is an understatement.
When asked what motivates her to get involved with so many initiatives, Manivel says “I'm a people person. I like meeting new people and making new connections, so one reason that engaging with the math community through service is important to me is that it is personally fulfilling. I get to meet new people, and be useful to our community. I've also been really fortunate to have mentors and people who supported me and wanted to see me succeed, so I aspire to be that for others and want to give back in that same way.”
Manivel has many stories to share about her experiences as a student leader, so it’s hard to choose just one to share. “During one of our MPM organizer meetings last year, we were applying for a grant to help fund MPM and there was a section where we needed to talk about the goals of MPM. This was a chance for the organizers to come together and really intentionally discuss what are the goals of MPM, how are we achieving them, and how could we do better?” She says their conversation went on to encompass the importance of creating a sense of community for underrepresented students in math, providing relatable role models and mentors, and getting hands-on time doing math so the participants understand what it's like to be a mathematician. “It was really productive for the program and also personally rewarding because it gave me a chance to reflect on what is important for undergraduates and how our program contributes to that,” Manivel says.
When she was nominated for the President’s Student Leadership & Service Award, Manivel was asked what leadership means to her. “Leadership is the ability to have a vision, turn the vision into a plan, execute the plan, and uplift others along the way,” she wrote. “Good leadership means responding to others’ input during that process, changing the vision and plan to best serve those around us, and growing while doing it." She says that even though she’s learned there isn’t a simple guide for being a good leader, being flexible, resilient, kind, and adaptable are key strengths that help her find her way.
Manivel came to UMN in 2021 after completion of her undergraduate studies at Carleton College. She studies number theory and automorphic forms with Professor Paul Garrett. For her dedication to research, teaching, and service, she has been previously awarded the School of Mathematics Outstanding TA Award (2024), the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2023), and the Steven P. Galovich Prize in Mathematics (2021).