St. Bonaventure University

Anas Alami, a Business Management major from Brooklyn, New York, and Aahana Kidambi, a Biology major with a Psychology minor from Frederick, Maryland, have been named Ideal Bonaventure Students for the Class of 2025.

The Ideal Bonaventure Students exemplify the spirit of St. Bonaventure and the ideals of St. Francis through their demonstrated commitment to community service and academic excellence throughout their collegiate careers at Bona’s. They are annually selected by a committee that considers nominations from the campus community.

Alexandra “Allie” Beamish, an Inclusive Childhood and Early Childhood Education major from Webster, New York, and Tessa Fabiniak, a Biochemistry major from Buffalo, New York, were selected as honorable mention Ideal Bonaventure Students.

All four students were honored in April at a Student Affairs awards ceremony and recognized again on Sunday, May 18, at St. Bonaventure’s 165th Commencement exercises at Reilly Center Arena.

The 2025 Ideal Students are known for their kindness to and mentorship of others.

Anas Alami, since his first year at Bona’s, has been driven by the desire to lift others along his own path toward success, sacrificing his time and resources to be someone whom others can rely upon.

When Maggie Rosenberg, director of Academic Support and Transition in SBU’s Student Success Center, met Alami for his admissions interview for the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program, she said he was nervous but excited about the possibility of attending college.

“Although he’s grown and matured in these four years, he still has that excitement and spark,” she said.

Alami has volunteered as a peer leader and mentor for opportunity program students and as a mentor for all St. Bonaventure students. Alongside mentorship, Alami held numerous on- and off-campus jobs that center around helping others: HEOP/SOAR peer leader and tutor for three years, tutor within the Student Success Center, and working as a child aftercare staff member at the Olean YMCA.

Alami has participated in service trips with Enactus and the School of Business; has helped the Franciscan Center for Social Concern in its fundraising endeavors; has volunteered at the Warming House soup kitchen; leads the Business Student Leaders Enterprise group; and has totaled more than 340 service hours in his time on campus.

He accomplished all that while consistently earning high grades, multiple semesters on the dean’s list, and being inducted into the opportunity program national honor society, Chi Alpha Epsilon, as a junior.

He addressed the Class of 2025 as the student speaker at Sunday’s Commencement.

Amy Smerkar, associate director of opportunity programs at St. Bonaventure, said Alami is always looking to give back.

“He wants to use what he’s learned here at SBU — through classes and professors, staff members, and involvement in countless activities — to help future generations of students. Anas fully embodies what it means to be Franciscan and an Ideal Bonaventure student,” she said.

After graduation, Alami will remain at St. Bonaventure to complete his MBA and serve as an academic counselor for HEOP and SOAR.

Aahana Kidambi will attend the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., this fall. She has also been accepted into the Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program and looks forward to commissioning into the U.S. Navy this summer.

Kidambi has been participating in research since her first year at SBU, beginning with chemistry research on persistent organic pollutants (also known as “forever chemicals”), under Dr. Scott Simpson, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry. For the past two years, she led a research team studying maternal and fetal health under Dr. Adam Brown, a professor of Elementary Education and member of the SBU Consortium for the Study of Pregnancy and Prenatal Development.

“Aahana was both my lead research assistant in the work for the Consortium for the Study of Pregnancy and Prenatal Development and my teaching assistant for the honors course in Human Pregnancy. She consistently displayed high-level leadership skills, competence, drive and motivation. This is complemented by her friendly demeanor and ability to manage those who worked with her,” Brown said.

She also worked as a peer tutor for biology, chemistry, psychology and sociology courses.

Throughout her time at Bona’s, Kidambi was actively involved in the Student Government Association — serving as a class senator for three years and as treasurer on the Executive Board this year. During that time, she served on the Academic Honesty, Food, Membership, and Academic Affairs committees.

Kidambi was a certified emergency medical technician with the university’s Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), where she completed more than 1,300 hours of service and served as first lieutenant during her sophomore year. She also served on the Community Coordinated Response Team (CCRT), a campus committee dedicated to preventing sexual and dating violence.

In their nomination of Kidambi for the award, one student said she “exemplifies what it means to be a Bonnie.”

“Her involvement in the CCRT and through MERT is just an example of how much she cares for those around her. She regularly donates blood because she likes to do her part to help improve community health,” the nominator said.

Kidambi was also a member of several campus organizations, including ASIA (Asian Students in Action), Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, and the Power Yoga Club, which was named Club of the Year.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure is a community committed to transforming the lives of its students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a commitment to academic excellence and lifelong civic engagement. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for value and #14 for innovation by U.S. News and World Report (2024).