FSU Alumni Association

Reubin O'D. Askew Award

2023 Honorees

The Reubin O’D. Askew Young Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed upon young alumni by the FSU Alumni Association. Named in honor of former Governor Askew, this award recognizes his contributions to the state, nation and university. These young alumni continue Askew’s legacy of outstanding accomplishments built on the foundation of their education at Florida State University.

 

Nominations and applications for the 2025 Young Alumni Awards will open Fall 2024.

 
 

 

Amanda Schell Headshot

Amanda Schell

(B.S. '17, M.S. ’18)

College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, College of Arts and Sciences

Lakeland, Florida

Amanda Schell specializes in applying machine learning models and other artificial intelligence algorithms to inform policymaker decision-making on national security issues. She has presented at conferences for foreign governments, national security practitioners and technical specialists. Due to her transformative work, Schell has received multiple awards recognizing her exceptional analytic tradecraft, collaboration, innovation and mission impact. She previously worked at the Florida Division of Emergency Management, where she served as the youngest Deputy Chief of Staff of a Florida state agency. Through her tenure at the Division, she supported the immediate statewide response and long-term recovery efforts to Hurricanes Michael, Irma, Matthew and Hermine. Schell is actively engaged in her community as a Board Member for the Randy Roberts Foundation, Board Chair of Awesome Foundation DC and Board Member for the Institute of Higher Awesome Studies.
Garit Poire Headshot

Garit Poire

(B.S. ’16, M.S. ’18)

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

Orlando, Florida

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Garit Poire, E.I., M.S., ENV SP, is a business development engineer for Turner Construction. Poire co-founded the INSPIRE program, a joint venture between the American Society of Civil Engineers or ACSE Tallahassee Branch, Florida universities, organizations and companies to promote K-12 STEM outreach for at-risk youth in Florida, Alabama and Georgia. The program includes INSPIRE days at the Tallahassee Challenger Learning Center, where students participate in hands-on STEM activities. During ASCE’s 2018 push to get educational toolkits into every U.S. public school, Poire established the Great Give. This crowdfunding campaign raised over $12,000 in just two weeks to secure toolkits for every remaining school in Florida. A decorated engineer, Poire has been awarded the Outstanding Young Civil Engineer in the Private Sector Award by the ASCE Eastern Region Younger Member Council and the 2019 New Faces of Civil Engineering. He has served FSU as a teaching assistant for the Engineering Mechanics and Senior Design course, on the Engineering Design Day coordinating committee and as the graduate adviser to the FAMU-FSU Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Florida Engineering Society and American Concrete Institute.
Max Spanier Headshot

Max Spanier

(B.S. ’11)

College of Business

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

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Max Spanier is the founder and president of Sloane Staffing, an award-winning international recruitment firm based in South Florida. Previously, Spanier worked in the marketing technology space as a former Marketo Account Executive, covering the Southeast for companies with revenue of $1 billion. Since its inception, Sloane Staffing has placed over 600 candidates in new jobs and secured over $100 million in salaries. Spanier is a two-time Seminole 100 honoree, and Sloane Staffing was recognized as an Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America. Passionate about giving back, Sloane Staffing has donated more than $50,000 to local South Florida charities and annually raises funds for the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital where Spanier’s son is a cardiology patient.

Past Award Recipients