2026 UCI Arts Graduates Receive Chancellor's Award of Distinction
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Image: Esther Cheang in Aldrich Park. Photo by Christine Zhang.
Award recognizes academic excellence, research, leadership and service
UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts is pleased to announce that graduating students David Block ’26 and Esther Cheang ’26 have been selected as recipients of UC Irvine's 2026 Chancellor's Award of Distinction. Presented by the UCI Alumni Association, this honor recognizes exemplary academic performance and a demonstrated commitment to research, leadership or service to the university. This year's award was highly competitive, with more than 280 applications submitted and 36 graduating seniors selected university-wide.
“It is such an honor to be one of the recipients of the Chancellor’s Award of Distinction 2026,” shared Cheang. “I am truly grateful for this award, and I want to thank my piano professor, Nina Scolnik, who believed in me from the first day at UC Irvine.”
A double major in education sciences and music, with an emphasis in piano performance, Cheang has also been honored with the Distinguished Anteater Award and the Phi Beta Kappa Fall Book Award, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as one of the top 1% of juniors selected for the Mu Chapter. She has served in a range of leadership roles, including co-president of MusicsAlive, peer academic advisor at UCI Arts and research assistant in the Education, Technology and Culture (ETC) Lab. Her solo and chamber performance experience has taken her internationally to Japan, Hong Kong, Austria and Colorado. After graduation, Cheang returns to her home region, Macau, to teach piano before pursuing a master's and Ph.D. in education, drawing on her passion for music and education to connect with and uplift others.
Department of Drama major David Block specializes in lighting design and operation for the stage. His technical training includes ETC console programming, lighting design concepts and light plot development, along with a broader working knowledge of theater production systems. Alongside his studies, Block has built hands-on experience across Orange County's professional theater community, working as a media services specialist at the Curtis Theatre, an electrics-over-hire technician at South Coast Repertory, a theater operations technician at Segerstrom Center for the Arts and a stagehand with La Stagecall.
The Chancellor's Award of Distinction is one of UC Irvine's highest undergraduate honors. Recipients are nominated and selected by a committee of alumni and are distinguished at commencement by wearing blue and gold cords.
To read the full list of honorees, visit engage.alumni.uci.edu.
