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Young Alumni Award

Celebrating our alumni leaders

This award recognizes an alumnus who has expressed the finest of CofC traditions through service to his or her community and/or profession within ten years of graduating. The recipient’s class year must be within the past ten years.

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2025 Young Alumna

Deniz Houston ’16

Deniz Houston is the Digital Policy Officer for the Delegation of the European Union to the United State in Washington, D.C. where she advances European Union technology and transatlantic policy coordination. Prior to the delegation, Deniz was on the International Government Affairs Policy team at the Intel Corporation where she drafted company’s strategy to address the geopolitics of the semiconductor industry.  

She began her career in U.S. Defense and Diplomacy where she helped advocate for US foreign policy priorities through public diplomacy programs, international mergers and acquisitions, military technology, and defence security cooperation initiatives.  

She received a master’s degree in European Public Policy from Johns Hopkins in Bologna, Italy, and a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the College of Charleston with minors in Russian Studies and political science. During her undergraduate years she was a member of the Russian Club and was inducted into Sigma Iota Rho, the international studies honor society. During this time she also won multiple awards in regional model United Nations competitions. She speaks German, Turkish, and Russian and has lived in Germany, Turkey, Italy, and Russia. 

* Deceased