2012-2013 Scholars

Patrick Bailey

Patrick is an undergraduate student majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology. He overcame a difficult youth to attend the local community college, transferring to UCSC with a 4.0 gpa. He will use his scholarship to fund childcare while he takes summer classes. His long-term goal is to conduct research on breast cancer, which runs in his family.

Ruben Barron

The first in his family to attend college, Ruben majors in art and literature to “push the interaction of art and literature into the 21st century with the modern technology available to produce new experiences and reach diverse audiences.” His scholarship will be used to fund applications to graduate schools. Ruben receives the 3rd annual Robert Leet Corday Memorial Scholarship.

Sara Cannon

As a single parent, Sara provides a role model to her son while attending UCSC majoring in marine biology. Her long-term goal is to work in academia and focus on marine conservation biology. Her scholarship will go toward summer school fees.

John ‘Jack’ Chapman

Jack is a teacher and artist in Santa Cruz County, and a graduate student at the university in social documentation, a program he chose because he felt ‘a duty to communicate ideas and give representation to those without means.’ He will be using his scholarship to fund audio-visual equipment necessary to complete his master’s thesis.

Kevin Deutsch

Kevin completes his bachelor’s degree in mathematics education and begins the master’s in education this summer at UCSC. He worked as a 7th grade math teacher during his undergraduate degree but the intense nature of the graduate program, with the student teaching component built in, does not allow for outside work. The married father of three seeks to be a role model for his children.

Tamara Gonzalez

An immigrant who came to the US when she was young, Tamara was determined to excel and describes herself as a ‘product of persistence and perseverance.’ As the last step in her bachelor’s degree in feminist studies, she plans to use her scholarship to pursue an academic internship at UCLA, learning how Salvadoran students attain or lack access to higher education.

Jennifer Maresh

Jennifer is the first in her family to attend college and a PhD candidate studying ecology and evolutionary biology, specifically understanding how marine mammals ‘get around the constraints imposed on them by their air-breathing ancestry in an environment more suitable for a fish!’ Her long-term goals include research and teaching, and she will use her scholarship to support attendance at a professional conference where she will share the results of her thesis research.

Erin McCreless

As a collaborator with Santa Cruz-based non-profit Island Conservation, Erin identifies the world’s most threatened island species and ecosystems and combines the results with socio-political factors to prioritize islands for conservation interventions. She will complete her PhD in fall, 2013, and will use her scholarship to attend a professional conference to present part of her doctoral dissertation.

Angela Quiros

Angela is a PhD student in the ecology and evolutionary biology program. Her scholarship will help to fund her research project in the Philippines that involves measuring the health of seagrass beds around the islands, which are the home to an important food source foraged by women and children. Angela’s goal is to return to the Philippines to teach and conduct research, to promote women in science, and to mentor them towards an academic track. 

Raymundo Reyes

Raymundo ran far away from a dysfunctional family situation at age 14 and worked to support himself. Eventually Raymundo helped to support his mother and younger siblings by working in the construction field. Now Raymundo wants to hone his intellectual skills by completing a bachelor’s degree in literature and eventually a PhD in Spanish literature. His scholarship will go toward the purchase of a laptop computer.

Lindsay Roberts

Lindsay’s desire to become a psychologist comes from her early difficult family life. Currently completing requirements for a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Lindsay will be using her scholarship to complete a summer field study at the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center where she works as an advocate for survivors of domestic violence. Lindsay is the recipient of the 6th annual Frances Spodick Drake Memorial Scholarship.

Yvonne Sherwood

‘As an Indigenous woman, Native scholar and organizer, situated within academia, I find myself compelled to find ways to recover the most humane ways of knowing the self and other,’ Yvonne says. Upon completing her PhD in sociology, she wants to teach at the community college and at a freedom school, on or near a tribal reservation. It is important to the mother of two that her children, like her, benefit from the privilege of attending an institution of higher education.

Maxim (Max) Tabatchnik

Jenn Yost

Jenn’s interest in the evolution of plants brought her to UCSC to complete a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology. Her research addresses the adaptations that result in speciation in a genus of spring wildflowers in California. Her scholarship will be used to fund her research travel and support her final quarter at UCSC. She has secured a tenure track teaching position at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.