Scholars Near and Far: 2025 Awards Update

Pitzer College’s academic profile continues to grow both in the U.S. and abroad thanks to an impressive number of fellowships and other academic distinctions achieved by members of the College community this year.

To date, the Pitzer community has been awarded 18 Fulbright Fellowships to teach English or pursue self-designed research projects around the globe. This year’s whopping number of recipients ranks among the College’s best Fulbright performances.

While the Fulbright fellowship is a signature example of excellence, it isn’t the only one. This year’s student applicants, especially those from the Class of 2025, received a number of prestigious achievements, including the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Projects for Peace Award, Napier Award, Gilman Scholarship, and more.

To learn about this year’s winners and their projects, here is an overview of selected awards.

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship

The U.S. Department of State’s Gilman Scholarship enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, helping them gain skills essential to U.S. security and economic competitiveness. This merit-based award will support Alia Wang ’26, who is majoring in human biology, as she participates in Pitzer’s study abroad program in Ecuador.

Capital Fellows Program

The Capital Fellows Programs are nationally recognized public policy fellowships that offer experiences in California’s state government. The Executive Fellowship Program offers a comprehensive career development and executive leadership experience, aimed at cultivating and motivating future leaders in California’s public sector. Fellows serve in top positions within state agencies and departments under the Executive branch.  Political studies major Jasmine Caniban ’25 will serve in a fellowship with the executive branch.

Critical Language Scholarship

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program offers fully funded, intensive summer language programs for U.S. students, focusing on languages deemed strategically important. Natasha Yen ’25 will study Bahasa Indonesian at the Universitas Negeri Malang. The scholarship will enable Yen to pursue a vision of developing and encouraging cross-cultural engagement. Yen is also the recipient of this year’s Paul M. Minus Napier Award (see the entry about the Napier Award in this roundup for more).

Fulbright Fellowship

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the largest international exchange program in the U.S., provides grants for students and young professionals to pursue individually designed study/research projects or participate in English Teaching Assistant Programs.

This year, Pitzer community members were selected for 18 fellowships—a significant number not only for Pitzer but also for small private liberal arts institutions. This year’s awardees are: Sammy Basa ’25, Anya Fineman ’25, Aidan Henrikson ’25, Grant Ho ’25, Eliana Katz ’25, Enoch Kim ’25, Jefferson (Jonah) Konah ’21, Ang Lee ’25, Joanne Oh ’25, May Paterniti ’25, Jack Pine ’25, Meredith Poten ’25, Alexander Rychlik ’25, Sadie Scott ’25, Ariella Seidman-Parra ’25, Tommy Shenoi ’24, Charlotte Wirth ’25, and Natasha Yen ’25. 

Read more about the Fulbright plans of this year’s awardees.

Fulbright Canada Mitacs Globalink Fellowship

As a summer fellow, Ethan Tu ’26 will research deep learning models of the human brain using MRI data in Edmonton, Canada. Tu is a Data Science major and a rising senior. Working with the University of Alberta’s MRI Center, Radiology, and Computer Science departments, he will analyze cortical thickness changes linked to Lou Gehrig's (ALS) and Alzheimer’s, aiming to improve early detection and diagnosis.

Gaither Junior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Carnegie Endowment think tank in Washington D.C. promotes international cooperation through research and actionable ideas. As Pitzer’s first Gaither Junior Fellow and as an environmental analysis major, Sia Were ’25 will explore climate change on a global scale through the Carnegie Endowment’s Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics program. Read more.

Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program – Teach English in Japan

The JET Program is a Japanese government initiative that invites recent graduates and other professionals to serve as English language teachers. Founded in 1987, JET has sent more than 79,000 participants from around the globe (including more than 36,800 Americans) to work in schools, boards of education, and government offices throughout Japan. What makes JET unique is that it is the only teaching exchange program managed by the government of Japan. With more than 80 countries around the world currently participating in JET, this program offers a unique cultural exchange opportunity to meet people from all around the world, living and working in Japan. An environmental analysis major with a minor in Japanese, Grant Ho ’25 is part of the latest cohort in this exchange program that will teach as well as act as cultural ambassadors throughout the country.

Napier Award

The Napier Initiative is a partnership between the local Pilgrim Place senior community and The Claremont Colleges to recognize graduating seniors committed to social justice. Napier Fellows submit their project proposals to be considered for a Napier Award.. With funds and mentorship from the Napier Initiative, Natasha Yen ’25 will implement a youth empowerment and leadership program at Little Rose Center in Soweto, South Africa. The project aims to equip participants with resources and skills to strengthen their agency for meaningful change through community-based initiatives. Read more. 

North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP)– Teach English in Spain

As Spain’s flagship program, both in number and scope, the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP) has U.S. college students and graduates—who are native-like speakers of English—partner with elementary and secondary schools in Spain to bolster language programs as language assistants under the supervision and guidance of teachers in Spain. An anthropology and environmental analysis major with a minor in Spanish, Meredith Poten ’25 has also been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship and will pursue that instead. 

Projects for Peace

The Projects for Peace program invites undergraduates from colleges and universities that participate in the Davis United World College Scholars Program to design grassroots projects that promote peace. Sammy Basa '25 and Zhané Moledina '25 will work collaboratively over the summer with community members and educators on Sibuyan Island in the Philippines to create dynamic lesson plans and activities for a sustainable environmental education project, with an emphasis on the island’s unique ecology, and an approach that will allow students to develop a positive identity rooted in pride for Sibuyan. Read more.

Project Pericles Fellowship

Project Pericles is a higher education nonprofit dedicated to advancing civic participation and social responsibility across college campuses. Supported with grants from the Mellon Foundation, among others, the nonprofit equips students with the knowledge, skills, and resources to address society’s most pressing challenges. In collaboration with a consortium of colleges and universities ("Pericleans"), the organization seeks to foster institutional commitments to ensure that active civic participation is woven throughout the curriculum and campus culture. In the fall Chi Adi ’26 along with co-lead Grace Wood-Hull ’25 received a Back to School for Democracy Collaborative Fellowship project grant to initiate conversations about Pitzer’s free wall, host events, and stage an art exhibit. All of these activities are being designed to celebrate the importance of student organizing and free expression on campus. Read more.

Princeton in Latin America

Princeton in Latin America (PiLA) was established in 2002 to offer young professionals the chance to work with leading organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean, contributing to projects in a variety of fields, including education, public health, environmental conservation, microfinance, and more. A human biology and Spanish major, Jack Pine ’25 was selected as part of the latest cohort; he has also been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship and has chosen to pursue that instead. Pine’s previous experiences include studying Universidad San Francisco de Quito as part of Pitzer’s study abroad program.

The Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity (the Hive) Grants

The Sontag Center’s student creativity grants support students who need resources including funding, materials, space, or mentoring from staff for their creative and collaborative endeavors. Monetary funding has ranged from $30 to $3,000, and some projects only require supplies and equipment from the Hive’s maker spaces. Among the most recent Claremont Colleges recipients are several Pitzer students:

• Scent is a creative medium for Miranda Yee ’27, Ambika Tiwari SC’25, Emilio Esquivel PO’25, and Jason Gounder HMC’26. Their project, “Fragrance Symposium + Scent Opera Performance,” explores whether a scent can become an original piece that can obtain copyright protection. The scent opera combines sounds and scents in Richard Strauss’ “Alpine” symphony. “Alpine” is a tone poem with 22 “chapters” of music that evoke a journey in the Alps. Each chapter starts without visual cues—only music and a particular scent designed to bring the scene to life.
• Riley Thibodeau’s ’27 “Respect This Land” project encourages users of the Pitzer Outback Preserve to take responsibility for their waste. Thibodeau is curating litter (human-made garbage without clear ownership or artistic value) left in the Outback and creating a sign for the Outback’s entrance. Thibodeau intends for the sign to raise awareness as people enter the space, encouraging them to ensure they leave no garbage behind.
• Chi Adi ’26 and Celine Bernhardt-Lanier CMC’26 received their grant to revitalize a 5C club, Org Sigma!, for organizational studies students. Org Sigma! students train with organizational consultants who specialize in sociocracy—a decentralized, peer-to-peer governance approach with an emphasis on equitable and collective decision-making.
• Yaw Danquah Acquah ’28 is collaborating with Scripps, Pomona, and Harvey Mudd students to revamp the Scripps data science website. Their goal is to create an online hub for resources and community building for 5C students in data science, math, computer science, and engineering. Jay Renaker SC’25, Nicole Kerschner SC’26, Ceci Wade PO’25, Diya Gangwar HMC’26, Hanna Kenyatta HMC’27, and Sofia Robertson HMC’27 are also leading the project.

Read more about the Hive awards.

Student Leadership Awards

This year Pitzer College reintroduced the annual Student Leadership Awards to recognize outstanding students, student groups, and student organizations for their contributions to campus life and their representation of the Pitzer core values in motion (see group photo, top of article). Pitzer awarded one individual recipient and one student group/organization for each of the five core values. This year, the Student Leadership Awards also added two Heart of Pitzer Awards for a student and student group that have shown leadership in all core value areas.

Fifteen student groups and 45 students were nominated for the awards. This year’s recipients are:

Group Awards:
Social Responsibility: Inside-Out Pathway-to-BA Cohort 
Intercultural Understanding: Pitzer CAPAS fellows
Interdisciplinary Learning: Pitzer College Art Galleries fellows
Student Engagement: Pitzer Strive2Thrive student leadership
Environmental Sustainability: @pitzerecoreps

Individual Awards:
Social Responsibility: Micaela Oram ’25
Intercultural Understanding: Richard Ampah ’25
Interdisciplinary Learning: Lola Latan ’25
Student Engagement: Adan Moreno Cabrera ’27
Environmental Sustainability: Marjorie Haddad ’26

Heart of Pitzer Awards:
Group: Native Indigenous Student Union 
Individual: Stryder Rodenberg ’25

Read more.

Thomas J. Watson Fellowship

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship is a one-year $40,000 grant for purposeful, independent exploration outside the U.S. A major in history with a minor in anthropology, Aidan Henrikson ’25 was selected for his project titled “History Off the Books!” New media are transforming how we engage with history, moving beyond static text and images to create dynamic, immersive experiences. During his Watson year, Henrikson will travel to Sweden, the Netherlands, Senegal, Hungary, Italy, and New Zealand to explore multi-sensory, non-linear storytelling methods that offer innovative ways of understanding our collective past. Read more.