Will These Students Change the World?

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

Pitzer students and alumni have been awarded 18 Fulbright Fellowships—that’s right, 18!—to teach English or pursue self-designed research projects around the globe. This year’s whopping number of recipients ranks among Pitzer’s best Fulbright performances. 

Our award recipients also include many other prestigious achievements, including the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Projects for Peace Award, Napier Award, Gilman Scholarship, and more. 

Fulbright Program 

Sammy Basa ’25, an environmental analysis major on the environmental studies track, will conduct research in the Philippines. Basa’s project investigates educational access, sustainable behaviors, and marine ecosystem health within his family’s home island of Sibuyan. Basa will combine community-based participatory research and marine ecological assessments. He also received the 2025 Projects for Peace Award. 

Anya Fineman ’25, a human biology major, aims to preserve and revitalize traditional Tharu medicinal and cultural practices in Nepal’s Tarai region. Fineman will also facilitate a community-led establishment of a garden focused on cultivating traditional medicinal plants. Fineman’s project builds on her study abroad experience in Nepal. 

Aidan Henrikson ’25, a history major, received a Fulbright to study history education in Lesotho. Henrikson has chosen to instead pursue his project, “History Off the Books!,” through the 2025 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Henrikson will travel to Sweden, the Netherlands, Senegal, Hungary, Italy, and New Zealand to explore multisensory, nonlinear storytelling methods that offer innovative ways of understanding our collective past. 

Grant Ho ’25, an environmental analysis major and Japanese minor, aims to understand marine protected areas (MPAs) in Japan. Ho plans to visit six coastal towns with MPAs to interview residents and fishery cooperatives and explore each area’s history, ecological impact, and community influence. Ho is also a Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program recipient.  

Eliana Katz ’25, a double major in psychology and education (self-designed), will teach English in Galicia, Spain. With a long-term goal of becoming an educator, Katz views the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship  as a critical step in her professional development. 


 

Enoch Kim ’25, a political studies major, plans to study the impact of a new partnership within the Indian textile industry between Reliance Industries and Shein on the environment and small businesses in Tirupur, Mumbai, Lucknow, and New Delhi. Kim will look at a circular economy framework to find ways that small businesses can become more sustainable and use their advantage of higher environmental sustainability to stay in business. 

Jefferson (Jonah) Konah ’21, who majored in linguistics and Spanish, will teach English in Colombia. As an interdisciplinary teaching artist, Konah considers how identity, performing arts, and second language acquisition theory can be utilized to substantiate learning and speaking in a second language as well as intercultural community building. 

Ang Lee ’25, a political studies major, will pursue an MA in Political Science at the University of Toronto to study deliberative democracy in Canada. The core curriculum of this MA program will ground Lee’s research investigation in democratic theory and the politics of urban multiculturalism. 

Joanne Oh ’25, a biochemistry major, was awarded a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan. Oh has decided to stay in Los Angeles to volunteer as a behavior technician in preparation for medical school instead of pursuing the Fulbright.  
 

May Paterniti ’25, a critical global studies major and Spanish minor, will teach English in the Canary Islands, Spain. Paterniti plans to harness her experiences in teaching, language, and her own positionality to work with Spanish students on their perceptions of self, language development, and curiosity about the world.

Jack Pine ’25, a human biology and Spanish double major, will teach English in La Rioja, Spain. Using his fluency in Spanish will allow him to connect with students and design a classroom environment where they can take risks. He plans to integrate his love of song with Spanish and American musical traditions to help students learn. Pine is also a Princeton in Latin America recipient.
 

Meredith Poten ’25, who majored in environmental analysis and anthropology and minored in Spanish, will teach English in Madrid, Spain. Poten’s study abroad experience in Spain reignited her passion for learning and teaching. She aspired to return to help students understand language and intercultural communication as tools to foster creativity and agency. Poten is also a North American Language and Culture Assistants Program recipient.

Alexander Rychlik ’25, a mathematical economics major, will teach English in Tajikistan. Rychlik’s desire to be an English teaching assistant in Tajikistan is rooted in his study abroad experience in Kyrgyzstan. He met many international students from Tajikistan who made him feel welcome and encouraged him to apply for a Fulbright in their country.
 

Sadie Scott ’25, who majored in psychology and media studies, will conduct research in Belgium. Scott’s project centers on the curation, qualitative analysis, and community presentation of Belgian films about incarceration in collaboration with the Cinema and Audiovisual Center of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Scott seeks to preserve important cultural artifacts and analyze their representation of justice.
 

Ariella Seidman-Parra ’25, who majored in political studies and organizational studies and minored in Spanish, will teach English in Madrid, Spain. Seidman-Parra is eager to explore how different political systems and infrastructures shape culture and well-being. She believes education is a powerful tool for personal and community transformation.
 

Tommy Shenoi ’24, an environmental analysis and food and agriculture studies double major, has been awarded the Fulbright/Casten Family Foundation Award for a master’s degree in World Food Studies at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. Shenoi will investigate climate change’s effects on Italian fungi and implications that extend to local livelihoods, Italian national cuisine, and global exports of Italian mushrooms and truffles.

Charlotte Wirth ’25, a religious studies major, has planned an ethnographic study of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Dharamshala, India. Wirth will examine gender, spirituality, and empowerment within monastic communities. This project builds on Wirth’s study abroad research in Nepal and serves as a bridge for future graduate studies in religious and gender studies.
 

Natasha Yen ’25, a combined environmental analysis and sociology major and an Asian American studies minor, will conduct research in Indonesia. Modernization agendas are unfolding across the world, with development plans reshaping urban spaces, including in cities such as Jakarta and Bandung. Yen’s project aims to explore how street food vendors experience “modernization” and “development” on the ground. Yen is also helping youth leaders in South Africa and learning the Bahasa Indonesian language with support from the 2025 Paul M. Minus Napier Award and Critical Language Scholarship.

Additional Awards, Grants,  and Fellowships 

Co-leads Chi Adi ’26 and Grace Wood-Hull ’25 received a Back to School for Democracy Collaborative Fellowship project grant from Project Pericles to initiate conversations about Pitzer’s free wall, host events, and stage an art exhibit.  

Sammy Basa ’25 and Zhané Moledina ’25 received a 2025 Projects for Peace Award to collaborate with community members and educators on Sibuyan Island in the Philippines to create a sustainable environmental education project. Basa also received a Fulbright.  

Jasmine Caniban ’25, a political studies major, was accepted to the 2025 Executive Fellowship under the Capital Fellows Program. 

 Ethan Tu ’26, a data science major, will research deep learning models of the human brain through the Fulbright Canada-Mitacs Globalink Fellowship.  

Alia Wang ’26, a human biology major, received the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship to participate in Pitzer’s study abroad program in Ecuador. 

Sia Were ’25, an environmental analysis major, was chosen as Pitzer’s first Gaither Junior Fellow, a program established by the Carnegie Endowment think tank. She will explore climate change with the Carnegie Endowment’s Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics program.  

Miranda Yee ’27, Riley Thibodeau ’27, Chi Adi ’26, and Yaw Danquah Acquah ’28 received student creativity grants from The Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity (the Hive) for individual and group projects with other Claremont Colleges students. 

Student Leadership Awards 

Pitzer College reintroduced the Student Leadership Awards to recognize students, student groups, and student organizations for their representation of the Pitzer core values in motion. Pitzer also added two Heart of Pitzer Awards for a student and student group that have shown leadership in all core values. 

Group Awards 

• Social Responsibility: Inside-Out Pathway-to-BA Cohort  
• Intercultural Understanding: Pitzer Center for Asian Pacific American Students Fellows
• Interdisciplinary Learning: Pitzer College Art Galleries Fellows
• Student Engagement: Pitzer Strive2Thrive Student Leadership
• Environmental Sustainability: Pitzer Eco Reps 

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