Exceptional and Innovative: Student Fellowships
Angel Sherpa ’21 proposed creating a telemedicine program that connects doctors in Kathmandu with patients in a remote village in Nepal. Quentin Jenkins Jr. ’23 developed research plants to study how disciplinary policies in the education system disproportionately impact students of color. Isabella Jacobs ’24 designed a new way to harvest rain.
These are just a few of Pitzer students’ projects and plans that captured imaginations and won local, national, and international awards during spring 2021. Below is a sampling of student fellowships and grants from the 2020–21 academic year. To learn more about these and other students and alumni, please visit “Pitzer Students and Alumni Recognized for Academic Excellence and Innovation.”
Dominic Arzadon ’23 received a Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program fellowship at the University of Washington. Arzadon hopes to diversify the field of conservation and ultimately work towards a conservation practice without borders. He says his passion for conservation stems from his identities and lived experiences as a first-generation college student and immigrant from a coastal community in the Philippines who grew up in Hawaii.
Linda Huang ’21 was selected to teach English and plan social and cultural events at Lingnan University in Hong Kong as part of their Visiting English Tutor program during the 2021–22 academic year. An Asian American studies major, Huang served as a head Writing Center Fellow, received a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, and studied abroad in Vietnam during her time at Pitzer.
Isabella Jacobs ’24 was awarded a 2021 Davis Projects for Peace grant to develop RainScales, a rainwater capturing device created to address inequitable water distribution in South Africa. An anthropology and English major, Jacobs came up with the idea for RainScales after spending time in South Africa during a devastating drought.
Quentin Jenkins Jr. ’23 was one of four Pitzer students who were awarded a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. Jenkins plans to conduct qualitative research that sheds light on how instruments of surveillance in schools and educational policies can negatively impact students of color and their relationship with the education system. Read more about Jenkins and Pitzer’s other MMUF recipients: Robert Green ’23, Sergio Quechol ’23, and Jocelyn Vega-Robledo ’23.
Jefferson Konah ’21 was awarded a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to study Mandarin Chinese during the summer in Taiwan. A linguistics and Spanish major, Konah studied abroad in Cuba, danced with the Inland Pacific Ballet, and served as a language diversity ambassador at the Claremont Colleges.
Veronica Martinez ’21 was one of seven Pitzer students or recent graduates to earn a 2021–22 Fulbright Fellowship. An organizational studies and Spanish double major, Martinez received a Fulbright to teach English in Spain at the La Communidad de Madrid. She was senior class president at Pitzer and studied abroad in Vietnam and Spain. Read more about Martinez and Pitzer’s other 2021–22 Fulbright recipients.
Angel Sherpa ’21 won a 2020–21 Napier Award for Creative Leadership for students with proven leadership skills and project proposals designed to create social change. During her time at Pitzer, Sherpa studied abroad with the Pitzer in Nepal Program and Pitzer’s Summer Health Program in Costa Rica. She proposed partnering with Pitzer in Nepal and the National Innovation Center to establish a socio-culturally respectful telemedicine program in a remote Himalayan village in Nepal.