Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Inna Shapiro

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For her Stronach Baccalaureate Prize project, Inna work with community members in the San Nicholas region of Monterrey, Mexico to develop a standardized, transferable “tool-box” for measuring air contamination. Her project will utilize available, affordable air monitoring technology while taking into consideration site-specific conditions. The highly industrialized Monterrey metropolitan area currently faces increasing air pollution problems. Inna’s story involves a very personal connection to the issue of air contamination. As a child, she was exposed to the “contaminated rain” of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant incident in the Soviet […]

Mayuri Bhandari (2012)

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For her Stronach Baccalaureate Prize project, Mayuri will teach dance and movement to blind and deaf children, ages 3-15, at a school located in a small village in Maharashtra, India. Mayuri states, “All children need movement in their lives, not only as a form of physical fitness but also as a form of enrichment for their souls. In India especially, disabled children do not get such opportunities. Statistics state that India has the world’s largest population of children, and one in every ten is disabled.” Using a variety of dance […]

Jenna Cavelle (2012)

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Jenna will travel to the Owens Valley to conduct a 9-month community service project which combines education, outreach, and technology to engage the Paiute Indian community in restoring cultural memory associated with their ancient irrigation systems. These waterworks are currently in danger of being lost in the Owens Valley landscape through weathering and human neglect, and in American memory through the loss of culturally transmitted traditional knowledge. Through community education and engagement, Jenna will work with tribal members to explore archival materials and document Paiute irrigation systems and their role […]

Marco Flores (2012)

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“I am grateful for those first moments of consciousness, always born from a living experience of injustice turned to righteous rage, that first experience of genuine collectivism, that blessed epiphany of art-inspired action.”- Cherrie Moraga, A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness Marco’s Stronach Baccalaureate Prize project, “Undocuqueer Art Making,” intends to increase awareness of the intersections in LGBT and immigrant identity by disrupting conventional ways of thinking about undocumented immigrant youth. His project uses the arts as a vehicle for healing by making room for complex immigrant identities through a […]

Ricardo Gomez

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For his Stronach Baccalaureate Prize project, Ricardo will return to his hometown of Oxnard, California to build film collectives at local high school sites. Through collaborative workshops, skill-shares, and community events, students will learn how to develop, produce, and share their own voices, visions, narratives, and creative expressions through film and video. Ricardo states, “Through working on this project, I also plan to collaboratively discover and document a pedagogical approach to teaching film theory and practice that is both culturally relevant to youth from low-income communities of color and up-to-date […]