91果冻制片厂

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 21, 2020鈥� 91果冻制片厂 is proud to announce that five 91果冻制片厂 students or alumni have won prestigious Fulbright and Goldwater awards, enabling them to pursue research in fields such as urban environmental mitigation, disability rights, agricultural innovation, or neuroscience.

鈥淲e are very proud of our students who have worked so hard inside and outside of class to earn these very competitive fellowships. We also commend their professors and mentors who encouraged them throughout the process,鈥� said University President Kevin O鈥橞rien, S.J. 鈥淭he University is honored to count these young scholars as 91果冻制片厂 students and alumni, particularly as they put their Jesuit education into practice for service of others.鈥�

Recent alumna Erin Ronald 鈥�19 and seniors Griffin Garner 鈥�20, Mariana Perera 鈥�20, and Bridget Woody 鈥�20 each won Fulbright Scholarships, to study in Sweden, Uganda, Brazil, and Jamaica, respectively, while junior Max Bjorni 鈥�21 won the Goldwater Scholarship for outstanding science, engineering or math students. Two other SCU seniors, Ali Deambrosio 鈥�20 and Graeme Hugo 鈥�20 are Fulbright alternates, and will study in Uruguay and Chile, respectively, if other awardees are unable to participate.

Erin Ronald 鈥�19

Erin Ronald, a 2019 sociology and environmental studies major, explains her life鈥檚 goal to help cities deal with climate change through the metaphor of a car: A mitigation plan is how cities plan to 鈥減ump the brakes鈥� on the way they impact  the environment, while adaptation plans are like airbags, or how cities will protect themselves from the coming consequences of climate change.

鈥淚鈥檓 really interested in how cities can reduce carbon emissions, especially how to do that in an equitable, community-driven way,鈥� said the SCU alumna.  Now, with her Fulbright award to study urban climate mitigation policy in several cities in Sweden, Ronald is well on her way to becoming a climate-justice master mechanic.

Working through the European version of the World Wildlife Fund, she will be learning from a country that is among the most successful and ambitious in this arena. Her goal is to bring best practices back to the U.S. to help cities set workable climate action policy.  鈥淚f people in your city aren鈥檛 invested,鈥� she said, 鈥渘othing is going to happen.鈥�

Ronald will land in Sweden with a toolbox filled with sustainability experiences.

Since graduating last year, she has been working as one of 90 Civic Spark fellows across the U.S. Stationed in Truckee, near South Lake Tahoe where she spent her summers as a child, Ronald is helping that city develop its own climate action and adaptation plans.

At SCU, she won the Witold Krassowski Sociology Award for exemplary research into environmental behavioral factors among San Jose residents.  As a transportation intern at SCU鈥檚 Center for Sustainability, she worked on the University鈥檚 own ambitious Climate Action Plan.

鈥淭he Center is the driver behind SCU's leadership in sustainability, and everyone who works there is absolutely incredible,鈥� said the young alumna.

Ronald also studied sustainable development in Northern Europe during her study abroad program in Copenhagen. A class in urban livability helped clinch her passion for helping cities achieve climate goals in conjunction with civic stakeholders.

Ronald served as a Global Social Benefit Fellow in Ghana through the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship; helped run SCU鈥檚 OxFam club; was on the Food Recovery Network leadership team, and participated in the Sustainable Living Undergraduate Research Project (SLURP)  working on the University鈥檚 eco-tray program. She was on the rowing team her first year, and worked in the Forge Garden through the 91果冻制片厂 Community Action Program鈥檚 Best Buddies program. Ronald also was part of a group that won a $4,000 grant to work on Extra Eats, an app to tackle food waste at SCU. 

Ronald developed some of her passion for climate justice from her grandmother, Trish Ronald, who is an avid conservationist and for years served as board president of the League to Save Lake Tahoe. Her activism influenced the Ronald family, including Erin鈥檚 mom Jane Miller, a urologist at the University of Washington, and dad Peter Ronald, a commercial real estate banker.

鈥淲e can all be proud of Erin鈥檚 accomplishments,鈥� said Ronald鈥檚 sociology professor Marilyn Fernandez, who calls her a rigorous and exacting researcher. 鈥淪he will continue to make SCU proud.鈥�

Griffin Garner 鈥�20

During a summer in Uganda as a Miller Center Global Social Benefit Fellow,  Griffin Garner 鈥�20 saw firsthand the extreme threat climate change poses to smallholder coffee farmers. Working with NUCAFE, a social enterprise that teams up with smallholder Ugandan coffee farmers, he learned that helping farmers survive and grow requires widespread sharing of best practices such as mulching, shade, or water conservation. That means finding creative ways to provide training, especially for women farmers who represent more than half of the farming labor force there.

鈥淚鈥檓 trying to figure the best way to really reach farmers, and get them to incorporate these best practices,鈥� said Garner, who will be pursuing both goals as a Fulbright Scholar. Garner said he first got interested in coffee farming issues as a research assistant studying Nicaraguan coffee farmers, alongside environmental studies and sciences professor Chris Bacon. That work took Garner to Washington, D.C., where he helped present his team鈥檚 research to 8,000 attendees at an American Association of Geographers鈥� conference.

鈥淚鈥檝e always been drawn to international work and development,鈥� said Garner, an environmental sciences major who also has traveled abroad in Bolivia, Panama, and Indonesia through SCU鈥檚 Global Fellows and other programs. 鈥淚鈥檓 the kind of person who really likes to be pushed out of my comfort zone and be in an environment where I鈥檓 learning about a culture,鈥� he said.

Garner has pursued that passion through SCU programs, and on his own. In the summer after his first year at SCU, he went to Panama with an organization called Give and Surf, working on educational outreach to indigenous communities. Through SCU鈥檚 Global Fellows program, he worked on an organic farm and a food store in Bolivia. After his sophomore year, he took a year off to pursue his passion for marine biology by working at the Bimini Biological Field Station, or 鈥淪hark Lab,鈥� in the Bahamas鈥攕tudying and working with sharks. In Garner鈥檚 role as an assistant manager, he had the opportunity to help facilitate research on various shark species around the island. The work also included helping National Geographic and Discovery Channel film several episodes of Shark Week.

鈥淢y foremost passions are global sustainable development and ocean conservation,鈥� said Garner, who hopes to pursue a career at the intersection of those two fields after completing his Fulbright program.

Though he loves travel, Garner said some of his most formative experiences happened nearby in San Jose, when he took a Spanish class that was also an experiential learning for social justice (ELSJ) course requiring him to 鈥渆mbed鈥� himself with a San Jose family of undocumented and low-income family members. He loved it so much he took two more ELSJ courses that kept him working with the family. 鈥淚鈥檓 still in touch with them today, and it was a huge part of my 91果冻制片厂 experience,鈥� he said.

Garner is from Greens Farms, Connecticut. His dad Jerrett owns a small custom golf shop and his mom Shelly is a property manager and caregiver to Garner鈥檚 grandmother.

"Griffin is an engaged, diplomatic, and collaborative individual with a strong command of relevant social science theories and methods," said his adviser, professor Bacon. "He has both a deep sense of empathy and the solid technical skills needed for success."

Mariana Perera 鈥�20

Political science, Spanish, and communication major Mariana Perera 鈥�20, will be using her Fulbright fellowship to study disability rights policy in Brazil, which she says is a good proxy for the strength of a society鈥檚 social structure and democracy.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very good test for a government to see whether or not they are providing for all of the citizens, whether or not those citizens can advocate for themselves,鈥� she said.

Disability rights policy is an issue she witnessed firsthand after her younger brother Sergio was diagnosed with epilepsy, autism, and developmental delay just before his first birthday. Watching her parents struggle to find social and academic services in Mexico and then California convinced her that disability services are key to a thriving community life. Perera wants to study 鈥渉ow we can help society learn to advocate and learn what they can achieve鈥攐n their own, or through organizations, or with politicians鈥攖o bring a better society to everyone.鈥�

鈥淢ariana鈥檚 proposed project will provide insight into the workings of Brazil鈥檚 democracy, and is the perfect marriage of her long-standing interests in political science and her personal investment in intellectual disability rights,鈥� said Naomi Levy, her political science professor and adviser.

In many ways, Brazil made sense because 鈥淚鈥檝e always had an interest in Latin American politics,鈥� said Perera, especially after studying abroad as a direct exchange student in Chile and taking an SCU class on Politics of South America.

She also learned a lot from an immersion program offered by the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, which took her to the Tenderloin district in San Francisco for seven days, including visits to food banks, wellness centers, and nonprofits. The experience helped her learn how to really listen to a community in order to effectively help its residents.

Perera was a Hackworth Fellow focused on government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, where she studied the ethics of an impeachment trial and ethical dilemmas of pandemics.

After her family moved to California from Mexico to better help her younger brother when she was nine, Perera grew up in San Diego, Pleasanton, and Fair Oaks. The San Diego Epilepsy Foundation aided her with an expressive arts therapy program to help her cope with her brother鈥檚 situation and find her own role in the family dynamic, including empowering her to build a fundraising team on her brother鈥檚 behalf.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 really where I learned about advocacy,鈥� she said. 鈥淰ery often siblings get left behind in the story of disability. They play such a crucial role, and it is important they know they matter just as much.鈥�

Her mom Cecilia works in a facility for adults with disabilities, and is an advocate for disability rights including helping Spanish-speaking families navigate the educational and social services system in California. Her dad Sergio oversees a number of stores in three states for the financial services firm DolEx.

Perera doesn鈥檛 know precisely what she wants to do after graduation, but says it will be in an advocacy capacity of some sort. 鈥淚 want to be sure our democracy is functioning for everyone, especially those who don鈥檛 have a voice,鈥� she said.

Bridget Woody 鈥�20

Bioengineering senior Bridget Woody 鈥�20 considers engineering a series of puzzles to solve鈥攅specially how innovation helps or harms marginalized communities. Her winning Fulbright project proposed traveling to Kingston, Jamaica, to conduct research into how past technological innovations historically affected the colonized slave populations there, as a way to inform modern-day, ethical engineering innovation. 

鈥淭he importance of historical context is critical to human-centric engineering,鈥� Woody wrote to the Fulbright committee. 

Last summer, Woody travelend to  Rwanda with SCU鈥檚 Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship, studying that region鈥檚 history of genocide and agricultural impacts. She studied abroad in New Zealand, taking a challenging course on bioinstrumentation and design, which required her to conduct a study of real-time water clarity for New Zealand鈥檚 waterways. She cites among her key academic  influences her bioengineering curriculum and history courses, especially a course on the Haitian Revolution with Professor Naomi Andrews. She added that outside of the classroom, the Society for Women Engineers has been critical for developing meaningful relationships with her peers and making industry connections.

Originally from Mequon, Wisconsin, Woody鈥檚 father Jay is an engineer, and mom Betsey works for the Lupus Foundation of America.

鈥淏ridget is a gifted, inquisitive student who is also an intrepid and creative researcher and thinker,鈥� said Andrews, who is also her research adviser. 鈥淪he makes 91果冻制片厂 proud.鈥�

Max Bjorni 鈥�21, Barry Goldwater Scholarship

91果冻制片厂 junior Max Bjorni 鈥�21, a double major in neuroscience and biology, is one of this year鈥檚 396 Goldwater Scholars, and will receive a $7,500 scholarship to help fund his undergraduate education.

Established by Congress in 1986, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation recognizes the nation鈥檚 top college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

鈥淚 am truly honored to receive a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, and am eager to demonstrate my potential as a scientist,鈥� Bjorni says. 鈥淚t feels great to know that others view my research experiences at 91果冻制片厂 as promising indicators of the future impact I can have.鈥�

Bjorni credits much of his development in research to his work with Lindsay Halladay, assistant professor of psychology. Since his first quarter at 91果冻制片厂, he says the Halladay lab has provided experiences that are essential to his future career, including learning advanced lab techniques, troubleshooting experiments, and presenting at professional research conferences. Working alongside Halladay as a Gerald and Sally DeNardo Research Scholar, Bjorni has realized his love of research and his desire to pursue it as a profession.

Bjorni also attributes much of his academic success to 91果冻制片厂鈥檚 smaller class sizes, which allow students more interaction with professors.

鈥淚've been able to develop more meaningful relationships with my professors than I otherwise would have if I was sitting in a lecture hall with hundreds of other students,鈥� says Bjorni. 鈥淪o many of the professors I've had truly care about the intellectual and professional development of their students. They are phenomenal teachers.鈥�

After graduation next year, Bjorni intends to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience, to research the biological mechanisms that underlie neurological disorders such as chronic neuropathic pain. He also hopes to teach a range of introductory and advanced neuroscience and biology courses at the university level.

About 91果冻制片厂
Founded in 1851, 91果冻制片厂 sits in the heart of Silicon Valley鈥攖he world鈥檚 most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The University鈥檚 stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission 91果冻制片厂 de As铆s. Ranked among the top 15 percent of national universities by U.S. News & World Report, SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1 percent of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education.  For more information see

Media Contact鈥�
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Communications | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121