Initiates at Santa Clara University (2010)
A-B C-D E-I J-L M-O P-Q R S T-Z
Caitlin Adair. Caitlin is a Political Science and Art History double major. She served as director of finance for the Alpha Phi sorority, led the Explore with Me Program at the DeSaisset Museum, tutored calculus, worked as the administrative assistant for the Office of Student Assessment, and completed research on women's representation in Switzerland's parliament under Professor Diana Morlang. Caitlin also studied in London, working as a research assistant for Labour Member of Parliament Martin Linton. A winner of the 2010 Shallo Prize in Political Science, Caitlin will be working at Google.
Lauren Adamson. Lauren is an English major and Communication minor. She studied abroad in Vienna, Austria, where she taught English to elementary and high school students. At Santa Clara, Lauren was a writing tutor, a peer educator, and a retreat leader. She also spent a summer interning at Howarth & Smith, a Los Angeles based law firm. After graduation, she will intern with Professor Harry Caldwell at Pepperdine University School of Law as a research assistant for a book entitled Criminal Mock Trials. She will also travel and continue to write fiction while exploring graduate school options in both law and psychology.
Adriana Asdourian. Adriana has pursued a major in Economics and minors in Italian Studies and International Business. She has spent her college years working at the DeSaisset Museum on campus and serving as co-president of Santa Clara's Italian Club and International Cinema Club. Adriana has also participated as a Learning Leader for the introductory leadership class through the Leavey School of Business. A native of the San Francisco Bay area, she studied in Rome and during the coming year plans to apply to European graduate programs in international business.
Nicolas Benavides. Nick is a major in Music with a minor in Spanish. He recently completed a senior composition recital, and a senior honors project about Béla Bartók. Nick was the principal saxophonist in the jazz ensembles, and sung the title role in The Marriage of Figaro at SCU. He has also performed with Opera San Jose and at the San Jose Jazz Festival. From Albuquerque, New Mexico, Nick will be moving to San Francisco to intern with Dr. Jack Perla while applying to graduate programs in music theory and composition. His music can be heard at: www.nickbenavides.com.
Sarah Bradley. Hailing from Salt Lake City, Utah, Sarah has completed a double degree in Political Science and Communication. She is the recipient of the University's St. Clare Medal. An avid skier and martial artist, she has been involved in social justice and service work through the Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP) and Arrupe Center. This year, she served as program coordinator for SCCAP's Labor Action Committee and events including Immigration Awareness Week. Last summer, she was a Hackworth Fellow living and working at an orphanage and women's co-op in Kadapa, India. This summer she will work at a non-profit, Ashoka, in Washington. In the fall, she will begin a field-study of Ashoka social entrepreneurs throughout South America.
Erin Cleveland. Erin, a member of the University Honors Program, is a double major in Biology and Spanish. She studied abroad in Spain and then El Salvador, where she taught English classes to children in the community and ran a women's group for mothers of her students. She was a Spring Break Immersion Coordinator for the 2009-10 academic year, and led a trip of Santa Clara students to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. Throughout the past three years, she has been involved with a Cancer Research Lab in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Erin is currently applying to medical schools for the fall of 2011.
Kathryn Cole. Katie is a double major in Sociology and Environmental Studies. Her senior thesis was published in the Silicon Valley Notebook and has been nominated for Santa Clara University's Krassowski Award. She also presented her work at the 2010 Pacific Sociological Association Conference. Katie was a community facilitator her sophomore and junior years in the Cyphi Residential Learning Community and interned with the San José Mayor's Office. In June 2010, Katie traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to compete in the Pinto World Championships with her horse Gambling Cisco. She will attend Lewis and Clark Law School to study Environmental Law.
Glennis Coursey. Glennis is a Psychology major with a minor in Communication. A small-town girl from Jackson, Wyoming, she spent her junior year studying abroad first in England and then on Semester at Sea. In her senior honors thesis she explored how this time abroad influenced her inner growth and global perspective. Highlights of senior year include an immersion trip to Mexico and volunteer work at the Bill Wilson Center which connects disadvantaged youth with education and employment. Glennis will spend the coming year working with the nonprofit Reading Partners through Americorps and applying to graduate programs in psychology.
Stephanie Di Sano. Stephanie is a triple major in Political Science, Sociology and German Studies. A Southern California native, she studied abroad in Freiburg, Germany and took part in immersion programs to Tijuana, Mexico and the Gulf Coast. Stephanie was an orientation leader, vice president of her sorority and an active member of the Panhellenic community. She loves volunteering and has spent the past four years devoting time to a local elementary school, ESL class, and an assisted living community. After graduation, Stephanie will work at Incentive Networks in Palo Alto.
Rose Diamond. Rose is a Political Science major with minors in French and International Studies. She served as a community facilitator for the Communitas RLC her sophomore year. After spending an unforgettable semester abroad in Paris, she continued her love for all things French by tutoring students and serving the French Club as co-president. Rose interned for Congressman David Wu in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, and for the last few months has been working at a marketing firm as the manager for French clients. She plans to continue working there after graduation, and eventually would like to pursue a masters degree in public policy or teaching.
Eleni Ellenikiotis. Eleni graduates summa cum laude with a degree in Sociology. At Santa Clara, she served as senior editor of the 2010 Silicon Valley Notebook and assisted Dr. Laura Robinson in research on digital inequality. She has also done research with with Dr. Judith Barker at UCSF regarding cultural barriers to oral health care. Eleni loves working with children and has spent the last four years tutoring elementary and middle school students. In the coming months, she will take additional science courses and build clinical experience in dental and orthodontic labs. Eleni plans on pursuing a career as a pediatric dentist.
Daniel Filice. Dan is a Classical Studies major with minors in Ancient Greek and Spanish. At Santa Clara he developed an interest in classical tragedy, which led to his senior thesis on the motif of divine revenge in Euripides' Hippolytus, Madness of Heracles, and Bacchae. Recently, however, he decided to forgo graduate studies in Classics in order to pursue a career as a restaurant chef. In his culinary career, he hopes to combine his knowledge of food with his training in environmental and social justice issues in order to produce organic, sustainable, and vegetarian-friendly cuisine.
Michael Gibler. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Michael will graduate with degrees in Finance and Spanish. He studied abroad in Santiago, Chile, and participated in a business immersion trip to El Salvador. On campus, he was a student ambassador and a community facilitator in one of the residence halls. He wrote his senior honors thesis on the economic, political, and social impacts of the growth of the lithium-ion battery industry. After graduation, he plans to backpack in the Northwest before beginning work at Yahoo!.
Kathleen Grohman . Kathleen is graduating magna cum laude in Political Science. Last summer, she interned as an immigration caseworker for State Senator Patty Murray. She served as social chair of the College Democrats, spent her junior year in Florence, worked as a scene reporter for The Santa Clara and a writer and editor for Santa Clara's social justice magazine, OneWorld. Interested in creative writing, she has written two complete novels and is currently drafting a third that she hopes to publish. This fall Kathleen will attend law school at the University of Washington.
Erika Hight. Erika will graduate with degrees in Music and Anthropology and a minor in International Studies with a Middle Eastern emphasis. She has been very active in Santa Clara's Music Program, and has sung in opera and choir performances for each of the past four years. In Anthropology, Erika wrote her thesis on the effects of integrated nutrition education on the health and wellbeing of elementary school children. After graduation, Erika hopes to share her love of music as a voice teacher.
Morgan Hunter. Morgan is a junior, majoring in Classical Languages and Literature, and a member of the University Honors Program. She has a longstanding interest in languages, having studied French, Japanese, and Arabic, in addition to her major languages. She was awarded a Diebold Fellowship by the Linguistics Society of America to study at UC Berkeley during the summer after her sophomore year. Next year she will be starting German and Sanskrit. An occasional columnist for The Santa Clara, Morgan is only seventeen. In the fall, she will be applying to read Classics at Oxford University.
Eileen Jao. Eileen is a Political Science major with a Pre-Law emphasis and minors in Musical Theatre and Theatre. She has interned for both the Department of Homeland Security's Private Sector Office and the United States Secret Service. Most of her spare time has been spent in the Theatre and Dance Department where she has designed lights, stage managed, and performed for various theatrical productions throughout her four years. In the fall, she will return to Santa Clara University as a law student.
Cleo Jenkins. Cleo is a Political Science major and Women's and Gender Studies minor. A native of Woodinville, Washington, she studied abroad in Buenos Aires last fall. For her honors thesis, she applied feminist constructivist political theory to the Partition of India, specifically addressing the violence against women. Since she is graduating a year early and has a passion for travel, Cleo plans to use her dual citizenship and work in her aunt's pub in Manchester, England. Before she leaves in September, she will apply to law schools and work as her sister's unofficial wedding planner.
Amanda Kaplan . Amanda is a Psychology major. She has volunteered as a peer health educator on campus and a peer academic advisor for the Psychology Department. She has been involved in research with Dr. Jerry Burger on changes in the desire for control in college students over time. She was also involved in directed research on social comparison theory with Dr. Thomas Plante. Amanda plans on pursuing a doctorate in Counseling Psychology with a specialization in eating disorders and body image.
Kathleen Kershaw . Katie is a Biology major and Music minor. She worked in the lab of Dr. Angel Islas doing research related to DNA repair and tutored fellow students in chemistry. Katie studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain, and taught ESL to day workers in Mountain View through SCCAP. She was also a Eucharistic minister in Campus Ministry, and volunteered with Arts Reach, providing an arts program for the Sacred Heart Nativity School. Katie participated in the SCU Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band, and Bronco Pep Band. She also performed in 11 dance productions, and choreographed pieces for three of them. In the future, Katie plans to pursue a doctorate in Molecular Biology.
Kari Kjos. Kari is a Biochemistry major and Economics minor. She worked at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics as a Health Care Ethics Intern and as a Hackworth Fellow, developing campus programs on medical ethics and health-care policy. Some of her highlights at Santa Clara include work as a research assistant in Dr. Brian McNelis's organic chemistry lab, leading the Pre-Health club, studying abroad in Dresden, Germany, and volunteering with the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life fundraiser. Kari will spend six months in Guatemala learning Spanish and volunteering in local health clinics while applying to medical schools.
Brittany Markert. Brittany, a Mathematics major, served as vice president of the Math Honors Society and social chair of the Math/Computer Science Society. She spent four years at the Drahmann Center tutoring mathematics and three years working as a summer-school mathematics teacher for high-school students. After studying abroad in London and interning in finance for Skype, Brittany took a year off to pursue modeling, participating in America's Next Top Model and working in Mexico City for three months. After graduation, she will return to Mexico City to pursue opportunities in both mathematics and modeling.
Bridgette McMahon. Bridgette is a Political Science major with a minor in Communication. She worked as a political science peer advisor as well as a student assistant for Santa Clara Law School's Center for Social Justice and Public Service. This interest in public service has carried over into several internships including one at the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, where she organized candidate forums, including a forum for the very contentious Santa Clara County District Attorney's race. Bridgette plans to keep her interest in public service alive as she moves on to George Washington University School of Law.
Jennifer Mock. Jennifer is a Political Science and German double major with minors in History and International Studies. She worked on campus as a peer educator in the History Department and as a tutor in the Writing Center. During her junior year, after studying abroad in Germany for a semester, she worked as a public policy intern at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and last summer she was an intern for U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley in Washington, DC. In the fall, she will return to Germany on a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English.
Myrna Mungal. Myrna is a double major in Chemistry and Individual Studies with a focus on Peace Studies. Some of the highlights of her time at Santa Clara include participating in immersion trips to Tijuana, Puebla, and West Virgina; studying abroad with the Casa de la Solidaridad in El Salvador; performing chemistry research on peptoid structures with Dr. Amelia Fuller; and working for the Santa Clara Community Action Program for two years as a program coordinator. Next year she will be applying to medical schools and teaching elementary school through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Omak, Washington.
Mary Northey. Mary is graduating with a degree in Individual Studies focused on "Education Policy and Politics," and with minors in History and Women's and Gender Studies. After studying and teaching English in Vienna, Mary returned to Santa Clara to become a writing partner in the Hub Writing Center and a community facilitator in the ALPHA Residential Learning Community. She is also a member of the team that maintains and develops the Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG), an online instrument that assesses student learning. In the fall, Mary will return home to Washington State to tutor and mentor youth through Americorps before pursuing a graduate degree in education research.
Hannah Palm. Hannah is a double major in Religious Studies and Individual Studies (Global Health). She has researched the mitochondrial proteins of bats with Dr. Anja Rossinni and has traveled to Namibia to observe the variety of organizations working there on HIV/AIDS. This summer she is travelling to the Philippines through the sponsorship of Diagnostics for the Real World to research opportunities to start a sustainable program to treat chlamydia. In the fall, Hannah will apply to medical schools and hopes to return to Namibia.
Ana Perez. Ana, an international student from Venezuela, graduates with a major in Psychology. Throughout her college years Ana has been active in community service including volunteering with malnourished children in the barrios of Caracas, interning at a psychiatric hospital for major crisis intervention, and assisting mental health patients in the Bay Area. For the past three months she has been a research assistant at Stanford University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Research studying individuals with Fragile X Syndrome. This fall she will attend NYU’s Steinhardt Graduate School to begin a master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling.
Danielle Pirelli. Danielle is a native of Deerfield, Illinois. She is an Art History and Anthropology double major. For the last year she has served as a research assistant to Professor Kathy Aoki, providing images and source material for various studio art projects. This summer she looks forward to her internship building houses and studying community development in Mexico. After graduating in March 2011, Danielle hopes to draw on both her majors and pursue a master’s degree in either in Library Science or Museum Studies.
Guillermo Portillo. Guillermo, a native of San Jose, is a double major in Studio Art and Spanish. In the fall of 2008, he studied in El Salvador through Santa Clara’s Casa de la Solidaridad program. Next year, he will work at the Casa program as a coordinator. He hopes to pursue a teaching career in the future.
Kathryn Rawlings. Kathryn, a member of the University Honors Program, is earning degrees in Philosophy and Political Science. She has worked in the Communication Department on campus and has also been a private SAT tutor, specializing in reading and writing. She studied abroad in Barcelona and became involved with the Study Abroad Program as an ambassador when she returned. Kathryn is from Dallas and will return to the Lone Star State to attend law school at the University of Texas at Austin.
Jessica Rice. Jessica is a double major in English and French and Francophone Studies. She studied abroad in Nantes, France, during her junior year, and has worked in the Department of Modern Languages and as an on-campus French tutor. She has been involved in the student organization Every 2 Minutes and volunteers as a counselor with the YWCA Rape Crisis Center of Silicon Valley. Jessica will pursue a master’s degree in Education at Stanford University after which she plans to teach English at the high-school level.
Whitney Ryan. Whitney is graduating with a degree in Mathematics. This year she served as president of the Math Honor Society and as the social chair of the Math/CS Society. Although she spent a lot of time tutoring in the Sussman Room, Whitney also studied abroad in Florence her junior year to add Italian to her studies of French and Latin. Whitney also worked at the University Call Center raising money for Santa Clara. She plans to work in the field of Bioinformatics for the next few years before pursuing a master’s degree in Biostatistics.
Nicholas Sanchez. Nick is an English major with minors in Philosophy and Creative Writing. In his senior year Nick acted as editor-in-chief of the Santa Clara Review, a literary magazine dedicated to publishing the writing and art of students from across the nation. He also served all four years as a member of the Santa Clara Community Action Program’s Gay-Straight Alliance and as president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance his sophomore year. He was also a member of Santa Clara’s Labor Action Committee. Nick plans to find work in the publishing industry after graduation.
Kevin Schmitt. Kevin graduated with degrees in Political Science and Religious Studies. He has worked for Congressman George Miller and U.S. PIRG. This year, he served as a peer advisor in the Political Science Department and as a research assistant for Professor James Cottrill. He studied in Washington, D.C. in fall 2008, where he wrote a lengthy paper on presidential-congressional relations which he later expanded into his honors thesis. Kevin loved Washington so much that he has decided to pursue a joint-degree in law and public policy at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia.
Brian Scott. A junior, Brian is an Economics major and Mathematics minor. He has tutored mathematics to potential first-generation college students, and has served food to the homeless in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. He was also the lead actor in the acclaimed short-film – Nerds Collide. Brian is an avid snowboarder, an aspiring hip-hop artist, and a stock market enthusiast. Last summer, he worked in Private Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Following his senior year, he will either enter the workforce or will attend graduate school to pursue his interest in financial markets.
Charlotte Shannon. Charlotte, a double major in Political Science and Environmental Studies, was a Panetta Congressional Intern in the office Hilda Solis in the fall of 2008 and also received a Hackworth Grant for a quantitative research project concerning environmental injustices in Santa Clara County. She studied abroad in Florence, served as a peer educator in Political Science and held numerous public sector internships all over the country. Charlotte enjoys hiking and the great outdoors, and will backpack through Central America this summer. In the fall, she will begin work in the Washington State Legislature while applying to joint-degree programs in law and public policy.
Stephanie Sloane. Stephanie is a double major in Philosophy and Economics. A native of Albany, New York, she studied abroad in the Netherlands and was a founding member and captain of the Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team. She has spent the last year working with Professor John Ifcher of the Economics Department on research that seeks to examine the relationship between religion, social capital and subjective well-being. In July, she will present her research at the Western Economic Conference in Portland. Stephanie will work for the Diocese of Oakland while applying to law schools.
Daniel Solomon. Daniel is a Sociology major from Portland, Oregon. He studied abroad in Rome and is an ambassador for Santa Clara’s International Programs Office. As a Hackworth Fellow in the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Daniel developed a formal code of ethics for the student government in which he served as chief justice of the Judicial Branch. He is also vice president of the Sociology Student Association and a member of the SCU Criminology Association. Daniel is currently interning for the Honorable Jerome Nadler of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, and plans to attend law school.
Jamie Staudt. A Spanish major and Anthropology minor, Jamie is the valedictorian of the Class of 2010. After studying abroad in El Salvador at Santa Clara’s Casa de la Solidaridad, Jamie returned to campus to work as an intern for the Arrupe Partnerships program at an adult vocational school in San Jose. She spent four years as a starting defender for the Santa Clara Women's Lacrosse team, and as a captain her senior year was awarded First-Team All-American honors. Moving forward, Jamie hopes to continue to use her Spanish skills to pursue a career in community health promotion and education.
Justin Thomsen. Justin is a Philosophy major and a double minor in Italian Studies and English. He studied for a semester in Rome and has served as the peer educator for the Philosophy Department’s Introduction to Formal Logic course for the last two years. He recently completed his senior thesis on ethical responses to date rape on college campuses and is currently co-authoring a law review article with Dr. Lawrence Nelson on the moral and legal permissibility of feticide statutes as they apply to pregnant women. After graduation, Justin will finish that article and apply to doctoral programs in philosophy.
Sarah Towey. Sarah is a double major in Economics and Spanish with a minor in International Business. Originally from Victoria, Minnesota, she has spent the last four years working at the University Library and as an assistant in the Department of Modern Languages. She studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain, and volunteered as a teacher at different bilingual schools and as an ESL instructor for adult immigrants in the Bay Area. After graduation, Sarah hopes to teach overseas and then return to the U.S. for graduate study in either developmental or environmental economics.
Morgan Wilhelm. Morgan is graduating after three years with a Psychology major and Sociology minor. She has been involved in the Psychology Department as a peer advisor, president of the Psychology Club, and data collector for research with Dr. Jerry Burger. She served on the leadership council of the Xavier Residential Learning Community and as the Residential Enhancement Coordinator for the Residential Learning Community Association. Morgan has focused her classes, papers, and projects around study of adolescent drug and alcohol abuse in order to prepare for a career as a prevention specialist.
Megan Williams. Megan is a Political Science major. Hailing from Hatfield, Massachusetts, she studied abroad in London during her junior year. Megan worked as a peer advisor in the Political Science Department, as a community facilitator in the Modern Perspectives Residential Learning Community, and as a student assistant in the Information Technology Office. For her honors thesis, she researched and wrote about the Round Table Talks and the fall of communism in Poland. Megan will spend 2010-11 as a Fulbright Fellow at the Center for Eastern European Studies in Warsaw, Poland.
Stephanie Wilson. Stephanie, an English major and Philosophy minor, is captain of the Women’s Cross-Country and Track and Field teams. In the 2009 Cross-Country season, Stephanie won the West Coast Conference Championships and placed 6th in the Division I Western Regional, qualifying her to become the first Bronco athlete to compete in the National Championships. She placed 28th at Nationals, earning All-American honors. As a Donovan Fellow, Stephanie spent the summer of 2008 interning on an organic farm in the Salinas Valley that helps farm-workers start their own organic farms. Stephanie has organized several campus food drives and is working as one of the English Department’s Canterbury Fellows to create a literary trail guide that she hopes to publish upon completion.
Rachel Witte. Rachel is a double major in Mathematics and Art History, and completed her honors thesis in data visualization. During her time at Santa Clara, she has campaigned for environmental awareness and LGBTQ activism. In her sophomore year, she won an award for Best Digital Design in the annual SCU Studio Arts Show. As a junior, she spent a year abroad split between Barcelona and Tokyo, and traveled extensively in the surrounding areas. After graduation she will backpack around Southeast Asia for several months, and then return to San Francisco to work in programming with the goal of further developing the nascent field of data visualization.