Current Scholar List

Fighting For Those Who Fought will be a student-run organization focused on administrative advocacy for homeless veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. Students will become proficient in determining a veteran's eligibility for federal, state, and local benefits, then hold workshops at shelters, food-banks, churches and hospitals to assist with applications. Volunteers will learn about governmental functions, legal processes, and social justice, all while using their university-level skills in reading comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary to help a truly deserving population.

The goal of the project is to address prevalent health problems in one of California's under-served populations: Garden Grove. The grant will be used to transition the clinic from the current screening, education, and referral model to the diagnosis and treatment model in order to provide acute care for common health problems such as diabetes and hypertension, in a culturally sensitive manner.The clinic will provide free quality care that is accessible. Shifa clinic has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes in the under-served communities, provide unique learning opportunities for students, and empower community members through prevention and education.

Living through a snowy cold winter on the mountains of Armenia, the villagers of Aghbradzor are isolated for six months every year. They have no roads, no transportation, no markets and no doctors. With the establishment of an Internet connection, the villagers will have a virtual road that will give them access to communication and resources outside their village. My project will install an internet connection in Aghbradzor and engage Armenian students from the capital to run educational training workshops, particularly targeted towards the young generation of students and teachers. In the long run, this project can be an innovative way to combat poverty, connect the villagers to the rest of the world, empower the new generation of students, promote democratic development and encourage civic engagement and government transparency.

I propose to establish the Vista Alegre Undergraduate Student Volunteer Program to help provide the rural village of Vista Alegre in Northern Peru with electricity, using LED and Micro hydro technology. This program will provide Stanford undergraduates with the unique opportunity to apply engineering for social impact by working in Peru during the summer of 2011 and during school vacations the following year.Students will 1) collect data to investigate environmental impact of the system, 2) research potential LED supply chains from Lima to remote villages, 3) define the community's electricity needs, and 4) help village leaders initiate electricity training programs for residents. The Volunteer Program will contribute to social good by improving the standard of living in rural communities as well as encouraging young people to pursue careers in public service.

Music Mentoring for Pomona Valley will provide underprivileged and at-risk children with instruments as well as voluntary lessons from students at the Claremont Colleges. Currently, most families in the Greater Pomona Valley region have limited access to musical instruments and private lessons are simply unaffordable. Yet, for any child new to music, an instrument represents a means of personal development, creative expression, and heightened self-esteem. At a time when emerging research is starting to show the cognitive and social benefits of playing music, budget cuts in Pomona Valley are forcing school districts to eliminate music programs. Therefore, children who are currently mentored with the local non-profit organization, Uncommon Good, will be matched with an expert college musician for weekly lessons. Through this scholarship, the Strauss Foundation will set in motion a program that harnesses the skills of college musicians and gives these children the gift of music for years to come.

Environmental Education of the Next Generation (EENG) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization I founded in August,2009, that brings environmental education to elementary school classrooms through an innovative youth-teaching-youth education model. In one year, the program has expanded from one classroom to 24 classrooms reaching over 400 students, been endorsed by high-level administrators in both the Goleta Union and Santa Barbara School Districts, and augmented its college-student volunteer base from three to sixty. Our committed Director Team, comprised entirely of college-age individuals, plans to act upon the program's success by expanding operations to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and surrounding elementary schools for the 2011 academic year.

This project uses principles of Asset-Based Community Development to tackle issues of dependency in Kilifi, Kenya. I will lead approximately 15 marginalized girls through a process in which they will learn to reflect upon themselves and their communities, and then develop, organize and implement their own projects in the Kilifi community. My overarching project emphasizes the value of listening and being mindful of oneself, others, and the local community while discovering room for growth. By the end of this process, participants will have benefited their community directly through the projects they created. More importantly, they will have learned how to approach the issue of change, and will have empowered themselves to create positive change in the future.

Nearly 1000 free clinics in the US (serving over 1 million under-served patients annually)do not provide access to quality health education for their patients. Anjna Patient Education, a nonprofit I founded and currently lead, aims to correct that statistic. A majority of these clinics, however, also lack outreach systems for their patients that are crucial to increasing patient compliance with medication and adherence to the recommended protocol. I propose utilizing the ubiquity and simplicity of text messaging (SMS) technology to provide free clinics with an effective monitoring, outreach and educational tool for their patients. Such technology, while hitherto not utilized at free clinics, has been shown to improve health outcomes in other settings. Using the existing Anjna network (currently over 40 free clinics), I plan on implementing a pilot project at Schuman-Liles clinic in Oakland, CA, and engage over 75 Anjna volunteers and translators to work with me on the project. Following results from the pilot project, I plan on working with various organizations to scale this project to free clinics in high need areas nationwide.

High Schools densely populated with minority students from low-income backgrounds are in dire need of vital resources to help reduce the minority education gap. Castle Park High School (CPHS), located minutes away from the US-Mexico border, needs more human and economic resources to support its students in gaining access to institutions of higher education.The establishment of a Higher Education Center at CPHS will positively contribute to the city of Chula Vista by providing a space for high school students and their parents to obtain free internet access, receive workshops and seminars, and also provide one-on-one tutorials about the college application process. In addition, this center will be in charge of organizing and funding a college fair located at CPHS, field trips to UCSD and providing information booths for parents at different locations throughout Chula Vista. In collaboration with the students and faculty of UCSD, SDSU, and CPHS, my vision is to see the ideals and methods of the Higher Education Center expand to other high school campuses throughout San Diego County.

This past fall, national media reported on the eight youth who took their lives as a consequence of anti-gay bullying. Many of these youth suffered from violent forms of bullying at home, in school and in their communities. New research conducted by the Family Acceptance Project (FAP), with whom I will be working, indicates that youth whose families exhibit rejecting behavior are nine times more likely to attempt suicide. This research also suggests that families are capable of exhibiting accepting behavior. For this reason, I propose developing an urgently needed curriculum with educational materials and online resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) youth and their allies, equipping youth with the language , concepts and tools to address and resolve family conflict. I will use these new materials as well a community organizing strategies to reach out to youth-servicing organizations such as nonprofits and universities in the San Francisco area as well as in Southern California. I will further my work by designing and implementing family-oriented community fundraisers that will present youth with these new materials, create stronger bonds between LGBT youth annd their families and raise funding and awareness for this new youth-oriented program.

Biodiversity plays a key role in keeping any ecosystem healthy. Today, our food system is quickly losing much of its biodiversity as a result of massive monocultures and the industrialization of agriculture. Monocultures are highly susceptible to blights and disease, require massive amounts of fertilizers and pesticides, and make farmers reliant on contracts with seed companies and genetic engineering companies. To stem the massive loss of regional heirloom varieties and the organic industries' seed stocks, I propose UCSC house a seed library for the Central Coast. A seed library is a place where plant genetics, in the form of seeds, are stored for research purposes and use for the public. UCSC is in a unique position to offer seeds to regional small to mid-sized organic farmers, conduct more groundbreaking research with the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, and implement biodiversity into the environmental studies department to aid student research. A seed library also provides the public with an avenue for obtaining seeds to start local community gardens and urban farms. Facilitating research, promoting community, saving treasured genetics, and having a stockpile of diverse seeds are only a few benefits of having a local seed library.