Check out the recent accomplishments of Social Science Majors who are a part of the McNair Scholars Program. Despite the difficulties of this academic year, these students have been doing superb work from being invited to participate in highly competitive Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) to being accepted into top ranked graduate programs. As you can see from the list below, their accomplishments are impressive! Congratulations!
Seniors
Estefania Bautista
B.A Human Development
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Benjamin Smith
Graduate School: North Carolina Central University, M.S. in Speech Language Pathology
Estefania's interests include the effects of service learning on underrepresented first year students, speech pathology, and speech therapy.
Pamola Chavez
B.A. Criminology & Criminal Justice
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anastasia Tosouni
Graduate School: Smith College, Master of Social Work Program (M.S.W.)
Paloma was interested in researching how rehabilitation is calculated, interviewing formerly incarcerated individuals on their experience in prison, and interviewing the average person about their views on rehabilitation.
Garret Ennis
B.A. Psychology, Applies Stats Minor
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Adam Zagelbaum
Graduate School: University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D. in Psychology
Garrett was interested in the effects of long term stress or chronic trauma on the behavior or biology of individuals. Currently, he is researching trauma in incarcerated men including the role of trauma in offending behavior, the barriers to trauma treatment in this population and as well as the most effective treatment paradigms.
Christina Gomez
B.A History, CALS Minor
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Steve Estes
Graduate School: UC San Diego, Ph.D. in History
Christina's research is driven by amplifying voices that have been traditionally left out of history. Oral history has given her the chance to document these voices for future generations to study. She also loves working in archives to find accounts that can be used in new historical works.
Elisabeth Grosvenor
B.S. Geography, Environment, and Planning
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Javier Jose
Elisabeth's research interests concern the roles GIS can play in understanding environmental issues and processes and how innovating and creating research using the GIS tools can re-shape and improve the way environmental analysis is executed.
Robert Martinez
B.A. History, WGS Minor
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michelle Jolly
Graduate School: Oregon State University, M.A. in History
Robert's research interests are in American history. Specifically around themes of intellectual history after 1960 and of racial passing in the United States after 1960. Additional interests lie in the study of how a settler-colonialist lens can be used to analyze presidential rhetoric in Early Republic and Antebellum history.
Juniors
Max Almaraz
Criminology & Criminal Justice Studies, Music Minor
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Emily Asencio
REU Acceptances/Internships: Sonoma State University, McNair Summer Research Initiative
Max's research interests include the relationships between society and criminal behavior, relationships between social/emotional development in adolescence, tendency of interactions with the criminal justice system through delinquent behavior, and sociological perspectives of political science.
Kearsytn Miller
Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Heather Smith
REU Acceptances/Internships: Sonoma State University, McNair Summer Research Initiative
Amish Patel
Psychology & Philosophy, Double Major
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Wenwen Ni
REU Acceptances/Internships: UC Merced, 2022 Sally Cassanova Summer Research
Amish's research has focused on how mindfulness can regulate bias, and assessing how malleable people's beliefs can be when exposed to biased content. He is also curious to discover how to utilize mindfulness to enhance cognitive abilities and overall health.
Julia Romero
Women's & Gender Studies
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lena McQuade
REU Acceptances/Internships: Sonoma State University, McNair Summer Research Initiative
Ashton Walton
Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Teresa Nguyen
REU Acceptances/Internships: Sonoma State University, McNair Summer Research Initiative