Spring 2014 Student News

PhD Student Angie Cortes received the 2014-15 UC Davis Dissertation- Year Fellowship. Only six 12-month fellowships are awarded each year to doctoral students who are in the final stages of their doctoral work demonstrating strong potential for university teaching and research. Recipients receive a stipend of $25,000 and their in-state fees are covered. They also receive a research fund of $500 and a travel allowance of $500.

Steven Crow, a doctoral candidate in the School’s CANDEL (EdD) program has received a Mertes Award for Excellence in Community College Research from the Association of California Community College Administrators. Crow’s research focused on the transfer mission of the community college system.

PhD student Elizabeth Flores received a fellowship from UC MEXUS-CONACYT (University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States). The UC MEXUS-CONACYT doctoral fellowships provide up to five years of funding for Mexican students doing their doctoral studies at any of the University of California campuses. Flores is a second-year PhD student studying School Organization and Educational Policy.

PhD student Miriama Gray has been selected as a UC Davis Professor for the Future Fellow for the 2014-15 academic year. Professors for the Future (PFTF) is a year-long competitive fellowship program designed to recognize and develop the leadership skills of outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who have demonstrated their commitment to professionalism, integrity, and academic service.

PhD candidate Anne Stephens has been appointed for a three-year term to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Education Advisory Council (NEEAC). The NEEAC was created by Congress to advise, consult with, and make recommendations to the administrator of the EPA on matters related to activities, functions and policies of EPA under the National Environmental Education Act. Stephens is one of 12 members writing the biennial report to Congress on the status of environmental education in the U.S.

PhD student Kelsey Krausen began her second term as an education research fellow with State Attorney General Kamala Harris this spring, where she conducts policy research and advises the Attorney General and her staff on education policy, with a special emphasis on truancy, chronic absence, and attendance issues at the elementary school level. Krausen coauthored the Attorney General’s 2013 report titled In School + On Track (find the report at http://www.oag.ca.gov/truancy).

PhD candidate Aparna Sinha received a $10,000 Dissertation Year Award for 2014-15 from the UC Davis Graduate Group in Education. She also received a travel award from the UC Davis Graduate Student Association to support her presentation of research at national conferences.

PhD candidate Joanna Wong, has been named a member of the new cohort of Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color (CNV), a program sponsored and funded by the Research Foundation of the National Council of Teachers of English. CNV is a two-year mentoring program for advanced doctoral students and junior scholars who are within the first two to two-and-a-half years beyond the awarding of a doctorate degree. The program supports the professional, intellectual, and activist activities of scholars of color by pairing each fellow with a senior scholar in the field. Joanna is graduating this spring.

PhD student Lina Yamashita has received a 2014 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award. The award recognizes the contributions of graduate students to teaching and learning at UC Davis during 2013. Honorees are nominated by their undergraduate students and receive a certificate and small monetary award. Yamashita was recognized at an award ceremony on May 28, 2014.