Back row from left: George H. Perry (Ph.D. Anthropology), Sarah Gershon (Ph.D. Political Science), Consuelo Gonzales (Master's Political Science), Kassondra Silva (Ph.D. Family and Human Development), Sandra Woien (Ph.D. Philosophy) Front row from left: Diana Encinas (Master's Spanish) , Xin Zhang (Ph.D. Computer Science), Norma Perez-Brena (Ph.D. Family Science), Priscilla Goble (Ph.D. Family Science), Lilian Chavez (Ph.D. in Sociology), Jennifer Santos (Ph.D. English)

The Graduate College at Arizona State University awards fellowships that provide substantial support for students pursuing graduate degrees. These are merit-based awards and are the most prestigious form of funding because they enable students to focus full time on their studies and research projects.

Twenty-two students were awarded one of the following fellowships for the 2007-2008 semesters: Reach for the Stars, Doctoral Enrichment, or Dissertation.  Here are some examples of the outstanding research and goals of our Graduate Colllege Fellows.

For more information on these and other Graduate College Fellowships: graduate.asu.edu/gcfellowships.html

Reach for the Stars Fellows
Reach for the Stars Fellowships are designed to promote the diversity of the graduate student population by providing ASU's most promising undergraduate students with a pathway to graduate school and the tools and resources for their success.

Christopher Burrell, pursuing Ph.D. in Philosophy
(Master's Philosophy)
Fatalism and free will are Burrell's primary area of interest. He plans to pursue a career in academia.

Consuelo Gonzales, pursuing Master's of Political Science
(B.A. Journalism; B.A. Political Science with a certificate in International Relations)
Gonzales graduated Magna Cum Laude and intends to specialize in security studies, as well as exploring the connections between religion and political stability. A member of ASU Political Science Junior Fellows Program and the Cronkite School Mentorship Program, she also volunteers with Arizona Beagle Rescue.

Erika Keel ( Master’s of Accountancy and Information Systems), Matthew Parry (Ph.D. in European History)

Erika Keel, pursuing Master's of Accountancy and Information Systems
(B.S. Accountancy)
Keel plans to pursue a career in Audit/Forensic Accounting. Honors include being on the Dean's Honor List for eight consecutive semesters, and winning the Arizona CPA Sam Gallant Scholarship for Outstanding African-American Accounting Students. She volunteers with St. Mary's Food Bank.

Rick Lopez, pursuing a Juris Doctorate
(B.S. Management)
After earning his J.D. and honing his analytical skills, Lopez hopes to represent professional baseball players as a sports agent or work for a Major League Baseball Club. He volunteers as a Sandra Day O'Connor Law School Ambassador.

Matthew Parry, pursuing Ph.D. in European History
(B.A. History and J.D.)
The recipient of numerous academic and athletic awards and the current World Record Holder in the wheelchair 100 meter, Parry wants to contribute to the new and growing field of disability history. He also serves as a member of Arizona State Bar's Committee on Persons with Disabilities in the Legal Profession, and is an assistant track coach for the Mesa Association of Sports for the Disabled (MASD).

Kassondra Silva, pursuing a Ph.D. in Family and Human Development.
(B.S. in Family Studies and Human Development)
With a goal of a career in academia that includes research and teaching, Silva is studying socio-emotional development in early childhood. She wants to contribute to policy and interventions that improve child welfare in the home and at school. Silva volunteers with the Graduate Student Association Task Force Committee.

Fahamisha Williams, pursuing Master's of Social Work
(BIS with concentrations in African American Studies and English Literature)
Williams' primary interest is social work at the level of policy and administration, with a goal of working in a non-profit and eventually social work or sociology education. She works at Arizona's Children's Association as an unpaid intern, and also volunteers with her church.

 

GC Doctoral Enrichment Fellows
Graduate College Doctoral Enrichment Fellowships are designed to enhance recruitment of highest quality doctoral students who will contribute to the achievements of diversity in our graduate student population.

Kathleen Carroll, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Carroll will pursue Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, with an emphasis on language and theory of mind development in children with specific language impairment (SLI). She wants to help find interventions for children with language difficulties.

Michelle Martinez (Ph.D. in English)

Lilian Chavez, Sociology, School of Social and Family Dynamics
Chavez will pursue Ph.D. in Sociology, focusing on immigration and demography. She wants to explore the education of immigrant children and the experience of unaccompanied minors.

Linda Manning, Psychology in Education, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
Manning will pursue Ph.D. in Counseling, conducting research on the impact of educational attainment and disorders on race/ethnicity.

Michelle Martinez, Department of English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Martinez will pursue Ph.D. in English focusing on Chicano/a Literature and Professorship.

Andrea Torvinen, Archaeology, School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Torvinen will pursue Ph.D. in Archaeology with an emphasis on geoarchaeology in the American Southwest.

 

GC Dissertation Fellows
Graduate College Dissertation Fellowships support highly meritorious doctoral students who are in the final stages of post-candidacy doctoral work.

Hina Arora, Business Administration, W.P. Carey School of Business
Ph.D. Business Administration, completion expected May 2008. Arora's dissertation "Optimizing Service Quality in Dynamic Decision-Making Environments: A Resource Allocation Perspective" examines information systems.

Back row from left: George Perry (Ph.D. School of Human Evolution and Social Change), Angela Picco (Ph.D. School of Life Sciences), Nathan Morehouse (Ph.D. School of Life Sciences) Front row from left: Sarah Gershon (Ph.D. Political Science), Xin Zhang (Ph.D. Computer Science)

Sarah Gershon, Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. Political Science, completion expected April 2008. Gershon's dissertation "Communicating Through the Media: A Study of Female, Latino and African American Representatives" examines media coverage during the 2006 campaign season.

Richard Hopkins, History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. History, completion expected Summer 2008. Hopkins dissertation is titled "Engineering Nature: Public Greenspaces in Nineteenth-century Paris."

Amy McAdam, Geological Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. Planetary Geology, completion expected May 2008. McAdam's dissertation is "Investigation of Martian Chemical Weathering Processes: Terrestrial Analog and Theoretical Modeling Studies."

Nathan Morehouse, School of Life Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. Life Sciences, completion expected May 2008. The tentative title of Morehouse's dissertation is "Evolution of Bright Wing Coloration in the Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris Rapae" and takes a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how and why bright wing colors have evolved in male butterflies.

George Perry, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. in Anthropology, completion expected May 2008. Perry's dissertation is tentatively titled "Population Genetics of Copy Number Variation in Humans and Chimpanzees."

Angela Picco, School of Life Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. Biology, completion expected Spring 2008. Picco's dissertation "The Role of Amphibian Commerce in the Spread of Wildlife Disease" focuses on the human-enhanced movement of amphibians and their pathogens through commercial trade.

Jennifer Santos, English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. English, completion expected February 2008. Santos' dissertation, "Anxieties of Audience: A Study of Gothic Reception" examines reception of Gothic texts along divisions of gender.

Sandra Woien, Philosophy, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. Philosophy, completion expected May 2008. Woien's dissertation "The Concept of Well-Being and its Role in Life-affecting Decisions" analyzes prevalent theories of well-being.

Xin Zhang, Computer Science, Ira. A. Fulton School of Engineering
Ph.D. Computer Science, completion expected May 2008. Zhang's dissertation "Jointly Learning Biological Interactions from Multiple Data Sources: Application to Pharmacogenomics" examines
bioinformatics, especially in machine learning and data mining of artificial intelligence.