News Release| Honors Convocation; Cal State L.A.

April 6, 2010

Attention Calendar Editors: See event-listing below.

Cal State L.A. salutes the academic feats of 3,000+

Rhodes Scholar physician returns to alma mater

to keynote 49th Annual Honors Convocation April 23

 

Los Angeles, CA After graduating from Cal State L.A. in 2001 – at age 18 – Leana Wen headed off to med school in St. Louis, the World Health Organization in Geneva, to Rwanda and the Congo, and to Oxford—as a Rhodes Scholar—and Harvard.

She returns to Cal State L.A., Friday, April 23, to deliver the keynote at the University’s 49th Annual Honors Convocation. The event will acknowledge the stellar academic achievements of more than 3,000 students, including those on Dean’s Lists. The ceremony begins at 7 p.m. in the Eagles Nest Gymnasium.

Dr. Wen is a resident physician at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Brigham & Women’s/Massachusetts General Hospital. A graduate of Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Oxford, Dr. Wen focuses on international health policy, including healthcare workforce and health in post-conflict situations. Dr. Wen travels regularly between four continents for research and speaking engagements. 

With formal pageantry, Friday’s special program will recognize nearly 1,900 Cal State L.A. students whose academic records place them in the upper fifth percentile of their peers. Dean’s List honorees, recipients of scholarships and grants, and general education honors program participants will be acknowledged. More than 330 new freshmen will also be recognized for bringing to the University a 3.5 grade-point-average (or higher) on their high school records.

In 2009, more than 1,000 Cal State L.A. students received scholarships supported by donors and grants from outside agencies. Among them are Erik Alexander Brodin, who received the Enor Watson Memorial Jazz Scholarship; Jennifer Denise Coats, Cotsen Fellowship; Annabel Deng, Major Tsai Award in Chinese Studies; Orval Hernandez Marcial, Margarita Mendez Graduate Social Work Scholarship; Victor Noh, TELACU Scholarship; and Claire Faith Weinan, Edison International Power Energy Scholarship.

Dr. Wen was one of two students selected to accompany New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof on a journey to Africa in 2007. (For Dr. Wen’s blog about her trip, go to http://twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com/) From 2005 to 2006, Dr. Wen served as the national president of the American Medical Student Association. At 18, she graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Los Angeles, earning a B.S. in biochemistry and garnering a Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship. Also, she may very well be the only CSU graduate yet to become a Rhodes Scholar.

For details about Dr. Wen’s Rhodes Scholarship: /univ/ppa/newsrel/leanawen.htm or http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-11-19-rhodes-scholars_x.htm

For more about Dr. Wen’s award-winning essay: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/29wat-wen.html?ex=1335672000&en=31cd47a40922bb7c&ei=5124  

For press release on Dr. Wen’s Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship: /univ/ppa/newsrel/pkphi01win.htm

For Dr. Wen’s featured articles in alumni magazines: /sites/default/files/univ/ppa/publicat/today/archives/spring2009/
alumniSpotlight.php
and http://medicalalumni.wustl.edu/alumni/adev.nsf/0d99c5bea3f3ffa28625707b00566fb8/
00969cd18700e5f1862571a4006d9b01?OpenDocument

For further details on the University Honors Convocation, call the Cal State L.A. Academic Affairs office at (323) 343-3808.

CALENDAR LISTING:

 

What:            49th Honors Convocation at Cal State L.A., a tradition highlighting
                    student achievements.

 

When:            Friday, April 23,  7 p.m.

 

Where:           Eagles Nest Gymnasium on the CSULA campus. For campus map, parking information or directions, go to /univ/maps/cslamap.php.

 

Info:              For event details, call the Academic Affairs office at Cal State L.A.,
                    (323) 343-3808.

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Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 210,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu