Emeriti Fellowships awarded
at the Fall 2007 Emeriti Luncheon
Front row (left to right): Karla Padron, Silva Shakaryan, Christine Do. Back row (left to right): President James Rosser, Fellowship Fund Chair Janet Fisher-Hoult, Emerit Association President Harold Goldwhite.
Emeriti Fellowship Award: Karla Padron , completing her M.A in Chicano Studies, is currently working with children in an after school program. Many of them lack the role models for higher education and have never seen a Latina who received a college degree. She first encountered her favorite fields: Sociology and Women's Studies at Santa Monica College and was encouraged to continue for her BA at UCLA. Karla plans to apply to a doctoral program in education or sociology and become a professor and role model for first generation college students.
Jane Matson Memorial Fellowship in Counseling: Silva Shakaryan, an immigrant to the U.S. from Armenia in 1999 and speaker of English as a Second Language, has an outstanding academic record. She began teaching in Armenia and worked in a school for children with speech disorders and as a teacher of language and literature. A wife and mother of two young children, Silva began her studies in the U.S. at LACC. She mastered English so well that she was named to the Dean's List and the LACC President's Honor Roll. She will become a school counselor upon completion of her Pupil Personnel Services credential.
William Lloyd Memorial Fellowship: Mark Steckler graduated magna cum laude from Cal State LA with a major in History. In his graduate studies, his emphasis is on recent US, European and Latin History. Mark plans to pursue a PhD and will focus his research on queer and sexuality studies; specifically the attitudes towards homosexuality in pre-colonial regions of the world and how those attitudes changed with the arrival of the Europeans.
David Cameron Fisher Memorial Fellowship: Christine Do, the recipient of this Award (Undergraduate Biology), skipped high school to join the Early Entrance Program. A Biology major, she is focused on becoming a medical doctor. Christine is the youngest of five children born to parents who were evacuated from Vietnam in 1975 with nothing in hand. Her father worked many low paying jobs to support his family, took evening classes at Cal State LA and earned a degree in electrical engineering. Christine has returned to Vietnam for visits and was struck by the people living on the streets - malnourished and ill. She decided to become a doctor to help those who are suffering and in need. Christine volunteers at Huntington Memorial Hospital every week in an intensive care unit.