In support of the first goal of Portland State’s five-year strategic plan — elevating student success — Currently now features student success each term, acknowledging achievements such as publications, scholarships, grants, presentations and more. Here are some of the inspiring students who made us proud during fall term. Want your students to appear in our next roundup? See the submission guidelines and send information to currently@pdx.edu.
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS AND OTHER HONORS
- Sarah Almuhanna and Nancy Barakat Adams, architecture graduate students, won the Grand Prize for the 10th annual Portland State Cleantech Challenge and the chance to compete at Invent Oregon June 23-24. Their project uses mycelium, the vegetative part of the fungi, to create biodegradable furniture. Mycelium neutralizes toxins within the soil, helping to recycle and regenerate it.
- Dominique Chen, cinematography and film/video production student, covered the Lilac Grand Prix, where a world record was broken.
- David Chvorun, piano performance student, won the Young Artist Competition of the Beaverton Symphony Orchestra this May by performing the third movement of the Béla Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3.
- Gary Conachan, Corrine Nightingale, Trish Nicholson, Megan Mancini and Angie Reyes, counselor education graduate students, were chosen for the National Board for Certified Counselors Foundation Minority Fellowship Program.
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Ashlynn Crisp
- Ashlynn Crisp, mathematical sciences Ph.D. student, received the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship on May 16.
- Iris S. De Lis, post secondary adult and continuing education graduate student, was elected to the inaugural Graduate Student Committee of the national Association for the Study of Higher Education.
- Lisa Dinh, biology undergraduate student, won the Distinguished Undergraduate Student Award at the 2022 President’s Diversity Awards in May. Read more.
- Leo Garcia, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science undergraduate student, and Reed Le, graphic design, earned second place at the 10th annual Portland State Cleantech Challenge. Their team, “Copiosus,” whose name is a direct translation of the Latin word for abundance, is examining ways to maximize the production of sustainable food using the help of artificial intelligence.
- Laura Glazer, Art + Social Practice graduate student, was recently featured on the New York Public Library’s blog in a Researcher Spotlight interview.
- Hayden Henderson, leadership for sustainability graduate student, was awarded the PSU Sustainability Award for Inspiring Student.
- Caty Jimenez, film student, received the $5,000 Koerner Camera Systems Scholarship Award in May.
- Jennifer Martinez-Medina, public affairs and policy graduate student, won the Distinguished Graduate Student Award at the 2022 President’s Diversity Awards in May. Read more.
- Noah Nizam, film student, received the $5,000 Koerner Camera Systems Scholarship Award in May.
- Ash Phillips, music education student, has been volunteering with memory care patients, using skills learned in their music education courses and translating them to lead an hour-long drumming session with seniors in a day facility at Cedar Sinai Park assisted living facility in Portland.
- Natalia Rios, graduate student in Spanish, was awarded PSU’s People Choice award in the 3-minute thesis series.
- Kierra Wing, real estate development graduate student, testified on May 3, 2021 in favor of Oregon State House Bill 3012, which clarifies the power of student governments over student fee money used to fund various campus programs and services.This bill passed in the Oregon Legislature in May 2021.
PRESENTATIONS, PUBLICATIONS, AND EXHIBITIONS
- Raya Alkharroubi, Arina Borodkina, Kenyn Davila Samayoa, Daira Maldonado Ortega, Jennifer Marquez Marques, Estefani Reyes Moreno, Han Tran, Brianna Tuy and Tony Vo, undergraduate students; Laihha Organna, graduate student; and David Peterson del Mar, history faculty, co-authored a research note titled “‘Like a Family’: Fostering a Sense of Belonging in a Minority Majority University Classroom” that appeared in the Spring issue of The Journal of Transformative Learning.
- Marinda Carlyle, marketing and advertising student, wrote an article on PDX Scholar titled, “‘Real’ Marketing Within the Fast Fashion Industry: An Analysis of Internal vs. External DEI Practices.”
- Hannah Sean Ellefritz, sociology graduate student, presented “Satisfied Without Autonomy?: Math and Non-Math Teachers’ Job Satisfaction at U.S. Public Schools” at the 2022 annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association in early April in Sacramento, California.
- Carly Hollabaugh, sociology graduate student, presented “LGBTQ+ Self Perceived Health,” a quantitative analysis of the 2019 CDC National Health Interview Survey, at the 2022 annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association in early April in Sacramento, California.
- Emily Leickly, community psychology Ph.D. student and graduate research assistant for PSU’s Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative, presented “Differential Media Portrayals of Fire Displacement and Loss for Previously Housed and Unhoused Individuals” at the Community Research and Action in the West conference on Feb. 25. The work was produced in collaboration with Janet Cowal, applied linguistics faculty, Maude Hines, English faculty, Jola Ajibade, geography faculty, and Stefanie Knowlton, communications specialist for PSU’s Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative.
- Savannah Lyda, Jenny Davis, Mackenzie Streissguth, Glorimar Del Rio, Riley Roberts, Emma St. John, Rachael Renz and Luis Soto Ramos, graduate students, recently launched “Love, Dance & Egg Rolls,” a novel about the Filipino-American experience. The novel was published by Ooligan Press, the trade press owned and operated by master’s students in PSU’s publishing program.
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Charles Rose
- Charles Rose, music graduate student, gave a presentation, “George Lewis, Improvisation and the Rhizome,” on April 23 at the College Music Society Conference in Portland.
- Kaz Seko, sociology graduate student, presented “Reducing Transphobic Attitudes: A Cross-National Investigation of College Students in Japan and the United States” at the 2022 annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association.
- Ned Tilbrook, sociology graduate student, presented “First-Generation Status, College Majors and Persistence in College” at the 2022 annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association in early April in Sacramento, California.
- Kristin Wingo, history graduate student, and Yolanda Baines, history undergraduate student, presented “Researching Place, Discovering Maps: Portland, Oregon in the Progressive Era” on April 18 at “Environmental History Week,” sponsored by the American Society for Environmental History.
SHARE SUCCESSES WITH THE COMMUNITY
We want to celebrate your students! Email submit student success items to currently@pdx.edu and include the following information:
• The student’s full name
• The student’s year and area of study (example: Jane Doe, a junior studying art history)
• Student’s job, volunteer or research position if applicable. For example, if a student won an award for their work as an employee with the PSU Residence Hall Association, their position with residence life would be necessary for the write-up
• The full name of the award, honor, scholarship or fellowship the student received
• The date the award was given
• Any other relevant information about the award, such as length of fellowship, total scholarship amount, location of award ceremony
• A horizontal image, if you have one
• Links to any other additional information you would like to be included in the write-up, such as news stories; web pages or documents for the awards/scholarships/fellowships; and accessible pages for publications (such as the Amazon listing for a student book available for purchase, or the article's journal web page for an academic publication)
If you have news about PSU alumni, please send it to the alumni magazine at psumag@pdx.edu