Alumna Monique Haren Adams '10 (Theatre Arts) performed in Pride & Prejudice: A New Musical, where Kimberly Mohne Hill served as dialect coach. Read more below.

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Here we are on the eve of August and I am concluding my first month officially working at Santa Clara University. I am meeting many people, almost exclusively on Zoom, but have had a few wonderful walking visits (properly masked and socially distant, of course). Walking in Santa Clara and San Jose is a great way to discover the neighborhoods, including the Santa Clara and Rose Garden farmer’s markets, the Rose Garden itself, and all the little neighborhoods near campus. Another highlight was visiting the Forge Garden on the edge of campus. Shortly after I walked into the garden, Katharine Rondthaler, Forge Organic Garden Manager, greeted me...11 years after she had taken my US Environmental Policy class at UC Santa Cruz!

I want to thank the many of you who have reached out to welcome and meet me; I hope to meet many more of you in the next weeks and months, despite the distancing forced upon us by the pandemic. It's especially useful and helpful to me if you describe what you are doing this summer so that I can get a sense of the life of the College.

As I learn more about the College every day, I’m looking forward to donning a hard hat and touring the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation. It will be nice to get a different perspective than I’ve seen from my daily walks with my family. 

This week, as orientation continues, we held two virtual sessions for parents. Thanks to Julie Chang, John Birmingham, Kathleen Schneider, and Ali Reimer for putting the presentations together on short notice. I think it helped alleviate some of the uncertainty parents are feeling during this unusual time.

Lastly, I want to congratulate our recently named De Novo Fellows and ALZA Science Scholars. These eight students, who you will find listed below, are conducting research on subjects ranging from arthropod silks to E. Coli to genomic diversity and more with faculty mentors from a number of our departments.

Best,
Daniel

De Novo Fellows 

Aleimah Andrews '23

Public Health
Arthropod Silks

Faculty Mentor: Janice Edgerly-Rooks

Anthony Avila '21

Biology
Using whole genome sequencing to explore antibiotic resistance in E. coli

Faculty Mentor: Craig Stephens

Emily Swanson '21

Biology
C. elegans and morphogenesis

Faculty Mentor: Leilani Miller

Jazlynda Benes '21

Neuroscience, Biology, Studio Art
3D visualization of abnormal brain connectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Faculty Mentor: Lang Chen

Stephanie Nawas '21

Mathematics, Computer Science
An Exploration of Suffix Tree Algorithms for Accelerated String Matching

Faculty Mentor: Nicholas Tran

ALZA Corporation
Science Scholars 

Jasmine Jaing '22

Biology, Public Health
The Genomic and Phenotypic Diversity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Using the CYS4 Gene

Faculty Mentor: David Hess

Michelle Nguyen '21

Biochemistry, Music
Synthesis of Amino Esters and Cyclic Macrocycles with Modified Heterocycles

Faculty Mentor: Amelia Fuller

Zeeshan Javed '22

Biology
PARP 13,14, and 15's impact in Viral Regulation

Faculty Mentor: Ian Carter-O'Connell

Highlights

Before the world had to stay home, Kimberly Mohne Hill (Theatre & Dance) finished dialect coaching a World Premiere Production at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley of a brand new musical version of Pride & Prejudice (Book, Music & Lyrics by Paul Gordon, based on the novel by Jane Austen). Also in the cast is SCU Theatre and Dance alumna, Monique Hafen Adams '10 (Theatre Arts). Since the shut-down closed our theaters, many theater companies have begun to offer streaming versions of their shows. In a truly unique opportunity, TheatreWorks Pride & Prejudice is available on two major streaming platforms Amazon Prime and Streaming Musicals. If you have access and are interested, we encourage you to watch an alumna in action and listen to Kim's dialect work with the actors! Watch the trailer.

Nancy C. Unger (History) was featured in the PBS American Master's national television premiere of "Unladylike2020: The Changemakers," including a ten-minute segment on Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in the House of Representatives and the only person to vote against US entry into both world wars. The program introduces the Unladylike2020 project, a collection of 26 short films profiling diverse and little-known American women from the turn of the 20th century, and contemporary women who follow in their footsteps. 

Nature Beyond Solitude: Notes from the Field, by John Seibert Farnsworth (Environmental Studies and Sciences, emeritus) was published recently under the Comstock Publishing Associates imprint of Cornell University Press. The book narrates residencies in five West-Coast field stations that took place over the course of John’s 2016 sabbatical. During a six-month period, he was able to participate in a number of long-term ecological studies ranging in duration from 35 to 200 years. This is John’s second book published by Cornell University Press.

Michael Whalen (Communication) completed the short film, "A Day with Benton." Written by Barbara Means Fraser (Theater & Dance), directed & edited by Mike and starring Aldo Billingslea (Theater & Dance). The film won Awards of Merit at the Accolade Awards and the One-Reeler Film Festival, as well as an Award of Excellence at the Broadcast Education Association's Festival of Media Arts. Shot over the Summer of 2019, the film is about a man suffering early-onset Alzheimer's and struggling with the death of his wife while his children fight over how to best care for him.

Molly King (Sociology) received the Rising Star Award from Stanford University, where she received her Ph.D. The Rising Star Award is geared towards an alumnus who has championed underrepresented or marginalized students. Here are some excerpts from those who nominated her for this award:
   
“Molly was often my only go-to person to talk to about not just direct work-related concerns, but how to even be a part of the academic world. Professionally, she has guided me in virtually every domain of my work.”
   
“[Molly] has an extraordinary sensitivity about the ways in which social position can privilege or disempower individuals, and she is committed to addressing such inequalities…. As I look towards the next chapter in my own academic career, she once again is, in her quintessential professorial way, the extraordinary mentor whose generosity takes me by surprise.”

Heather Noel Turner (English) has been awarded a grant from the Council for Programs in Technical & Scientific Communication (CPTSC) for her research project "Understanding User Experience (UX) Teaching Practices in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC).” The award will fund a participatory mixed methods study with UX instructors, practitioners, and students to develop best practices for teaching UX. It will also help support the future creation of a repository of example teaching materials such as assignments and syllabi. This project is also a multi-institutional collaboration with faculty in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW-Tacoma.

Miah Jeffra (English) was interviewed for The Rumpus, concerning the relationship between art and activism, following the release of their new criticism/memoir hybrid, The Fabulous Ekphrastic Fantastic!

Francisco Jiménez (Modern Languages and Literatures, emeritus) had his story “Under the Wire” included in The Penguin Book of Migration Literature, Edited by Dohra Ahmad, Penguin Books (an imprint of Random House), 2019.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar