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Dear Sociology Community, Alumni, and Friends,
Our department has been busy this spring! As graduation approaches, we take a moment to recognize our seniors and all that they have accomplished and welcome you to celebrate them with us!
Congratulations to our Sociology Majors & Minors:
Taylor Czasnojc, Jade Dickson, Diego Ardila, Maryam Khatoon, Sophia Parra, Andre Carbajal, Emma Kemper, Vanessa Vanegas, Sarah Glasser, Keshawn Justice, Kristina Riordan, Madison Hoffman, Joseph Hart, Mika Abe, Esveide Gonzalez-Lombera, Sofia Russell, Charlotte Parque, Paulina Gonzalez-Bello, Chelsie Martinez, Eden White, Georgia Bright, Georgia Harrell, Carolyn Kuimelis, Erene Shin, Christopher Mendez, Carolina Therese Velasco, Brooke Rose, Molly Flood, Daniel Lavarte, Joshua Huizar, Gabrielle Despres, Autumn Fowler-Vogel, Cynthia Jackson, Skylar Seyffert, and Michael Wade!
On May 10th our faculty and Department Manager Greg Walswick invited our sociological community to come together for a special event MC’ed by Cara Chiaraluce: the 2022 Senior Celebration recognizing our amazing sociology graduating class! Our visiting guest Professor Maggie Hunter gave our seniors words of wisdom to speed them on their way into post-graduation success.
Assistant Professor Di Di awarded this year’s Witold Krassowski Awards to Mika Abe, Andre Carbajal, Molly Flood, Madison Hoffman, Keshawn Justice, Emma Kemper, and Daniel Lavarte, as well as recognizing Emma Kemper’s work with the Student Research Assistant Endowed Fund. Along with other capstone students, Justice, Kemper, and Lavarte analyzed data on alumni of the Miller Center Lewis Family Fellowship to consider foci including but not limited to the importance of vocational discernment and how experiential learning to inculcate change-maker identities in SCU students.
Professor Laura Nichols presented the Sociology Alumni Award For Excellence in Community-Based Research to Diego Ardila and Brooke Rose. This award is given in honor of our alumni and their tireless community-based work. This years’ winners have contributed to the SCU and the larger community through research and dedicated work over the course of their time at SCU. Brooke’s applied sociology capstone focused on Jesuit schools initiatives on sustainability and Diego’s project looked at supporting first-generation college students post graduation.
Assistant Professor Molly King recognized our student authors whose work is being published in our department’s publication the Silicon Valley Sociological Review: Mika Abe, Madison Hoffman, Joshua Huizar, Molly Flood, Megan Imai, Judith Li, Ana Martinez, and Brooke Rose.
Assistant Professor Erick Berrelleza recognized sociology students who were awarded the Sociology Academic Excellence Award that recognizes academic excellence and is granted to the graduating senior(s) with the highest Sociology GPA. This year’s awardees were Madison Elaine Hoffman, Diego Andres Ardila, and Andre Joseph Carbajal with Honorable Mentions presented to Brooke E. Rose, Kristina Rose Riordan, and Daniel A. Lavarte.
Senior Lecturer Cara Chiaraluce welcomed our new 2022 chapter Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) International Sociology Honor Society initiates: Maryam Khatoon, Jade Dickson, Sophia Parra, Madison Hoffman, Brooke Rose, Grace Leete, Anthony Ramos Flores, Sofia Basilio, Zhuyu Li, Audrey Isackson, and Ana Martinez! We also recognized again last year’s 2021 AKD initiates who are now graduating: Diego Ardila, Sarah Glasser, Lorena Delgado Marquez, Molly Flood, Emma Kemper, Taylor Czasnojc, Daniel Lavarte, and Jessica Hwang.
Our faculty would also like to extend our congratulations to Cynthia Jackson, who was recently accepted to the Masters of Arts program at Santa Clara University’s School of Education and Counseling Psychology! Way to go Cynthia!
Our seniors are not the only students earning kudos. Juniors Judith Li and Grace Leete were both named Miller Center Lewis Family Fellows and are embarking on a prestigious nine-month program in social entrepreneurship. Li will be working with Solageo and taking advantage of sociological training as described by Li: “I am passionate about applying what I am learning about social entrepreneurship, design thinking to solve real-world problems. Deep in my mind, I believe everyone has the ability to change the world toward a better place, no matter big or small. I want to help the social enterprises achieve their social mission and grow their social impact in ways that also help me grow as a changemaker.” Leete will be working with Nurture Africa and describes: “I wish to participate in the Miller Center Lewis Family Fellowship because it would allow me to define, explore, and cultivate the skills I need to begin a social-based career... being able to create connections and relationships with others that are motivated by positive change. This fellowship will guide me in discovering the ways that social entrepreneurship can help me move forward.”
Other departmental events include Professor David McDermott Hughes’ campus talk “Clean energy, deep inequality: new political traditions of wind and sunlight” based on his research and recent book “Who Owns the Wind: Climate Crisis and the Hope of Renewable Energy.” The event was co-sponsored by Sociology, Environmental Studies and Sciences, and Anthropology (co-organizers Leslie Gray and Laura Robinson, moderator Molly King). A professor at Rutgers and environmental anthropologist, Hughes shared insights about how people exploit ecosystems, as well as the climate emergency for which he has published books on fossil fuels and renewables: Energy without Conscience: Oil, Climate Change, and Complicity and Who Owns the Wind? Climate Crisis and the Hope of Renewable Energy.
Our faculty have also been hard at work! Professor Alma M. García was selected from a national pool of master's level writers to attend the Macondo Writers Workshop where she will be working on her second book, Passages to Harvard: A Latina's Journey, a sequel to her Club Oasis: Childhood Memories, the recipient of the 2021 International Latino Book Award for the Best Young Adult non-fiction book. Assistant Professor Molly M. King has written several papers with our sociology majors related to inequalities in climate change awareness, including “Disability and Climate Change: a critical realist model of climate justice” published with 2021 alumna Maria Gregg published in Sociology Compass. Laura Nichols has been busy this year as the President of the Faculty Senate Council and continuing analyzing the data published in her 2020 book, The Journey Before Us: First-Generation Pathways from Middle School to College. Patrick Lopez-Aguado has been using his research to help strengthen the legal defenses available to individuals indicted with gang offenses or enhancements, presenting his work at the 2022 Capital Case Defense Seminar as well as an upcoming training session for the San Diego County Public Defender's Office. Erick Berrelleza discussed his research on Latino religious geographies and responded to a Religion Roundtable for undergraduate research at the Pacific Sociological Association meeting in Sacramento. His research on the New Sanctuary Movement was also the basis for an invitation to respond to graduate student papers at a conference at Boston College organized through the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. Finally, several faculty members have papers accepted at the upcoming 2022 ASA Annual Meeting among them assistant professors Molly M. King and Di Di. Molly M. King will be speaking during an invited session on “Intersectional Perspectives on Knowledge Production and Open Science.” Di Di will be presenting her research, “Seeking Potential, Seeing Problems: Tech Professionals’ Perceptions of Big Data in China and the US” on a panel organized by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section at ASA. In addition, she will also be presenting her study, “Education, Work, and Politics: How Religiosity and National Context Shape Perspectives of Women's Spheres,” in the sociology of religion section.
Many of our efforts are supported by our gifts of time and service, as well as contributions by generous donors and alumni such as the benevolent alumni donor whose generous gift represents a major donation this year that will drive our sociological imagination forward. No matter what form the support takes, we are grateful to all of you and express our appreciation to all in our sociological community.
Sincerely,
The SCU Sociology Department
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