The Whitham Family Collaborative Research Awards Fund was created through a $3.8 million gift from Santa Clara alumna Jacqueline Whitham ’21 and the Whitham Family Foundation of Colorado.
As a student at Santa Clara, Jacqueline initially studied biology, but decided she didn’t want to work in that field as a career. But then she found there was no clear path for her to pursue her specific combination of interests— chemistry, mechanical engineering, and the arts. Eventually, she was able to change majors, add a minor in mechanical engineering and pursue her creative passion for art through a sculpture art minor. But doing so required five years to graduate, and she felt alone in her journey at times.
Still, the extra effort paid off, she said. Her STEM teachers noticed that she attacked problems differently from other students, while still being effective. “Art was a creative outlet, which connected me to people and my other studies in the craziest ways,” she said. “Creativity really fed into helping me understand so many concepts. I want to help people who want to walk similar paths.”
Jacqueline Whitham ’21. Photo by Jim Gensheimer
The Whitham Family Collaborative Scholarship Awards are designed to promote true cross-disciplinary collaborations between two or more Santa Clara University faculty members and their research students. While any University-wide cross-disciplinary collaboration is eligible, there will be a preference to fund projects that involve at least one faculty member of the research team from the Arts. There are two tracks for faculty applications. Details can be found here.
2024 Faculty Awardees
Project: Visualizing the Unseeable
Project: The Ohlone Augmented Reality Campus Tour
Project: Black-Italian Connections: A Documentary Film Project
Examining ChatGPT’s Unintended Therapeutic Role through Social Media Using a Machine Learning Approach