Padmapriya Gollapudi completed a BA at Soka University of America, where she was at the top of her graduating class and won many academic awards.  Padma’s languages include Hindi, Japanese, Telugu, and English, as well as Visual Basic, C++, and Visual C++.  She has recently worked with the Planning Commission of India on the country’s development planning.  Her research on trade and education (with Prof. Edward Feasel) is pending journal publication.  One of her professors describes her as “the best student I have had the opportunity to work with in my career.”  Padma’s extracurricular interests include singing, chess, dance, and debate.

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Douglas Ishii received his BA in comparative literature magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa at the University of California, Irvine.  His many awards include the Chancellor’s Achievement Scholarship.   According to of one of his professors, Doug’s path-breaking undergraduate thesis advances an approach that might help ethnic American literature “to move from the cultural periphery into a dynamic and constitutive relationship to the cultural center.”  He plans to enroll in CGU’s Ph.D. program in cultural studies with a concentration in museum studies.

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Sharone Williams received her BA in English from California State University, Fullerton, where her many awards include President’s Scholar and National Hispanic Recognition Scholar. Her three publications include “Jazz as Text: Freedom Born from Bondage.”  She has worked as an editor for an engineering company and as an administrative assistant in several businesses.  She is a member of the core leadership team of “Elevated to Excellence,” a conference for women.  Her skills include ten years of training in classical violin.