Claremont National Scholarship Recipients


Susana Bonis, scholarship recipientSusana Bonis was Director of Development and Communications at Families in Schools, a nongovernment organization in Los Angeles.  She has worked as a management/program analyst at high levels of the U.S. Department of Education, on issues ranging from strategic planning to preparing tomorrow’s teachers to use technology.  She was a Fulbright teaching assistant at Eotvos Loran University in Budapest.  She received her MAT from American University and her BA summa cum laude with a double major in English and history from George Washington University.

 
Victoria Bryan, scholarship recipientVictoria Bryan is the co-founder and former Managing Director of STOP-GAP, the nationally acclaimed nonprofit theater company that uses theater as an educational and therapeutic tool.  One referee called STOP-GAP “quite a legend in drama therapy.”  She is currently an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Long Beach, where she recently completed an MA in art history.  She has previously served as Director of Programs for Angels Gate Cultural Center.  She has been a writer, actor, producer, and photographer for six television series.  She holds a BA from Antioch University and a Diploma in stage management from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London.

 
Fay Ellwood, scholarship recipientFay Elanor Ellwood was a researcher and teaching assistant at the Claremont School of Theology and Pomona College.   She holds an MA from the Claremont School of Theology, where she won the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence and a Presidential Scholarship, and a BA in English literature from Goucher College, where she became a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was the student commencement speaker.  Her research continues to transcend the boundaries between literature and religion, in particular prophetic voices in biblical and 20th century poetry. 

 
Yvonne Flack, scholarship recipientYvonne Flack received a BA with a double in English literature and in biology at Redlands University, where her many honors include a Presidential Scholarship and a Regent’s Scholarship.  Her senior thesis explores parallels between biological mimicry and mimesis in art.  She has acted in plays by Shakespeare and Marlowe, and she has been a research intern at the Loma Linda University Medical Center.  As one of her biology professors writes, “Yvonne represents a rare case of someone who truly has a foot in each of C.P. Snow’s Two Worlds.”


Susana Bonis, scholarship recipientPadmapriya 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.

 
Victoria Bryan, scholarship recipientDouglas 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. 
 

Chase Knowles scholarship recipientChase Knowles began attending college four years early while still attending high school. She graduated summa cum laude with two Associate Degrees in History and Spanish from Los Angeles Valley College, and received her BA from UCLA in Film, Television and Digital Media. She is the winner of multiple distinguished scholar awards including: the John J. Dales/Screen Actor’s Guild Foundation Scholarship (3 time winner), Jo-Belle Wolf Scholarship for Women; L.A. County’s Young Woman of the Year, Ola Zuckerman Class of 1934 Scholarship, Patron’s Association Scholarship, Paul Passno Scholarship in Mathematics, Rose Kornbluh Memorial Writing Award, Roselle Lewis Fiction Essay Award, and the Max L. Heyman, Jr. Perpetual Scholarship. While at UCLA she was a member of the Golden Key International Honors Society, Phi Theta Kappa, Tau Alpha Epsilon and was a Intercollegiate Studies Institute Honors Fellow. Recently, she has been presented a paper entitled “When Allah’s Online: A Theory of Interactive Media and Identity as Applied to Islamist New Media Texts.” She is beginning her studies in Religion at CGU in Fall 2008.

 

Sigmond Shore scholarship recipientSigmond Shore received his BA from McGill University and his M.Ed. at Harvard University and is the winner of multiple awards including the Golden Key Award through McGill University, the Stanley Plotnick Leadership Award and the Gordon Brown Scholarship. He is the founder of the Wake Up Tour, which raised over $100,000 for its initial grant. For his work with the Wake Up Tour, Sigmond has received personal letters of support from the Prime Minister of Israel as well as the Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel. He is beginning his studies in the Education program at CGU in Fall 2008.

 
Sharone Williams, scholarship recipientSharone 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.