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Four Students Earn Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowships

SEASIDE, Calif., May 16, 2018 – Four CSUMB seniors, all Sally Casanova Scholars for the 2017-18 academic year, have been awarded summer research fellowships for the summer of 2018 through the Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholarship Program. All four pre-doctoral scholars have been awarded up to $8,000 each in support of their summer research to cover the cost of housing, meals and a research stipend.

Marine Science major Jacob Green, who was mentored by associate professor Cheryl Logan and assistant professor Nathaniel Jue, will head to the University of Rhode Island to help rebuild the eastern oyster genome.

"I look forward to taking knowledge gained as an undergrad and applying it to solve a problem that is important to the Rhode Island community. Summer research funding through the Pre-Doc Program means I can continue to develop my skills as a researcher and academic exploring how local communities, their economies, and their environments intersect,” said Green.

Biology major Robert Castro, whose CSUMB faculty mentor was assistant professor John Goeltz, will study the influence that race and sexual orientation have on HIV vulnerability at New York University.

Psychology major Julia Barnett, whose CSUMB faculty mentor was assistant professor Kevin Grobman, will spend eight weeks researching unplanned pregnancy at UCLA.

Social Behavioral Sciences major Heriberto Marquez, whose faculty mentor was Professor Ruben Mendoza, will head to UC Santa Cruz to help catalog and curate osteological remains from Dos Pilas, an ancient city in Guatemala.

As undergrads, all four Sally Casanova Scholars were part of Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC) and worked with their CSUMB faculty mentors and UROC to meet their graduate and professional goals.

The California Pre-Doctoral Program is designed to increase the pool of potential faculty by supporting the doctoral aspirations of California State University (CSU) students who have experienced economic and educational disadvantages. The program places a special emphasis on increasing the number of CSU students who enter doctoral programs at one of the University of California (UC) institutions.