USC TJA 2012-13 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
Congratulations to our amazing scholarship recipients.
Check out how incredible these women are!
Nancy Benner will be graduating from USC this May
as a Chemistry major. She has a GPA of 3.93 and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa,
Mortar Board, Troy Camp and Golden Key International. While at USC, she has
received numerous grants from Women in Science and Engineering, the Rose Hills
Foundation and the Anton B. Burg Foundation. Her research, which she has been
conducting with Dr. Thieo Hogen-Esch, is focused on polymers, including
polymers that will spontaneously heal themselves when damaged. Nancy also won
first prize at the USC Undergraduate Writers Conference for a paper she wrote
on “obesogens,” chemicals that may be contributing to the obesity epidemic.
Nancy will be attending Stanford University next fall as a graduate student,
pursuing her Ph.D. in chemistry. Her goal is to become an organic chemistry
professor at a major university.
Richelle Gribble is a senior at
USC pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with dual minors in Social
Entrepreneurship and Marketing. She is interested in utilizing art,
crowdsourcing initiatives, interactive technology and cause marketing to
promote prominent social issues to inspire collaborative action. She currently
interns at the USC Society and Business Lab (SBL) where she recruits CEO-level
speakers in fields of corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship
and the nonprofit sector to speak to students for the SBL Lunch and Learn
lecture series. Additionally, she serves as Project Manager for the USC Mobile
News Incubator Program which utilizes mobile services to benefit a local
nonprofit organization called TRUST South LA. Last summer she worked as a
Digital Marketing Intern at (RED), a nonprofit organization which aims to
‘harness the power of companies and people to fight AIDS.’ At USC, Richelle is
a Residential Advisor of three years, coordinator of USC’s annual art festival
called Arts in the Park, president of
the Students of Fine Arts Association and the Chief Communications Officer for
the USC Entrepreneurship Club. She is a third-time recipient of the USC Provost
Research Fellowship which funds her ongoing independent research project called
Networked Life which makes visual
comparisons between various network structures (i.e. molecular systems, neural
networks, economic structures, social networks, etc.); her art and research
explores concepts of virality, group dynamics and social trends that connect us
all. Her artwork has been shown in several galleries nation-wide and is the
newest addition to the USC Art and Trojan
Traditions collection. She was a recent panelist for the USC Brain and
Creativity Panel and was a speaker for this year’s TEDxTrousdale event.
Jessica Kuo is a junior Neuroscience major with
a minor in East Asian Cultures and Languages. She will be applying to medical
school in the fall. Her hobbies include reading, kayaking and tennis. Jessica
is currently Editor-in-Chief of USC’s Pre-Health newspaper, whose mission
includes disseminating information and opportunities to future healthcare
professionals. Jessica is also active involved with the USC Alumni Association
as a member of Society 53 where she enjoys collaborating with alumni to spread
the spirit of the Trojan Family to current undergraduates. Off campus, Jessica
conducts research at the National Institute of Transplantation and volunteers
in hospitals and local clinics. When she has time, Jessica takes on the
challenge of teaching her roommates tennis.
Ruth Madievsky is a senior
majoring in Biology and minoring in Thematic Approaches to Humanities and
Society. Her greatest passions are helping others, particularly in the realm of
public health, and creative writing. She is a writing tutor, a research
assistant at an HIV clinic in downtown Los Angeles, and a published poet and
fiction writer. She is graduating in May and will attend the USC School of
Pharmacy in the fall. She plans on pursuing careers as both an ambulatory care
pharmacist and a writer. You can find her published poem online in Literary Orphans and can expect to see
more of her fiction and poetry in literary magazines such as Revolution House, The Vein and Camroc Press Review within the next six
months.
Taryn Nagata is a senior
majoring in Communication with a minor in Communication Design, a blending of
fine arts and business. She is a double legacy at USC, so has been a Trojan all
of her life. She is passionate about children’s media and using it as an
educational tool, and has completed internships with Disney Channel and Disney
Junior for three semesters. Taryn is writing a senior thesis on kids’
television, focusing on narrative and industrial trends. When she is not in
class or interning, Taryn volunteers with USC’s ArtSmart where she teaches an
art history curriculum in nearby elementary schools. She also enjoys spending
time with her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, and is working on her own Etsy
business.
