Dear Contributors and Program Participants,
The Chris Borton Memorial Scholarship Fund is now in its twenty-fourth year and with the addition of the five selections this year, 79 UC San Diego and UC Davis students have benefited from your generous contributions. They have pursued international study at universities in Austria, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Scotland, Senegal, Spain, South Korea, and Sweden. For up to date details see the Fund website here.
In May 2020, the University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) suspended all Fall 2020 study abroad programs due to Covid-19 related uncertainty. In October 2020, UCEAP canceled Winter and Spring 2021 programs. Executive Director Vivian-Lee Nyitray wrote that, "UCEAP continues to monitor the global situation as it evaluates whether it will operate any post-March 15 programs. We will make a decision with sufficient time to allow students and their families to discuss options during the December holiday break and enable students to register on time for spring courses at their home campuses." All of the 2020 Borton scholarship selections have been impacted by the suspension and/or outright cancelation of programs. The Chris Borton Memorial Scholarship Fund Board of Directors has communicated to each of the 2020 scholarship selectees our intention to honor the award should they be able to embark on their plans to study abroad for a full year in the future. Five of the seven awardees continue to plan on studying abroad for a full year. We are hopeful that these future global citizens will be able to have the life-altering experience of living and studying abroad. In the section below we share some biographical details on each of the current awardees and what we know of their plans.
2020 Scholarship Selections:
Michaela Schwartz is an Environmental Policy major at UCSD who plans on studying abroad for an academic year in Chile. While in San Diego she watches the sunset at the beach every night - the ocean’s beauty is an endless source of inspiration in her major. From a young age it was obvious to her that there is a lot to learn outside of the traditional classroom. This has led her on many travel adventures including six month stays in Madrid, Australia, Hawaii and shorter solo trips to Europe, the Philippines, Vietnam and Kenya. Michaela sees the study abroad program in Chile as an opportunity to continue with her passion to see the world while gaining a deeper understanding of the cultural differences that impact a country's contributions to climate change. She is excited to be practicing her Spanish again and vows to refuse to leave Chile until she is singing, talking, and dreaming in fluent Spanish. Michaela has transferred her applications to 2021 and is hoping for the best.
Carlo Francisco is a Japanese Studies major at UCSD hoping to study for a year in Japan. He was born in the Philippines but has spent much of his life in San Diego. Prior to his birth, Carlo’s parents spent the majority of their professional lives in Tokyo and, as a result, he feels “a great sense of gratitude towards Japanese society for giving my parents the financial capability to bring me into this world.” The study abroad opportunity will give Carlo the chance to experience firsthand the culture that was such an important influence in his family history. He hopes to build the knowledge and skills needed to achieve his personal goal of giving back to Japan. After graduation, Carlo hopes to work as a CIR (Coordinator for International Relations) to promote cultural cooperation and international understanding between Japan and the United States of America. Carlo has deferred his application to Keio University to the 2021-22 academic year.
Jonathan Sarabia is a Business Psychology major who hopes to study at Carlos III University of Madrid in Spain. Jonathan grew up in San Francisco and has never left the country, so he is eager to go abroad and experience a new culture. Jonathan writes, “I am half Mexican and half Chinese, but I have always felt disconnected from my Mexican identity because I could not speak Spanish. Although I do not believe that language ultimately defines one’s race or ethnicity, I do believe it is powerful in connecting people with each other.” He has been studying Spanish at UCSD but believes studying abroad in Spain will enable him to fully immerse himself in Spanish culture. He loves working and collaborating in diverse settings, and believes that exploring Spain will help him develop his cultural intelligence, create global relationships, and become more independent. Jonathan hopes to be able to pursue his plans to study abroad in 2021 and beyond.
Sage Gregory is a UC Davis mathematics major hoping to spend an academic year studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Through her prior experiences, she has learned that “the world is the greatest classroom” and she is looking forward to maximizing her education through new experiences, the discovery of new places, and full immersion in the Scottish culture. Sage chose St. Andrews so that she could have an overseas adventure while also being able to learn in a world-renowned mathematics program. She hopes to continue to explore the applications of math and narrow down her interests and career prospects. Outside of the classroom, Sage has been a member of the Napa County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team and has worked to teach children to have respect for nature and the environment through a farm-based summer camp. She would like to have an impact on the community of St. Andrews in a similar manner. Sage is hoping to pursue her plans to study at St. Andrews during the 2021-22 academic year.
Matthew Zane is a UCSD Computer Science/Japanese Studies major who plans to study in Japan at Waseda University. He is half-Japanese, but was not taught much about his ethnic culture and language, and as a result has made it a goal to reconnect to his family’s culture. As a staff member of the UCSD Japanese Student Association (JSA), an organization that plans and runs events for Japanese students and people who are interested in Japanese culture, Matt regularly practices his Japanese by talking to Japanese foreign exchange students. Hearing about their experiences studying abroad has inspired him to study abroad for a full year. During his time in Japan, Matt hopes to take his language skills to the next level and join some of the circles (Japanese clubs) to meet Japanese students and other foreign exchange students. During the summer of 2020 he interned at a tech company in San Diego and hopes to continue at their Tokyo branch during his time abroad. Matt hopes to be able to pursue his plans to study in Japan during the 2021-22 academic year and has submitted applications to multiple programs in Japan in order to make his plans come true.
Updates on recently returned Borton Scholars:
Tammy Mok (Japan, 2019-20) had to return from Sendai early because of the pandemic this spring and is conducting her coursework at UCSD online. She has been keeping in contact with a friend (another exchange student) that she met at Tohoku University and they read Japanese together. This is a fun way to stay in touch and she has "also found it helpful to increase our reading speed and comprehension, as well as help with vocabulary, which seems to be the biggest hurdle of learning the language at this point. I've also started a language exchange recently, so we'll see how that one goes. Of course, nothing compares to living somewhere where knowing the language is necessary, but if nothing else at least my reading and listening abilities are being maintained!" Tammy writes that she is "looking into becoming a STARs ambassador to encourage and help out others who want to study abroad, because despite my study abroad program being cut in half, it was still an invaluable experience to me."
Minna Luu (France, 2019-20) chose to stay in Paris to finish her courses at Sciences-Po during the spring lockdown and returned home during June. She is living at home in San Jose with her family and took two courses at UCD remotely over the summer. She sees herself living at home and taking courses virtually until 2021. Minna writes, "Even before I left Paris, I was already experiencing a sense of longing and loss for the experiences I missed out on, but at the same time a lot of love and joy for the precious last days with the new French friends I made and the memories of the city. I know in my heart that I will definitely return again, but the contrast of my life in Paris and my life back home is so drastically different I think I might be going through some reverse culture shock."
Devin Doss (Japan, 2019-20) returned from Waseda University to San Diego to live with his family soon after the outbreak of Covid-19. He readjusted his education plan while he was still in Japan and ended up registering for 20 units of upper-division major coursework, including one graduate class. He describes "the jarring shock of reality that I was back at UCSD and resuming a more intensive fast-paced curriculum was immediate and apparent. At first, I was excited to attend university online, as it was new and something that sounded more comfortable than rushing to UCSD through traffic and bouncing from one lecture hall to another. By the end of week one though, I quickly realized that this quarter would pose a challenge. Not only due to my heavy unit load or high-level coursework, but also due to the reality of going to school from the comfort of my home."
Kayla Erler (England, 2019-20) stayed in England through July to finish work on a group project (the work was virtual, but it helped to be in the same time zone with her colleagues). During her year abroad, Kayla was able to complete the equivalent of a senior year in the civil engineering department at Imperial College London. She writes, "My experience abroad has brought many wonderful new connections and a continued love for the career I am headed toward in the structural engineering field." She is now pursuing graduate study at UCSD and writes that “studying at Imperial College gave me a lot of tools that are helping me efficiently problem-solve in my graduate classes.” Kayla is considering PhD programs in California and England focused on structural analysis with regards to earthquake engineering. She writes, “I am so happy to be in love with such a fantastic career path and thankful to have gained many new friendships with people abroad in my field of interest.”
Moa Smith (Sweden, 2019-20) Moa was ordered to leave Sweden almost immediately and returned from Sweden to her home in San Diego in late March. She woke up at 6 am to attend Spring classes at Uppsala University online and completed her Swedish language exam in May. She has been staying busy and exercising a lot.
Hearts and Scholars Dinner
Hearts & Scholars Dinner (February 2020). From left to right: Megumi Kawamura, Verena, Ray and Yulin Ma.
Ray and Verena made a quick trip to San Diego to attend the annual UCSD Hearts & Scholars Dinner for undergraduate scholarship recipients on February 20. They enjoyed the festivities in the company of 2018-19 Borton Scholars Megumi Kawamura and Yulin Ma, as well as Kim Burton from the Education Abroad Center. Megumi hopes to eventually work in Japan and Borton Scholar Yukio King has offered to help if she applies in Tokyo. Yulin mentioned in passing that she was born in Vietnam, moved to Taiwan at age 5 and came to the U.S. at age 9. Verena enjoyed speaking with her about experiencing English as a second language, both in learning the language and learning the culture.
Updates on past Borton Scholars:
Megumi Kawamura (Japan, 2018-19) completed her coursework in March and graduated from UCSD Magna Cum Laude. She took a job at a startup called Curative that conducts Covid-19 testing. She was promoted to team lead after 2 months and is now managing a team of 17 people. Megumi writes, "It's certainly been a hectic, unexpected, and (at times) chaotic journey but I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and to be working at this company. When I joined, we were a small company of 50 people and now we have over 2,000 employees, 3 labs nationwide, and have thousands of test sites across the United States. Though I never thought I would be working in customer success, it's been an incredibly valuable experience and I have learned so much these past few months. It's also tremendously rewarding to be able to help the pandemic in some way. Our company, Curative, has made testing easily accessible to millions of people."
Gio Castillo (Spain, 2017-18) is currently attending graduate school at the University of Missouri, St. Louis in a Master’s program in Behavioral Neuroscience. He is developing a study to investigate the relationship between social media usage and self-concept as well as how that impacts cognitive performance in high-frequency users. In the past, Gio has written about how his year studying abroad helped him develop important life skills like adaptability (see article here). He writes that the "ability to navigate different contexts has proven highly valuable while attending grad school during a global pandemic!" Gio is "thankful to the CBMSF for having helped provide that opportunity, and their continued effort in keeping the CBMSF alumni connected. I think that in a year of social distancing and stay-at-home orders around the world, the importance of community and connection has been highlighted like never before."
Justin Lim (South Korea, 2016-17) graduated from UCSD as a member of the class of 2020 with a degree in bioinformatics from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He accepted a job at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT that started in the fall. He works in a lab interested in genome engineering techniques and is learning a lot from the research. Justin expects to stay in Massachusetts for about two years, after which he hopes to apply to graduate school for a PhD program in bioinformatics or computer science. Justin writes, "I have been keeping in touch with some of the friends I met in South Korea and recently checked in with them to make sure they were safe and well. A couple of us had actually made some tentative plans some time ago to have a reunion in South Korea this year, but with impeccable timing, Covid-19 also happened.”
Megan Bright (Germany, 2015-16) is in her second year of law school at UC Berkeley. She worked remotely this summer for a small non-profit based in Oakland addressing problems faced by low income seniors in the community. Megan feels fortunate to participate in Berkeley's clinical law program with the East Bay Community Law Center's Immigration Department, assisting with asylum and adjustment of status cases. Remote instruction has been an adjustment, but Megan is grateful for opportunities to help underserved communities. She writes, "I feel as if I am achieving my career goals and it would not have been possible without the global perspective that studying abroad provided me."
Shelby Newallis (Italy, 2014-15) took a new job right before the pandemic hit as a Development Director for the Little Italy of Los Angeles Association (https://www.lilaa.org/), which is a nonprofit dedicated to creating a little Italy neighborhood in Los Angeles in Shelby’s hometown in the Port of Los Angeles, called San Pedro. There are over 30,000 people of Italian descent in San Pedro, mainly Sicilians and Ischitani due to the fishing community that used to exist there. Shelby writes, “It’s been incredibly challenging because I have a lot of responsibility and am the only employee (we’re new and have a small budget) but it's a great opportunity to combine a lot of my skills & develop new ones. It will be fun to say I was a part of this project in years to come (I hope)!” Her time abroad in Italy was great preparation for her current role. She writes, “My life will be forever richer thanks to the people I met, places I went and experience of living abroad. I am so grateful to you and will never stop believing in the power of year-long immersion study abroad.”
Debbie Leung (Denmark, 2011-2012) continues to work as a transportation systems planner for IBI Group San Diego focusing on smart cities and mobility projects from her apartment. She feels lucky to be able to continue expanding her horizons by delving into her wellness side hustle and sharing her passions for yoga and essential oils on Zoom.
Tamar Freeland (Spain, 2010-11) began the year working on a multidisciplinary Master's in Spanish (linguistics, literature, and pedagogy) in Madrid through the Middlebury College Language Schools. She was able to travel to Madeira, Vienna, Budapest, and different parts of Spain prior to the pandemic. Her MA program moved entirely online in March. She stayed in Spain until the summer, and had to give up her plans for ending her studies in South America. Tamar writes, “Now I'm back in online classes, but this time as a teacher rather than a student. In August, I started working again as a Spanish teacher at the same high school I left in Elk Grove, and I've never felt so challenged (and exhausted) in my life. Distance learning has really pushed me to expand my capacities as a teacher, and while these circumstances are terrible for students' learning, mental health, and social development, I do think that we'll all have learned some very valuable lessons in resilience, empathy, patience, and resourcefulness as a result of this experience.”
Hanna Lopez Rahimi (France, 2009-10) is still teaching high school Spanish in her fifth year in Mill Valley. She and her wife recently welcomed a baby boy and view the extra time they are spending with him while working from home as a silver lining of the pandemic.
Alexandra DeLaney (Denmark, 2009-10) is starting her second year at Penn Law where she is studying intellectual property and plans to use her legal training to help scientists commercialize their inventions. She continues to live in Philadelphia with her husband and pets. During the summer, she completed a judicial internship in the District of Delaware where she was able to observe a variety of cases involving intellectual property issues. Alexandra writes, "I am going to be interviewing for my 2L summer jobs soon, and I am sure I will be asked about my experience in Denmark. I am also using my scientific background to discuss emerging Covid issues with my classmates."
Laura Summers (The Netherlands, 2008-09) has adjusted to working from home in Denver and uses the extra time not spent commuting to cook and bake. She has also spent time volunteering through her work as a design consultant for nonprofits. Laura writes that she and her husband recently took a camping trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. “The fall colors were gorgeous and we got to see bears, wolves, and bison in the park. Overall in 2020, I've been trying to learn to enjoy the little things and re-evaluate what things are most important to me. I'm looking forward to putting up holiday decorations this year and (hopefully!) getting to travel a bit more in 2021.”
Kipp Trieu (France, 2008-09) started a new role over the summer at an independent school in Palo Alto, California as the Assistant Head of Lower School and Curriculum Coordinator. Part of his position is co-chairing his school’s anti-racism committee which, along with the school’s focus on social-emotional learning and constructivist, project-based learning, is what attracted him to the organization and role. Nuanced understanding of inter- and intra-cultural relationships, gained from his experiences abroad and continued conversations with the international and Borton Scholars communities, has contributed greatly to his work.
Nicola Hil (Lyon 2007-2008): Nicola and her husband Amaury came back from their overseas tour in Pakistan a couple months earlier than expected this year due to Covid-19. After finishing their work for U.S. Embassy Islamabad remotely, they started new positions with the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. They will start a new assignment in Morocco next summer, and Nicola is excited to dust off her French skills for their tour there. Nicola continues to stay in touch with friends from her year abroad in France thirteen years ago.
Halley (Henscey) Penno (Italy, 2006-07) and her husband are expecting twin boys early in 2021. She is still working as a bilingual school speech-language pathologist and many of her students are recent immigrants from Mexico. Halley writes, “I enjoy having the opportunity to use my Spanish every day at work, and my Italian on FaceTime calls on the weekends to catch up with friends from my year in Perugia.”
Jennifer Kim (Spain, 2006-07) welcomed a second son. She is taking an indefinite leave from work to be with her children and find out if homeschooling is something that makes sense for her family. Jennifer writes that she appreciates "what the foundation stands for and the bridges it strives to make across countries, cultures, and people.”
Tamami Komatsu Cipriani (Italy, 2005-06) has a two-year old son Noah and has received a Doctorate in Design from the Politecnico di Milano. She writes, "I think I can sum up the last couple years as ones of intense learning and growth. My family and I still live in Berlin and we are really enjoying the city and life here. Given the political climate and the havoc of the pandemic, I am very thankful for the viewpoint and life skills that I acquired during my year abroad. I’m wishing everyone the best in these difficult times, but am also encouraging everyone to look for the emergent opportunities for us to come together and re-build: a present and future that reflects the values of humanity that are able to unite us in a shared and sustainable future."
Marilyn Shapley Richardson (Egypt, 2005-06) is working on the government relations team at Catholic Relief Services covering food security and climate change issues. She works on the policies and legal aspects of issues, trying to help turn what is learned from the programs into good policy. Marilyn writes, “I've been really fortunate to carve a little happiness amidst all the Covid issues this year - I just got married to a really wonderful guy named Kyle Richardson.”
Jonathan Wang (Japan, 2003-04) is a Product Leader at TikTok and looked forward to traveling after graduating from business school in 2020. When those plans had to be scrapped due to Covid-19 he reflected on his time abroad and the changes in him that took place thanks to the familiarity of full immersion. He passed on this message to those considering study abroad: “I realize that the prospect may seem impossible now, but I urge you not to let current times derail your consideration from delay toward cancellation. Many years after my own experience, I can still think of no greater opportunity for personal learning and growth than a challenge to discover a new home away from home.”
Julia Carter Scanlan (Egypt, 2002-03) got married to her husband Blair in August in a small backyard ceremony with only immediate family in attendance. Julia writes, "We're looking forward to when we can travel overseas for a honeymoon. Blair's love of travel was one of the things that we connected about early in our relationship. He also studied abroad in high school (Nicaragua, Mexico) and college (Spain, Prague), and we're so excited to continue to travel together.” Julia also started a new job in February as the Director of Strategy and Operations for the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington. It is a newly launched interdisciplinary center with a mission to "resist strategic misinformation, promote an informed society, and strengthen democratic discourse."
Austin Leininger (Scotland, 1998-99) continues to serve as rector for Calvary and has learned to produce live-streamed worship services. He and his wife Jane have helped their three children navigate education online, which "seems about the polar opposite of education abroad." Austin writes, "This time in pandemic has offered us new insights into our global family. It has drawn us together from across nations—even for something as simple as a church service, where past members now living in Spain and Mexico, as well as those in Montana, Utah, Texas, Colorado, Ohio, and Massachusetts can come together on a Sunday morning for a live-stream service and Zoom coffee hour! And it has given us the opportunity to learn and grow in ways that have made my family and others comment that they don’t want to go back to what normal was pre-Covid. We’ve learned too much that can inform a better approach to how we live our lives. The time I spent in Scotland, 22 years ago now, was a time of horizon expanding and a broadening of my worldview and consciousness. I continue to be grateful for all that I learned about myself and about the creativity needed to adapt in uncertain times and places.”
Thanks to all of you who enable us to support the efforts of these remarkable young people to become world citizens and in doing so honor and remember Chris,
