Dear Contributors and Program Participants,
The Chris Borton Memorial Scholarship Fund is now in its twenty-fifth year, and with the addition of the five students this year who were able to go abroad, 81 UC San Diego and UC Davis students have benefited from your generous contributions. They have pursued international study at universities in Austria, 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.
During 2021 the Board of Directors explored the best way to expand the pool of eligible scholarship candidates without creating undue administrative burden for our volunteer organization. We are excited to announce that we will be partnering with the University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) to offer scholarships for full-year study abroad to students across the University of California system beginning in fall 2022. Our scholarship application can be found here on the UCEAP site and will be listed here starting in 2022. This partnership will allow us to have a standard application and common administration of the scholarship across the entire UC system. We will continue our long direct partnership with Chris’ alma mater UCSD, but are very excited to broaden out the candidate pool as both the size of the scholarship endowment and the number of scholarships we seek to award has grown. We will target up to eight scholarships for 2022 and will maintain the flexibility to award more based on the candidate pool.
2021 Scholarship Recipients:
Daniela Mendoza is an International Business major at UCSD studying abroad in Bologna, Italy for a full academic year. Daniela fell in love with the Italian language and culture on a trip to Europe in 2018 and has completed the Italian language sequence at UCSD. In her free time, she enjoys eating good foods, watching the sunset, reading books, going for long walks, and listening to music. Much of what she reads and listens to is either in Italian or Spanish. Daniela finds that “learning a language is not always just learning how to speak it, but also listening to it and reading it can help to train your mind to using it more often.” She loves the beautiful buildings where lectures are held at the University of Bologna and writes that there are “classrooms all over the city and even though it can be stressful to go from one class to the other, it allows you to explore the city even more.”
Rebeca Brambila is a first generation Mexican-American college student majoring in International Business and minoring in Real Estate and Development at UCSD. Both of her parents are from Mexico, but her great-grandfather was from Italy, where she is studying at the University of Bologna this year. In order to finance her study abroad, she juggled working part-time while being a full-time student. Rebeca writes that “this scholarship has made going abroad not only possible, but my reality. I cannot thank this organization enough for this amazing financial contribution that will allow me to fulfill my dream of going abroad.” Rebeca plans to immerse herself into the Italian culture, make connections with diverse people from different cultures, and take on an internship in Urban Planning. Thus far, she has made a lot of new friends in Italy, many from different countries around Europe, like Lithuania, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Poland. In January she will be moving into an apartment with two roommates, including fellow Borton Scholar Daniela Mendoza!
Neil Dudheker is a Biology major at UCSD studying abroad at University College London for the 2021-22 academic year. He was born and raised in Southern California. Neil believes his experience abroad will allow him to pursue unique connections pertaining to his field of study while also receiving a high-quality education at a competitive university. With the goal of becoming a successful cardiologist in the future, Neil values the opportunity to network with new people and become a more well-rounded individual. He believes that the defining quality of an excellent physician is their ability to connect with their patients, and he hopes that his experience in a diverse city like London will help him develop his ability to connect and communicate with a variety of people. He has found a solid group of mostly British friends who are introducing him to London. Neil writes, “They’ve taken me to Nando’s, which they claim is a cultural necessity. And we spend a little too much time arguing about the correct way to spell and pronounce most words. But overall, they are responsible for making my study abroad experience so special.”
Sophia Garrido is a Communications major at UCSD studying abroad at Royal Holloway in the United Kingdom for the 2021-22 academic year. Sophia was born and raised in Orange County, California and is very passionate about studying different cultures and communities. She loves learning about how media, politics, history, and society all work together to create a culture’s values. At UCSD, she is a member of the sorority Pi Beta Phi, and the UCSD Women’s soccer team. Sophia wants to “challenge herself to become comfortable with the uncomfortable.” In addition to her course work, she is playing competitive soccer. Sophia reports that, “Already, my time abroad has helped me narrow down the path I want to take for my future. It has shown me my passion for international relations so much so to the point where I decided to apply for a summer internship with the U.S. State Department. There is an embassy in Italy that works on promoting religious freedom, as well as an office in Washington DC which does the same. I’ve applied to both, so fingers crossed!”
Shellsea de Leon is a Political Science major at UCSD studying abroad at Sciences Po in Paris, France. She has been studying French since her first year of high school and has loved every second of it. Shellsea is the first in her family to go to college and she wishes to make her academic career the best it can be to make her family proud. After graduation, Shellsea hopes to pursue a law degree and work as a lawyer or in a government agency like the Environmental Protection Agency. She writes, “In my class on climate change it has been very insightful to have conversations on the Paris Accord, but also on COP26 and how countries determine who is the most responsible for carbon emissions and pollution.” In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, hiking, or singing with her dad. While in France, she aims to fully immerse herself in the culture and its people and practice her French in order to become fluent. Shellsea writes that her comprehension of the French language has increased significantly. “I remember when I first came to France and I was absolutely confused as to what everything meant, even though I had years of learning the language. I think, however, thanks to my engagement and pursuit of taking French classes, it gave me an amazing opportunity to get more involved in the culture.”
Sophia Chang was selected to receive a Borton Scholarship but has been forced to delay her year abroad in Japan to the next academic year due to pandemic travel restrictions. We look forward to reporting on her experience in next year’s newsletter.
Updates on 2020-21 Borton Scholarship Recipients:
Jonathan Sarabia (Spain, 2021-22) is a business psychology major and a senior currently studying at Nebrija University in Madrid, Spain. Despite the pandemic canceling his plans to go abroad last year, he was determined to embark on the journey and did not give up applying. Jonathan grew up in San Francisco and his year abroad in Madrid is his first time leaving the country. 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.” Although Jonathan had studied Spanish at UC San Diego, studying abroad in Spain has enabled him to fully immerse himself in Spanish culture. Not only is he continuing to study Spanish at his university, but his choice of a homestay option has enabled him to integrate his daily life with the language by living with a Spanish host family. Jonathan has loved his time so far in Madrid as it’s given him opportunities to connect with new people and develop his cultural intelligence. What he has valued most about being in a foreign country is the amount of self-growth he has seen in himself.
Matthew Zane (Japan, 2021-22) has had to defer his study at the University of Waseda multiple times due to travel restrictions. He completed his first semester at Waseda remotely, is currently back studying at UCSD, and is awaiting word on whether he will be able to go abroad to Waseda in Spring 2022. UCEAP is expected to make a final decision to move forward with the program by December. Matthew writes, “Despite not being in the country, my Japanese improved greatly. I took a class with only 5 other students so I was forced to speak and practice a lot. After many embarrassing moments, I feel much more confident in my fluency.”
Three other selectees from the 2020-21 cohort - Carlo Francisco, Michaela Schwartz, and Sage Gregory - were forced to abandon plans to study abroad due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and were unable to defer their plans to the current year.
Updates on past Borton Scholars:
Moa Smith (Sweden, 2019-20) is finishing her degree at UC Davis and became a supervisor with the Aggie Host Student Security Officer program. She will be participating in the UC Davis Police Department Cadets program this winter/spring and expects to graduate in June. After graduating, she plans to eventually apply to a police academy and enter law enforcement.
Minna Luu (France, 2019-20) completed her senior year from her home in San Jose and graduated from UC Davis in Winter Quarter 2020. She went to work as an Administrative Assistant at a corporate immigration law firm, learned a lot about the immigration process, and gained new insight from the lawyers she worked with. She decided against law school and took another job as an Asset Management Administrator at a nonprofit organization called BRIDGE that builds and helps house low-income families. Ultimately, she would like to go to graduate school.
Kayla Erler (United Kingdom, 2019-20) is pursuing a PhD at UCSD and has received several grant fellowships that will provide funding for the next four years. Her research is focused on seismic design, attempting to develop a method of eliminating one of the steps in the testing process for bearing isolators. Her horse is growing quickly and settled at a barn in San Diego that will be her new home for the next five years. Kayla is headed to France for spring break to connect with one of her good friends whom she met during her year abroad in London.
Tammy Mok (Japan, 2019-20) will be graduating from UCSD in December. She plans to backpack around Europe in early 2022 with some fellow Tohoku exchange students, before moving to Seattle to start a job in April. Tammy has maintained a reading language exchange with a student she met in Japan, progressing to more complicated novels and increasing her reading abilities quite a bit. She started another language exchange with a fellow student involving a video call every week to practice conversational skills, and it's been a great way to maintain Japanese speaking fluency.
Isabella Silva (Japan, 2018-19) is living in South Korea where she is an English teacher to children between the ages of four and twelve years old. Reflecting on her first year in the role, Isabella writes that she “had a new sense of confidence in myself learning not only from my coworkers but from my students as well.” She hopes to continue teaching in Korea for one more year then travel back to Japan to teach there for a time.
Megumi Kawamura (Japan, 2018-19) continues to work at Curative as a Customer Success Supervisor. Curative was involved in vaccine administration and Covid-testing. Most recently, the company is providing rapid PCR testing which gives patients PCR results within a few hours. In August, she moved back to San Diego and moving to Japan in the future is still on her radar.
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 has had to adjust and readjust his experiment a few times to accommodate Covid-19 restrictions but has been able to move the project online. He will be testing working memory in high/low intensity Instagram users after taking and posting a selfie online. Gio writes, “I have a hunch that users who are heavily invested in Instagram may have a difficult time concentrating on a task after having posted a selfie! The fact that more attention is being drawn to the mental health ramifications of social media use is indeed very timely. As a researcher it is nice to receive validation that your investigation is important and may have real-world impacts on people's lives.”
Sophie Osborn (Japan, 2016-17) is working with the United Auto Workers (UAW), one of the largest unions in the U.S. She became interested in labor issues while completing her senior thesis at UCSD, and increasingly felt drawn to work in domestic policy. She works with the UAW's Legislative Department advancing working families' interests in Congress. Sophie writes, “Occasionally I am pulled in to help with meetings our International Department has with our Japanese counterpart union, and that has been an excellent opportunity to keep my language skills fresh!”
Justin Lim (South Korea, 2016-17) is applying to graduate schools. The application process has given him an opportunity to reflect on his educational experiences, with his time in South Korea being a highlight. Justin writes, “It seems that the years since studying abroad have only confirmed what an important journey it was, though it is difficult to describe the scope of its impact. I didn't end up changing career trajectories or discovering a new passion but spending time in a completely new environment with a diverse group of people was transformative.” He is currently working at MIT with research interests in structural biology and computer science.
Sunny Young (The Netherlands, 2014-15) graduated from a Master's program in speech-language pathology at Cal State Fullerton and moved back to San Diego. She currently works as a speech therapist at a private practice, primarily with children. She continues to keep in touch with her Dutch "cousins" (cousins of her cousin). She discovered them through her study abroad experience and writes, “we've been close ever since! Connecting with my cousins was the best part of my study abroad.”
Rebecca Korff (Spain, 2013-14) began a position as an International Trade Specialist with the Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration. In the Office of Digital Services Industries, she covers digital services policy for Europe and Latin America, tracking technology regulation emerging from those regions and monitoring how it impacts the U.S. technology industry. She writes, “One of the coolest moments yet was the chance to meet the Secretary of Commerce in person and help prepare her for a bilateral meeting. I feel like my experience with Commerce has really come full circle; a few months after returning from study abroad in 2014, I interned at Commerce's Export Assistance Center in San Diego.”
Shelby Newallis (Italy, 2014-15) has begun teaching in Los Angeles. She has also been working on a holistic nutritionist certification and is excited to be able to do some counseling and workshops related to food education when she is done. She writes, “I’m extraordinarily blessed to have great people around me who’ve made this tough time so much better – my boyfriend Truman, my family, and my three huskies who keep life fluffy and interesting.”
Christian Koguchi (Japan, 2014-15) is living in Seattle and working at Xbox/Microsoft and very much enjoying both. He writes, “I love the mix of forest and nature aesthetics with the sleek modern city vibes (actually not too dissimilar from Sendai where I studied abroad).” He loves Ramen Danbo, his favorite ramen restaurant in the city, and is a fan of the coffee culture.
Molly Tremblay (Ireland, 2011-12) and her fiancé moved to Sacramento with their two dogs. Molly and Peter are getting married in March. She continues to work with Kimley-Horn as a Civil Engineer, and her focus has shifted to designing and writing grant applications for active transportation projects. While they have no concrete travel plans, Molly writes, “I would love to take Peter to Ireland to share my EAP memories with him.”
Debbie Leung (Denmark, 2011-2012) notes that few experiences have been as life-changing as her study abroad experience in Denmark. She continues to work in transportation planning, having found her initial inspiration after witnessing enhanced transportation and efficiency in Denmark. Since returning she has also volunteered regularly for Women’s Transportation Seminar, a career and networking group that also provides annual scholarships to female students pursuing a career in transportation. She is currently planning a trip in 2022 to see members of her host family who are temporarily residing in South Carolina.
Tamar Freeland (Spain, 2010-11) is living in Sacramento working as a high school Spanish teacher. Her classes have done letter and video exchanges with peers in Spain and Argentina, which has been fun. She writes, “Teaching through the pandemic has been very tough and exhausting, so I'm still taking things one day at a time. The highlight of my summer was a road trip to Seattle, and I'm itching to travel abroad when things open back up.”
Yoshie Yamamoto (Japan, 2010-11) is currently working at Stanford Hospital's oncology department. She writes, “I am reminded each day by my patients how privileged I am to be in the position of being able to take care of them, and watching each patient strive to achieve their optimal state of health with resilience and determination motivates me to keep moving forward positively despite the drastic changes occurring in healthcare due to the pandemic.”
Laura Summers (The Netherlands, 2008-09) started a new job at an early-stage startup called TruePlan. She writes, “It's an exciting opportunity to help grow a company and I'm learning a lot in the process. Instead of traveling this year I'll be taking advantage of living near the mountains and hitting the slopes in Colorado.”
Kipp Trieu (France, 2008-09) continues as Assistant Head of Lower School and Curriculum Coordinator at an independent school in Palo Alto, CA, and is (slowly but surely) preparing his dissertation research proposal.
Nicola Hil (France, 2007-08) and her husband Amaury moved to Rabat, Morocco this year with Amaury’s job with the U.S. Foreign Service. Nicola is continuing to work remotely for the U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security and loves being able to use her French on a daily basis again in a French and Arabic speaking country. She writes, “I’m so glad that study abroad is back and the students are off on their adventures. I often feel that I never stopped being a study abroad student in many ways, and I wish them the life-changing experience I had in Lyon around 14 years ago!”
Halley (Henscey) Penno (Italy, 2006-07) and her husband welcomed twin boys on February 2nd. She writes, “2/2 - the perfect birthday for twins!” She will be staying home with them for the next two years and writes that she is excited to spend this special time with them.
Jennifer Kim (Spain, 2006-07) and her family are moving from San Diego to Maryland. She writes that they “will be homeschooling once we’re in Maryland! Please wish me luck, I think I’ll need it!”
Paul Suarez (Spain, 2006-07) is working at a medical device company and has been able to stay 60% remote (a silver lining from the pandemic). He has enjoyed spending more time with his boys Sam (6 years) and Lou (4 years). With travel abroad not an option in recent years, Paul and family have been going on short trips within California to see family, camp, and visit national parks. He writes, “I'm looking forward to getting my passport dusted off and venturing back out into the world in 2022.”
Jenna Carlsson (Senegal 2005-06) lives in the Bay Area and started a new business in 2019 after getting trained in Marie Kondo's KonMari Method -- "the life changing magic of tidying up!" It was good she had this because come March 2020, all the events she was coordinating as an event planner were canceled! Although certainly challenging to start and run a business in a pandemic, she loves her work helping people keep what sparks joy in their lives, and found creative ways to help people virtually. She spent a lot of time in the mountains in 2020 and out on the water. She is still Latin dancing and performed recently with her dance teacher -- her heart sang to be able to dance after so long! She is happy to be able to travel again and has made local and domestic trips to connect with friends and loved ones. She is lucky to have one of her Senegal classmates live close by, and her small cohort is planning a little reunion for summer 2022.
Jonathan Wang (Japan, 2003-04) has been at TikTok as a head of product in its Monetization division for a little over a year. He has built a global team spanning 5 locations and dozens of product managers with particular attention to supporting his team. Jonathan writes that, “Covid-19 has taught me that, despite being an introvert, without human-to-human interaction I cannot be 100% the teammate and leader of which I am capable. I'm looking forward to the day when my entire team can meet under one roof. In the meantime, I'll be flying out on Thanksgiving Day and traveling to southeast Asia, finally able to meet a portion of my team in person.”
Brian Israel (United Kingdom, 2003-04) joined NASA as the Associate General Counsel for International Law, leading the International, National Security, and Space Law practices. Brian writes, “I’m enjoying my return to public service and the challenges of engineering international cooperation across the full spectrum of NASA’s activities: from Earth science to the exploration of the Moon and Mars. I’ll return to teaching Space Law at Berkeley Law in the spring.”
Andrea (Martinez-Calvillo) Hassan (Mexico, 1999-2000) has two boys, ages 8 and 5. The eldest has discovered a love for reading and drawing comics. The youngest is just like his mom, adventurous and ready to try new things. Andrea continues to teach her Baile Folklorico dance classes at the high school level. Andrea and her family are looking forward to a trip to Chiapas, Mexico where they plan to stay in the jungle and explore the Mayan archaeological sites. Andrea writes, “I hope both my kids get the travel bug and that joy to explore the world.”
Jennifer Chang (United Kingdom, 1997-98) and her husband Bill will be traveling to the East Coast to visit family for Thanksgiving and will be spending time with family in Hawaii at the end of the year. Bill has worked very hard on the Moderna vaccine trial for children.
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,
