In support of the first goal of Portland State’s five-year strategic plan — elevating student success — Currently now features student success each term, acknowledging achievements such as publications, scholarships, grants, presentations and more. Here are some of the students who made us proud this fall. Want your students to appear in the winter roundup? See submission guidelines on the Currently website.
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS AND OTHER HONORS
Graduate students Gabby Abou-Zeid and Katherine Keeling, civil engineering, and Kelly Rodgers, urban studies and planning, will receive prestigious Eisenhower Fellowships from the U.S. Department of Transportation at the 2021 virtual annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. This is the second award for all three. Abou-Zeid and Keeling previously won the fellowship in 2020 and Rodgers in 2019. The Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program awards fellowships to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines.
The History Department has named its fall 2020 scholarship winners. Eliana Bane, Adianna Davis, and Megan Shaw were awarded the $500 Barney Burke Undergraduate History Scholarship. Stephanie Vallance won the $1,000 Joel Palmer Graduate Scholarship. Hannah Reynolds won the $1,000 Fulton-Dodds Graduate Scholarship. Katherine Bush and Amanda (Andy) Swinford won the $500 Stephanie Oliver Graduate Scholarship.
The winners of the 2020 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize are Kris Blackmore, an undergraduate student in graphic design, who was awarded first place and $5,000; Roshani Thakore, graduate student in art + social practice, who was awarded second place and $4,000; and Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr., graduate student in art + social practice, who was awarded third place and $3,000. Darby Harrington, graduate student in studio practice, Mai Ide, undergraduate student in art practice, and Katie Costa, undergraduate student in art practice, were recognized with honorable mentions. An exhibition of the prize winners is planned for January at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Check the museum website for details.
Holly Brott, a doctoral student studying community psychology, was awarded the 2020 APA Committee on Socioeconomic Status Student Leadership Award on Oct. 30. These awards recognize the outstanding achievements of students who have made significant contributions to the understanding of socioeconomic status and the lives and well-being of the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Brott will be recognized at the APA Annual Convention and receive a framed certificate and $500 honorarium.
Erika Carpenter, sociology graduate student, was awarded Outstanding TA in Sociology. Carpenter also secured a second contract from the Rape Prevention Education Program at Oregon Health Authority to conduct a fully-funded focus group research project with high school students exploring sexual violence prevention and gender-inclusive school policies.
Jenna DePasquale, sociology graduate student, was awarded Outstanding Graduate Student in Sociology.
Taylor Dodrill, Earth, Environment and Society doctoral student, was awarded a Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). With this $110,046 two-year fellowship, Dodrill has started to address some key coastal management questions such as harmful algal blooms along the Oregon coast. She is currently working on her dissertation research in South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Sarah Elkinton, a graduate student in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, was a winner of the 2020 Paula Menyuk Travel Award for the Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD). The award was announced during the closing ceremony at the virtual conference Nov. 8.
Undergraduate student Avarie Fitzgerald received the Marguerite Award to help her pursue graduate studies in the Geographic Information Systems certification program.
Aurora Mak, undergraduate student in mathematics, received an internship at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center to research the modeling and designing of propellers for the purpose of minimizing noise. Mak’s position lasted from Aug. 24 through Dec. 11.
Jaime Orrego-Oñate, a doctoral student in civil engineering, has been awarded a $15,000 Oregon Sylff Fellowship for International Research. As a Chilean national completing a PhD in transportation engineering at PSU, Orrego-Oñate is poised to promote the expansion of American research abroad into countries that lack research resources.
Sarah Price, graduate student in political science, received the Oregon Scholarship and a continuing education grant. Price’s thesis is on humanitarian aid and development.
Alexandra Vargas Quiñones, graduate student in environmental science and management, received an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women.
Cyrena Selden, sociology undergraduate student, was awarded Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Sociology.
Wynn Strange, graduate student in sociology, was elected vice president of equity and inclusion of the Graduate Employees Union Executive Board.
Ned Tilbrook, sociology graduate student, was awarded Outstanding Graduate Student in Sociology.
Sara Urbina, a doctoral student in urban planning and graduate teaching assistant, was awarded ITE’s 2020 Student Paper Award for “Influence of Autonomous Vehicles on Travel Behavior of 50+ years Population.”
PRESENTATIONS, PUBLICATIONS, AND EXHIBITIONS
Fayez Alsoubie, graduate student in engineering and technology, co-authored “Forecasting Technological Positioning Through Technology Knowledge Redundancy: Patent Citation Analysis of IoT, Cybersecurity, and Blockchain” in Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
Chessa Casper, undergraduate student in film and arts + letters, screened a short video titled “Rotten Fruit” at the Northwest Film Forum’s Local Sightings Film Festival.This audiovisual poem explores time, gender, origins, transformation and self-actualization.
Book Publishing graduate students Grace Hansen, project manager; Rosina Miranda, assistant project manager; Kendra Ferguson, cover designer; Morgan Ramsey, interior designer; Kali Carryl, social media branded graphics designer; Alix Martinez, Instagram marketing; and Alex Gonzales, publicity, held a successful launch party for Ooligan Press’ most recent publication, “Laurel Everywhere.” Ooligan Press, a trade press owned and operated by master’s students in PSU’s book publishing program, sold the entire print run of 1,500 copies of Laurel Everywhere, a young adult novel about grief, within one week of launch.
Elizabeth Hulen, graduate student in sociology, co-authored “‘Eyes in the Home’: Addressing Social Complexity in Veterans Affairs Home-Based Primary Care” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Amir Shaygan, graduate student in engineering and technology, co-authored “Optimization of Battery and Wind Technologies: Case of Power Deviation Penalties” and “Measuring Emotional Reactions of University Students Towards a Student Information System (SIS): A Turkish University Case” in Technology in Society.
Wynn Strange, graduate student in sociology, co-authored “Responding to Concerning Posts on Social Media: A Qualitative Study with Implications for Suicide Prevention Training for Military Veterans” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research; and “Enhancing Usability of Appointment Reminders: Qualitative Interviews of Patients Receiving Care in the Veterans Health Administration” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
ACHIEVEMENTS BY OUR GRADUATES
We received many submissions with alumni achievements and have shared those here. Please let the alumni magazine know about significant alumni achievements by sending news to psumag@pdx.edu.
C.J. Appleton MS ’19 published “Book Review: Queer Histories and the Politics of Policing” in Criminal Justice Review.
Sabra Boyd ’10 published a story in the Washington Post about how surviving teen homelessness taught her skills for living through a pandemic.
Alec Chapa ’19 published “In Trump We Trust: Epistemic Isolation, Conflict Narratives, and Climate Change Denial In Significant Portion of Trump’s 2016 Election Base,” in The Macksey Journal, part of Johns Hopkins University Press. Chapa was a McNair scholar while at PSU and is currently a self-employed conflict and business consultant.
Paul Deppen III MS ’18 was hired at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Roberts Individualized Medical Genetics Center.
Andrew Dieckhoff ’13 MA ’17 announced his proprietary sports analytics system, the Dieckhoff Power Index (DPI), is now partnering with one of the top independent college basketball websites in the country. After finishing his master’s degree, Dieckhoff spent two years in China as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English, and during that time polished his DPI system.
Lindsey Erickson MS ’20 was accepted into the Migration, Diversity & Inclusion Graduate Research Industry Partnership (GRIP) program, a partnership between the Scanlon Foundation and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Lindsey’s doctoral project is called “Capturing Diversity and Social Cohesion in Modern Australia” and focuses on capturing the experiences of different migrant subgroups to improve social cohesion throughout Australia. Erickson will participate in the program through February 2024.
Rasha Elabdali ’18 authored a piece titled “Teaching with Love” detailing her work with sub-Saharan refugees as part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a non-governmental organization she works with in Libya.
Rima Elabdali MA ’16 co-authored an article with Nike Arnold, applied linguistics faculty, titled “Group Dynamics Across Interaction Models in L2 Collaborative Wiki Writing” and published in Computers and Composition. Rima is now a doctoral student at Georgetown University.
Carol Hernández Rodríguez PhD ’18 is now an adjunct faculty member in geography at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Hernández Rodríguez was selected by the Journal of Peasant Studies to participate in its highly competitive International Writeshop.
Steven Howland PhD ’19 published “The Impacts of Gentrification on Transportation and Social Support for Black Working-Poor Families in Portland, Oregon.”
Zach Jones MA ’18; Tanya Sydorenko, applied linguistics faculty; Phoebe Daurio, Intensive English Language Program faculty; and Steven Thorne, world languages and literatures faculty, co-authored “Beyond the Curriculum: Extended Discourse Practice Through Self-access Pragmatics Simulations,” published in Language Learning & Technology.
Philippa Otto MA ’17 authored an article based on her thesis, “Choosing Specialized Vocabulary to Teach with Data-Driven Learning: An Example from Civil Engineering," published in the journal English for Specific Purposes.
Rossina Soyan MA ’20 published “Investigating the Needs of Foreign Language Learners of Tuvan” in the Journal of Language, Identity & Education this past summer. Rossina wrote this article while completing her MA TESOL degree, and her work was supported by the James R. Nattinger Endowed Fellowship in the Department of Applied Linguistics. She began a doctoral program in the Department of Modern Language at Carnegie Mellon University this fall.
Jennifer Tenorio MS ’14 published “The Toolbox for Bystander Intervention,” a video Tedx talk on by-stander intervention, a needed skill in today’s heightened activist context. Tenorio works as a United States customs broker, and she volunteers extensively. She serves on the Oregon Mediation Association board and as an active member of the Portland Peace Team, an organization that provides nonviolent security at events when invited and also provides training and workshops.
Kyla J. Tompkins MA ’17 co-authored “Gender Differences in the Development of Suicidal Behavior Among United States Military Veterans: A National Qualitative Study,” published in Social Science & Medicine.
Phil Tostado MA ’17 was accepted into University of Iowa’s doctoral program in sociology.