Professors Praise New Graduates

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“Lamiya Cotton reached out to me when she was a senior in high school trying to decide if she wanted to come to USF. We had a wonderful conversation about USF and the Communication Studies department. She decided to come to USF and major in communication studies and she enrolled in my Communication & Everyday Life class during her first semester,” said Eve-Anne Doohan, professor.

“Lamiya is a USF success story. She is quite simply an excellent student (3.92 overall GPA, 3.96 major GPA). But she is so much more than that. She worked all four years as the department student assistant. She was co-captain of the USF Spirit Squad, which she performed with for the past four years. She was on the executive board of VarCity, the USF hip-hop dance team.”

Doohan continued, “She has done all of that while also completing numerous internships. Just two other facts about Lamiya: her parents are deaf and speak ASL. She could have easily tested out of her foreign language because of her fluency with ASL, but she instead chose to take three semesters of Japanese! And another fun fact about Lamiya and her family is that both of her parents are also graduating from college this year, on the same weekend as Lamiya.”

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“Alana Loya did an internship with the USF archives in Gleeson Library, creating an exhibit about the history of USF women’s basketball. She talked with USF’s all-time leading scorer for men’s or women’s basketball, Mary Hile, and as part of a longer project that might take even more ambitious and imaginative shape in the years to come, Alana (pictured here with Hile) wants to conduct more research and collect additional oral histories of other USF women players,” said Katrina B. Olds, professor and chair of the history department.

A recording and transcript of Loya’s interview with Hile, including the details of Hile’s career and the growth of women’s sports after Title IX, will be catalogued in the university archives.

“Alana is a great student, and she’s a USF basketball superfan,” Olds said.

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“Hillary Nguyen has been a research assistant and a teaching assistant for me and has done an outstanding job in both roles. She and I worked on two research projects: One last academic year which investigated the effects of visual and audio secondary cognitive tasks on landing biomechanics, and one this year examining lower limb biomechanics during different drop landing tasks. The work for last year’s project resulted in her presenting a poster at the Southwest Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine annual conference last October,” said Gerwyn Hughes, associate professor of kinesiology.

“Hillary was a teaching assistant for my biomechanics lab classes in both the fall and spring semesters this year,” Hughes said. “She did an outstanding job mentoring students in the class and provided a lot of support to me.”

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“Manuel Gonzalez is an educator, a father, a partner, the son of Mexican immigrants, a veteran, and a scholar.  He came to the USF School of Education inspired to shift careers by his own experience as a father, and is committed to making the educational system better for all children,” said Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, professor in the School of Education.

“Manuel leads by example and is grounded in a vision of change that is born of his own experiences as a Mexican child in the Texas educational system,” Negrón-Gonzales said. “Manuel graduated with a master's degree and will be returning to USF this fall to pursue his doctorate in the Organization and Leadership doctoral program in the School of Education. Manuel inspires all who meet him and represents the very best of what USF is.”

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“If you met Leanna Perez, you might never know that she loves watching movies in Portuguese and French even though she says, ‘I don’t know those languages but I love the way they sound. And the captions teach me current phrases.’ There’s something else that makes Leanna exceptional: her goal to become a pediatric dentist,” said Lynda Boyer-Chu, adjunct professor of nursing.

“She has idolized dentistry since she can remember. She even has fond memories of the teeth models that are in every dental office. When asked why pediatric dentistry, Leanna says she has a special connection to kids, helping her mom as the eldest of four children,” Boyer-Chu said. “She majored in public health at USF and sees the impact of teaching children and families about prevention, and not just in the U.S. but in developing countries.”

Boyer-Chu said Perez is hoping to land a dental assistant role in a pediatric dental office while working on her applications to dental school. “Given her resilient and studious personality, not too long from now, Leanna will be in a pediatric dental office using a teeth model to teach prevention.”

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“Daniel Schechter-Saavedra embodies the critical thinking, compassion, and deep learning we humanities professors strive to instill in our students. A philosophy major and Jewish studies and social justice minor, Daniel has been actively engaged with San Francisco since his first moments at USF,” said Aaron Hahn Tapper, professor.

“It’s hard to believe he’s consistently made the dean’s list given his many pursuits. A small selection of his extracurriculars include serving as a teaching assistant for a USF course on existentialism, as a research assistant focusing on social-emotional and identity formation, a volunteer with SF Night Ministry, which provides community-based crisis support, and a university fellow with the San Francisco Holocaust Center,” Hahn Tapper said.

“But what impresses me most about Daniel is that none of these activities are really extracurricular — they are an extension of who he is. Daniel wants to understand others. He truly aims to hear from perspectives different from his own. He constantly reassesses his own opinions and beliefs, ensuring that they hold up to his values. Simply put, he is why we dedicate ourselves to the classroom. Daniel will begin his post-USF life working with the American Humanist Association in Washington, D.C. I can’t wait to see where this takes him.”

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“Alana Nayak is among the most dedicated, intellectual, and hardworking students I have ever encountered. They are a true exemplar of cura personalis, the rare student who has committed their whole self to the service of bettering their community, both at USF and beyond,” said Oren Kroll-Zeldin, associate professor of theology and religious studies.

“A sociology major and a double minor in Jewish Studies and Social Justice and Middle East Studies, Alana excelled in every class they took, as evidenced by their 4.0 GPA. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to learn with Alana in both my Jewish Studies and Middle East Studies classes. Alana always read every page of reading that was assigned in my classes (and I assign a lot of reading!) and was consistently prepared to discuss the material in robust ways. I could always count on Alana to respond to questions and to challenge their classmates to think critically about the material,” Kroll-Zeldin said. 

“I was also privileged to learn with Alana on a summer immersion program with the Center for Global Education called Beyond Bridges: Israel-Palestine,” he said. “This extraordinarily challenging program took USF students to Palestine and Israel on a journey of comparative conflict analysis and conflict transformation. Alana excelled during this educational program, rising to every personal, intellectual, and political challenge they encountered. Their unwavering commitment to justice makes them the ideal USF student. While I will miss having them in the classroom, the real world is lucky to have them. Alana will have a profound impact on every community they touch.”

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“We want to recognize Vanessa Seawright because she was a middle school teacher in the sciences who wanted to pursue her next career path in the biotechnology industry,” said Luwei Xie, administrative director for USF’s biotechnology programs.

“The PSM in Biotechnology program at USF was her top choice to prepare to step into the biotech world. And now she is working as a research associate at Acelot,” a company that integrates novel AI tools, computational chemistry, and assays at its offices in South San Francisco, Xie said. “She is a great example for those who want to change their career by attending the biotech program at USF.”

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“Isabela Avila is intelligent, kind, thoughtful, and driven and currently serves as the sales coordinator for the LA Galaxy.  She has thrived in the USF Sport Management program as a member of Cohort 25S in Orange County, and was introduced to USFSM through her sister Ari, an esteemed alumnus,” said Doug Manning, assistant professor.

“In all of her graduate coursework, Isabela's contributions were rooted in both academic theory and her professional experiences — her passion for sport, and helping others, is evident in all she does,” Manning said.

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“Claire Mattingly is an outstanding student whose intellectual growth and deepening commitment to community has been a privilege to witness,” said Camille Shira Angel, rabbi in residence at USF.

“In both my Queering Religion course and Honoring Our LGBTQIA+, Jewish, Elders course, Claire shined with their thoughtful, empathetic, and engaged participation,” Rabbi Angel said.

“Claire shows up — for their peers, their professors, and their wider community. Their internship at the Northern California Holocaust Center is one way Claire demonstrates what they've learned as a minor in our Jewish Studies and Social Justice program. Claire has a profound dedication to preserving memory, honoring history, and becoming a vessel for stories that must not be forgotten — both the stories of survivors of the Holocaust and also long-term survivors of AIDS. Their curiosity, empathy, and resolve to make a meaningful difference in the world is truly inspiring.”

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“Students Adrian Lam, Jennifer Tran, Benedict Neo, and Wei Chun Tan of the MS in Data Science program championed a first-of-its-kind hackathon, all while being immersed in their demanding graduate studies and practicum work,” said Aija Tapaninen, the program’s administrative director.

“The students organized the two-day Chinatown Hack, a hackathon for high school students, that gave newcomers and experienced coders alike a chance to come together, be mentored, and create applications that benefit the Chinatown community and small businesses,” Tapaninen said.

“Adrian, Jennifer, Benedict, and Wei Chun solicited sponsors, judges, and industry mentors, worked with SFUSD to spread the word, and rallied their MSDS classmates and faculty to volunteer for the weekend to run the event at USF’s Downtown Campus. These student leaders demonstrated a collaborative spirit.”