Scholars – OURS National Scholarships

National Scholarship Recipients 2023-2024

Sara Ahlich Critical Language Scholarship

Sara Ahlich (’24, Conservation and Resource Studies) is concentrating on Ecosystem Management and Interpretation and also working toward a minor in Forestry and Natural Resources. While she loves language-learning for its own sake, she hopes to use her Portuguese and Russian skills to facilitate environmentally sound and socially just resource management in critical regions worldwide. Having studied Russian language in the inaugural year of the online CLS Spark program, Sara is excited to now experience the culture and languages of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan first-hand. Upon her return to Berkeley, she plans […]

Samuel Alber Goldwater Scholarship

Samuel Alber (’24, Computer Science and Physics) is interested in the mathematics and physics underlying the immune system and plans to pursue a PhD in computational biology. His research involves developing and applying statistical/computational methods for analyzing single-cell multiomics data from immune cells. He also develops computer vision algorithms for analyzing immune cell interactions from microscopy images and videos. Outside of research, Sam enjoys teaching and is currently a teaching assistant for Berkeley’s machine learning course.

Nitish Dashora Goldwater Scholarship

Nitish Dashora (’24, EECS) was born and raised in Columbus, OH. He is extremely interested in machine learning algorithms for general intelligence, namely those concerned with robotics. He has been researching AI algorithms for high-speed, off-road self-driving at Berkeley AI Research (BAIR). He has also been working with the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience to explore semantically meaningful learning representations in computer vision. He worked at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with autonomous racing and published as a first author in the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). He […]

Nitish Dashora Astronaut Scholarship

Benjamin Davis Boren Scholarship

Benjamin Davis (’25, Business Administration) will use his Boren Scholarship to study Hebrew in Israel, spending the Fall semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Spring semester at Tel Aviv University. Ben’s career and research interests include the convergence of international markets and security, tech, and business innovation, particularly regarding dual-use technology. In Fall 2022, Ben went to London as part of the Global Management Program studying international financial institutions, markets, and trade policy. On campus, Ben is involved with the Berkeley Finance Club, Berkeley Venture Capital, and […]

Alex Edgar Strauss Scholarship

Alex Edgar (’25, Political Behavior, with minors in Public Policy and Education) most loves working with his peers to inspire Generation Z to become the most civically engaged generation in American history. He currently serves as the Director of the Associated Students of the University of California Vote Coalition, Civic Engagement Coordinator for the UC Student Association, and an Andrew Goodman Foundation Vote Everywhere Ambassador. Alex’s civic work has been widely recognized, and he was honored with the 2023 John Lewis Youth Leadership Award from the National Association of Secretaries […]

Freja Ekman Soros Fellowship

Freja Ekman (’18, Chemical Biology) was born in Erlangen, Germany, to parents from Sweden and Norway. Her family immigrated to San Diego, California when she was five. Freja is currently in her second year of an MD-PhD in genetics at Stanford University. She is interested in developing new genome editing tools for the treatment of hematological diseases and rare genetic diseases. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Freja studied chemical biology, with the hope of understanding how to harness basic chemical principles to better characterize the behavior of genetic mutations […]

Cooper Jacobus Astronaut Scholarship

Cooper Jacobus (’25, Astrophysics and Logic) is passionate about Computational Physics and fascinated with Cosmology and Machine Intelligence. He currently works toward solving problems in Cosmology using AI methods at UC Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy and Berkeley Lab’s Computational Cosmology Center. His research attempts to leverage the latest developments in technology to gain new insights into the origins of the universe. Questions about what came before the Big Bang have captured his imagination, and he is using next-generation supercomputers to simulate the birth of the Cosmos. He hopes to remain […]

Jiaqi Jiang Schwarzman Scholars Program

Jiaqi (Claire) Jiang (’21, Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science) is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard. She is passionate about alleviating health disparities through the appropriate applications of medical artificial intelligence. Previously, Claire interned at IDG Capital targeting biomedical technologies, conducted frontier NeuroAI research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, led 50+ scholars to provide guidelines on respirator decontamination during the COVID-19 pandemic, and co-founded a nonprofit organization to help Chinese students gain professional opportunities. As a Schwarzman Scholar, Claire wants to become a leader in […]

Morgan Livingston Schwarzman Scholars Program

Morgan Livingston (’21, Interdisciplinary Studies/Cyber Policy) is a technologist researching policy on AI and emerging technologies. She is currently a TechCongress fellow and formerly supported White House and executive branch policy as a Science and Technology Policy Institute fellow. She is passionate about equitable technology development and has advocated with the UN and researched privacy and data governance. Morgan graduated from UC Berkeley after transferring from a local community college.

Julian Martinez-Garcia Critical Language Scholarship

Julian Martinez-Garcia (’23, Linguistics) will spend his summer in Malang, Indonesia studying Bahasa Indonesia. An avid language learner and traveler, Julian has taken four semesters of Polish classes at UC Berkeley and previously lived in Maastricht, The Netherlands as an exchange student. He is excited to learn a structurally different language in a fully immersive environment. Julian plans to use his skills in Indonesian and other languages as gateways to further study of linguistic diversity and language change, or in a career in an international organization.

Clio Smith Critical Language Scholarship

Clio Smith (’23, Business Administration and Data Science) is an avid language learner and cultural explorer who has lived in Japan and Germany as an exchange student. This summer, she is heading to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to study Portuguese and explore the cultural art scene. Clio plans on using her skills in Spanish, German, Chinese, and Portuguese in her international business career.

Kyle Terrizzi Critical Language Scholarship

Kyle Terrizzi (’23, Comparative Literature and East Asian Religion, Thought & Culture) will spend the summer continuing their Mandarin language study at Tamkang University in New Taipei City, Taiwan. In less than two years, Kyle has completed four semesters of Mandarin and two semesters of Literary Chinese at UC Berkeley, as well as having attended the Mandarin immersion program at the Middlebury Language School in Summer 2022. Kyle is also the Undergraduate Student Liaison for the Center for Chinese Studies at UC Berkeley. In addition to being a full-time student, […]

Bryce Wallace Beinecke Scholarship

Bryce Wallace (‘23, English and Linguistics) is a transfer student from Southern California. While at Berkeley, he has been doing research in the linguistics department, focusing on the rhetorical use of metaphor in public discourse. This research led to an honors thesis on the rhetoric of anti-vax websites. Bryce is also working on an honors thesis in the English department where he is assessing metacritical approaches to meaning-making in literary texts. He is currently a Haas Scholar conducting research on the ethics of literary criticism and literary representations of Otherness. […]

OURS National Scholarships