Student & Alumni Accomplishments

2025

• Maeve Cassetty will be starting an MA in Conflict Resolution at Georgetown University this fall.
• Ava Wampold is a campaign manager at Rachel Storch for NYC City Council.

2024

• Drew Foster '22 was accepted into medical school at University of California Davis. 
• Ava Wampold '24 has joined the House Majority PAC in Washington, D.C. as a Political Associate. 

2023

• Eric DaCosta '23 will be joining the US Wealth Advisory Services team at Nuveen, a TIAA Company, as a Distribution Analyst.
• Maeve Cassetty '23 and Sarah Rankin '23 were both inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Congratulations!
• Hannah Plummer '23 presented a paper entitled, "Feminine Bodies and Consumption: Female Saints and Ascetic Practices in Tiqqun's Theory of a Young-Girl" at the 2022 Southern California Conference on Undergraduate Research (SCCUR).
• Franny Hutchins '19 has been accepted into a Master’s Program in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania, with a focus on architectural conservation. She will begin coursework in the fall.
• Miriam Hamburger '17 has been accepted into the PhD program at UC Santa Barbara in the Religious Studies department. She will begin coursework, with a focus on indigenous traditions, in the fall.

2022

• Alex Smith, '22 presented “The Smell of Death and Damnation: Sulphur as an Apocalyptic Element in the Book of Revelation” at the 2021 Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) and at 2022 National Council for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) conference. After graduation, Alex will begin the Master of Divinity graduate program at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.
• Andrew Foster, '22 received a position in the University of California Postbaccalaureate Consortium, a partnership of postbaccalaureate premedical programs in the University of California Schools of Medicine. 
• Maggie Saucedo, '22 was accepted into University of Redlands' Master of Science in Geographic Information Systems (MS GIS) graduate program and will start in the Fall.
• Maeve Cassetty, '23 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2022 fellow—project: "Gender and God in Eastern Europe: An Investigation into the Catholic Church's Facilitation of Anti-Gender Movements" (Advisor: Professor Amoruso)
• Eric DaCosta, '23 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2022 fellow—project: "The Impact of English Imperialism in Ireland on Fan Violence in the Old Firm Derby" (Advisor: Professor Amoruso)
• Hannah Plummer, '23 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2022 fellow—project: "Feminine Bodies and Consumption: Female Saints and Ascetic Practices in Tiqqun's Theory of the Young-Girl" (Advisor: Professor. Upson-Saia)

2021

• Isobel Dickson, '21 will begin graduate school in Fall 2021, joining Trinity College Dublin's M.Phil. program in "Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies." 
• Alanna Quan, '16 was accepted into UCLA's Masters of Library Science graduate program and will start in the Fall.
• Aneesah Ettress, '16 earned a Master's degree from the University of Chicago in Religion and Visual Culture. Her thesis was entitled, "The Spiritual Significance of Contemporary Black Art.” While finishing her degree, Aneesah worked at the Denver Art District. After graduating she took a job at an arts consulting firm, NINE dot ARTS.
• Joscelyn Guzman, '18 graduated with a Master's degree from Claremont Graduate University in Community-Engaged Education and Social Change.
• Andrew Foster, '22 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2021 fellow—project: “Shifting intersections of religion and European identity: Bosnian and Albanian EU accession" (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)
• Elena Kervitsky, '21 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2021 fellow—project: "Deliverance from the Divine to the Profane Political: Examination of the Political Imaginary Through Divine Myths, Epics, and Legends of Sumer and Mesopotamia (4500 – c. 1900 BC)" (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)
• Maggie Saucedo, '22 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2021 fellow—project: "Racism, White Supremacy, and Satanism: An Investigation into How Whiteness Abuses Our Friend Satan" (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)
• Alex Smith, '22 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2021 fellow—project: "The Smell of Sulphur: Understanding Revelation through Early Christianity's Interpretation of Fire and Brimstone" (advisor: Upson-Saia)

2020

• Stella Ramos, '20 won the 2020 Marianne Ruuth Award (a prize awarded to the best comprehensive essay that explores cultural difference and human identity) for her project entitled "Why Salmon Matter: Subverting Settler Colonialism in Environmental Justice Scholarship Through a Study of the Seattle Salmon Homecoming Celebration."  Stella was also a winner of the Education Department Scholars Award.
• Carol Beckett, '20 presented “Marking Time and Making Identity: Rites of Passage Events and Festivals in the Creation of Japanese American Buddhist Community Life in the Incarceration Camps” at the American Academy of Religion Western Region Conference. After graduation, Carol will begin her service in the Peace Corps ni Moldova.
• Rachel Chang, '20 was inducted into the 2020 Phi Beta Kappa class.
• Pai Miller, '19 began a graduate program in the Department of English at University of Oregon.
• Lisa Chang, '16 earned her MSEd in Higher Education--with a focus on international education--from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
• William S. Chen, '19 (Computer Science) received a Davis Project for Peace award for his project: "Bhutia Language Dictionary Webservice." He spent several weeks in Summer 2019 working in Sikkim with language educators and activists developing an app for a Bhutia language dictionary. (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)
• Isobel Dickson, '21 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2021 fellow—project: "Myth and Memorial: The Precarity of Jewish Remembrance in Post-War Austria." (advisor: Upson-Saia)
• Cassandra Gutierrez, '23 and  Gahan Lahiri, '23 served as research assistants for Prof. Upson-Saia, assisting with tasks related to the final production of her book manuscript, Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (500 BCE-500 CE).

2019

• Pai Miller, '19 was inducted into the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa class.
• Joscelyn Guzman, '18 will begin graduate school in Fall 2019, joining Claremont Graduate University's Masters program in “Community-Engaged Education and Social Change.”
• Faryn Borella, '14 is graduating this spring 2019 with a Master of Arts in Religious Leadership for Social Change from Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union. In the Fall, she will start rabbinical school at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.
• Stella Ramos, '21 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2019 fellow--project: "Essentializing the Native American Environmental Ethos: Analyzing the Limitations and Legacy of American Environmentalist Rhetoric" (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)
• Hope Roehrs, '20 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2019 fellow--project: "Mis-Seen Sex: Euro-American Readings of Tantric Buddhism" (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)
• Roee Perry, '20 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2019 fellow--project: "Jewish Philosophy, Greek Metaphysics, and Sufi Theology: Approaching Clash of Civilizations through Maimonides and the transmission of Neoplatonism into Sufism" (advisor: Moazzam-Doulat)

2018

• Steven Barrie-Anthony, '04, a recent Ph.D in Religious Studies from UCSB, wrote a successful $475,000 Luce grant to be awarded to the Institute of Buddhist Studies. The grant will fund a three-year research program, “Public Theologies of Technology and Presence," exploring the effects of technologies on human relationships.
• Natalie Malter, '13 has been accepted into a PhD program at Harvard Divinity School.
• Aneesah Ettress, '16 has been accepted into a graduate program at University of Chicago Divinity School.
• After spending two years in Korea on a Fulbright, Lisa Chang, '16 will be starting a MSEd program at UPenn's Graduate School of Education's Intercultural Communications in the Fall.
• Joscelyn Guzman, '18 was inducted into the 2018 Phi Beta Kappa class; won the PBK Benjamin Culley prize (which is awarded to the Oxy senior whose initiative and creativity beyond the classroom have significantly enhanced the quality of intellectual life in the Occidental community); won the Dean of Students Excellence award; and was a Community in Action award recipient.
• Pai Miller, '19 presented her research, "Hechicería and Hierarchy: Colonial Mexican Women and Subversion of Power Through "Witchcraft" at the Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research. 
• Eleanor Hofmeister Alberg, '19 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2018 fellow—project: "The Transnational Evolution of an Afro-Cuban Religious Tradition into the Modern Era" (advisor: Naylor)
• William S. Chen, '19 (Computer Science) is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2018 fellow—project: "Bhutia Language Dictionary Webservice " (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)
• Frances Hutchins, '19 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2018 fellow—project: "The Resurgance of Catholic Exorcisms in the United States" (advisor: Naylor)
• Pai Miller, '19 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2018 fellow—project: "Hechicería and Hierarchy: Colonial Mexican Women and Subversion of Power Through "Witchcraft"" (advisors: Upson-Saia and Naylor)
• Olivia Tenney, '19 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2018 fellow—project: "Nietzsche and Post-Theistic Spirituality" (advisor: Wright)
• Emily West, '19 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2018 fellow—project: "Restoring Heritage: International and Local Community Efforts to Rebuild Sacred Space in Nepal" (advisor: Holmes-Tagchungdarpa)

2017

• Natalie Malter, '13, a recent graduate of Harvard Divinity School, served on the editorial committee of the first volume of the Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism.
• Faryn Borella, '14 is currently a Master of Arts in Social Change student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.
• Miriam Hamburger, '17 presented her comps research, “Native Americans, the New Age, and Art as Resistance" at the American Academy of Religion Western Region conference in March. Earlier in the year, Miriam received the Religious Studies Department Kneeland prize to attend the Northwestern University Community for Human Rights conference.
• Joscelyn Guzman, '18 participated in Campaign Semester in the Fall, working to elect NC Governor Roy Cooper 
• Joscelyn Guzman, '18 is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2017 fellow—project: "Analyzing the Conflict Between Colonizing Religions and Indigenous peoples: Negotiating Issues of Sexuality and Reproduction among the Gikuyu" (advisor: Upson-Saia)
• Venitia Boyce, '19 (Critical Theory and Social Justice) is an Undergraduate Research Center Summer 2017 fellow—project: "Reverse Discourse: Shariati's Revolutionary Islam " (advisor: Moazzam-Doulat)

2016

• Ben Herrington-Gilmore, '12 will begin a graduate program at Fordham Law in the Fall. 
• Carlina Perna, '15 was awarded a Fulbright ETA (Brazil) and is placed in Salvador.
• Lisa Chang, '16 was awarded a Fulbright ETA (South Korea).  She was also inducted into the 2016 Phi Beta Kappa class.
• Alanna Quan, '16 was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa Culley Award, which honors the Oxy Senior whose initiative and creativity beyond the classroom has significantly enhanced the quality of intellectual life in the Occidental community.
• Aneesah Ettress, '16 presented her paper "The Spatial Practice of Mary's Dormition," at the Western Commission for the Study of Religion conference.  To support her participation in the conference, Aneesah received funding from the URC and from the Religious Studies Department Kneeland prize.
• Marc Greenberg, '16 was inducted into the 2016 Phi Beta Kappa class.
• After spending the year with City Year in Los Angeles,  Leah Wolf, '15 was accepted into three Education graduate programs.  She will enroll at LMU and start in the Fall.
• Miriam Hamburger, '17 was selected to participate in the competitive InternAway program, interning this summer with Catholic Charities of Los Angeles. 
• Joscelyn Guzman, '18 was awarded the Cynthia Cox award, given to members of the sophomore class demonstrating high scholarship, moral character, and contributions to student life and the welfare of the College.