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We encourage New Leader Scholarship recipients to maintain contact with fellow recipients, mentors and board members. Click on any recipient or scroll down to see all bios.
2001 Recipients (current as of 2009) AISHAH BASHIR, 34, graduated from U. C., Berkeley with an interdisciplinary degree in Anthropology, African American Studies and Public Health. Despite being a single mother of two children until recently remarried, she has been actively engaged in projects concerning women’s health. As a fellow with the Family Independence Initiative in Oakland, she has been developing her idea for a women’s health center based on the healing traditions of the African Diaspora. In 2004, she helped to coordinate the "Black Women’s Health and Healing Conference" which brought together over 200 health practitioners. She planned a similar event for the next past year. Her long-standing dream of purchasing a home that would house the first phase of the women’s health center has been realized and the Center has received start-up funding for the planning phase. MELISSA FREEMAN, 38, studied for her BA at U. C. Berkeley with a major in Rhetoric. She spent a semester in Washington, D.C. interning at the World Bank on a project to develop Internet access in rural areas of developing countries. She worked for several years at a law firm in Oakland, gaining practical experience while studying for the LSAT. Her goal is to provide legal support to low income women, (one of her passions), after obtaining a law degree. ARMANDO LARA, See 2006 entry (awarded a second New Leader Scholarship) CRISTINA MORA, 28, graduated from U. C., Berkeley with a major in Sociology and a minor in Public Policy. This spring she completed her doctorate at Princeton and holds a Provost Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Sociology at the University of Chicago. She has conducted research on sexual abuse of women in Latino communities. Cristina was awarded financial help for the entire period of her study at Princeton. Six years ago, she was chosen as a National Science Foundation Pre-Dissertation Fellow, one of four chosen nationally in Sociology. Her primary research interest centers on understanding the changing dynamics of immigrant communities and assessing the role of culture in immigrant adaptation. Cristina has conducted fieldwork on the US Latino news media for her dissertation. Her goal of being an "activist" professor is in the process of being realized. ANDREA VARGAS-MENDOZA, 28, graduated from U. C. Berkeley with a major in Rhetoric. Starting in high school, she developed and participated in Student Success Workshops in Castro Valley, guided by her parents’ strong activism in the Latino community. After graduating from Berkeley, she enrolled at Santa Monica Community College to explore her other compelling interest in art. She moved to Providence Rhode Island for one year and continued her studies in art, taking courses at the Rhode Island School of Design. At the present time, Andrea lives and teaches in Southern California, continuing her art in the form of film making projects, painting and other artistic endeavors, all from a Latino activist perspective. |
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