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Centennial Undergraduate Awardees
Centennial Master's Degree Awardee
Centennial Doctorate Degree Awardee
2007 Centennial Undergraduate Awardees:
Armando Lopez
Armando Lopez graduates with a bachelor of science in civil engineering and with honors from the UA College of Civil Engineering.
Through his involvement in several campus organizations, Armando is very much involved in assisting peers and younger students around the community in their pursuit for higher education: he served as the Vice President of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), where he assisted in the annual events of La Familia, the Young Latina Forum and Science Day.
At La Familia he helped teach lower income families and the elderly basic computer skills and through the Young Latina Forum he worked to encourage high school Latina students to pursue a college education in the fields of engineering and mathematics. As organizer of Science Day, an annual event, Armando recruited 200 local elementary students who attended and were taught the importance of obtaining a college education in the fields of science and mathematics. Armando has also worked as a resident assistant, volunteered as coach for ASUA Youth Basketball League and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Armando has studied in Barcelona, Spain and visited France, Ireland and Italy. Armando was also named the President's Award for Excellence Scholar and was awarded the Fred and Anastasia Glendening Civil Engineering Scholarship and is a UA Hispanic Alumni Scholarship recipient.
Upon graduation, Armando will start his career with the engineering consulting firm of Kimley-Horn and Associates. Armando looks to continue his work within the community to encourage youth to pursue higher education .
Ruth Fesahazion
Ruth Feshazion graduates with a bachelor of science in health sciences from the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and with honors from the Honor's College.
Ruth is a first-generation American of Eritrean war refugee parents. Her parents instilled a strong purpose in Ruth to give back to those who have helped her in the journey. Through that philanthropic ideal she realized that helping members of minority communities to succeed would be her goal in life.
Ruth has worked at the UA Department of Multicultural Affairs and Student Success (MASS) as a peer advisor for the Pathways Program and Student Support Services, where her efforts included working to improve retention among underrepresented students on the UA campus. She worked to help incoming freshman with their transition to the University, get them connected to the campus community, and become true Wildcats.
Ruth, under the mentorship of Joel Meister, Maia Ingram and Jean McClelland, examined the rights of migrant farm workers. The project entailed examining the influence of immigration policy on migrant farm workers as well as efforts to help them understand their rights. Ruth presented her research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABCRMS), where she won an award for top oral presentation in the social sciences.
In October 2003, Ruth placed 1st in the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC)
national youth entrepreneurship program (Bizfest) then interned with the USHCC Foundation in Washington DC. where she conducted and evaluated the BizFest program and developed the framework for the scholarship program.
Ruth has been mentored by Jack Zwanziger at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Under Dr. Zwanziger’s tutelage, Ruth examined the relationship between socioeconomic status and mortality rates.
Throughout her academic tenure, Ruth has been the reciepent of many university scholarships. The scholarships have ranged from being named a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, a UA Black Alumni Scholar and the UA President's Award for Excellence Scholar.
After graduation, Ruth plans on pursuing a doctorate in health policy and administration. She looks to implement policy in minority communities to reduce health disparities.
2007 Centennial Master's Awardee:
Philip Stevens
Philip Stevens earns a masters of arts in language, reading and culture from the UA College of Education. Philip is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and originates from San Carlos, AZ. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH.
Philip has worked as a volunteer with Boys Hope-Girls Hope in Cincinnati, OH and later served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay. Upon his return to the U.S. and San Carlos, Philip worked as a substance abuse prevention specialist with the Tribal Wellness Center, winning the Employee of the Year Award for his efforts and dedication.
While working with children in after-school programs, Philip discovered the effectiveness of teaching groups of students and left the Tribal Wellness Center to begin teaching 4 th grade at the San Carlos Middle School. Philip initiated after-school activities and became aware of the dynamics surrounding indigenous education. Philip discovered a gap in the school’s curriculum and difficulties surrounding the student’s education in that the curriculum dismissed his student’s inherent knowledge and culture. He decided to return to higher education and assist in finding ways to make curriculums more accessible to his students and to those who follow.
Currently, Philip teaches math in Tucson at Ha:san Middle School, which is primarily composed of students from the Tohono O'odham reservation. Philip received a Peace Corps fellowship, is a member of Indigenous Thinkers, a graduate student organization that promotes Indigenous scholarship at the university level, and has guest lectured at St. Anselm College. Philip demonstrates a unique blend of wide-ranging intelligence, thoughtful scholarship, and creative and purposeful commitment to the field of education. He has a sincere desire to use his own scholarship to benefit students within local communities and hopes to return to San Carlos to incorporate education methods that utilize traditional teachings and knowledge.
2007 Centennial Doctorate Degree Awardees:
Enrique Montaño
Enrique Montaño earns a doctorate from the UA Department of Physics with an emphasis on quantum information, and becomes the first in his family to receive an advanced degree. Originally from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, Enrique moved to the United States at the age of seven and became a U.S. citizen two years ago.
Enrique obtained a bachelor of science in engineering physics and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2004, later pursuing a professional science master degree in applied and industrial physics at the UA. During his masters program Enrique worked as an intern at Raytheon Missile Systems. While at Raytheon, he worked on developing computer algorithms and looked for sources of THz radiations, which have applications in the medical and security industries. He graduated with a GPA of 3.9 in May and received the Graduate College Fellowship for Academic Excellence.
Currently Enrique is a research assistant in Professor Poul Jessen's Laser Cooling and Trapping lab, where the group is working on quantum information with neutral atoms which have important scientific applications in national security.
Upon graduation, Enrique would like to continue working in experimental research in either academia or within government labs.
Tracy Maria Williams
Tracy Maria Williams earns her doctorate in May 2009 from the UA College of Education in the department of Language, Reading and Culture with an emphasis on Indigenous language education and technology.
Tracy is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and will be the first in her family to earn a doctorate. She is training to be the director of the Oneida Language Revitalization Program for her community, where there are less than six fluent speakers of the Oneida language.
Tracy has earned two undergraduate degrees: an associate of arts in tribal management from Haskell Indian Nations University and a bachelor of arts degree in linguistics from the University of Kansas. While attending the University of Kansas she participated in the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program with Dr. Akira Yamamoto as her mentor.
Tracy carried these undergraduate experiences to the UA where she received a master of arts degree in Native American linguistics from the UA Department of Linguistics. Currently she is one of only a handful of indigenous people who have earned a graduate degree in linguistics. Tracy received a Phillips Fund Grant for Native American Research from the American Philosophical Society to conduct research on the Oneida language. She continued this work through her doctorate with Drs. Ofelia Zepeda, Teresa McCarty and Perry Gilmore. She has authored and co-authored published papers for “One Voice, Many Voices: Recreating Indigenous Language Communities” and “The 5 Minute Linguist: Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages.”
During her graduate work at the UA, Tracy has balanced her time between teaching, research and service. She has participated in national conferences and served as president of the Indigenous Thinkers student organization. Tracy also taught for the American Indian Language Development Institute, departments of Linguistics, Anthropology and Language, Reading and Culture and also worked for the Arizona State Museum as the docent coordinator.
Tracy would like to have an academic career that will allow her to continue to research and teach her own language and support indigenous language communities, language learners and language teachers striving to strengthen their languages and cultures.
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