Outstanding Thesis Award recipient Danielle Frechette releasing radio-tagged western gull.
By Amanda Holst and Jody Ulate, SJSU Public Affairs
San Jose State President Don Kassing will recognize four top graduates at commencement, which begins at 9:30 a.m. May 28 in Spartan Stadium. Approximately 7,000 candidates who completed their studies in August 2010, December 2010 and May 2011 will be eligible to participate. Around 25,000 graduates, family and friends are expected to attend the ceremony.
Andrew Ingram and Mojgan Mohammadi have been named SJSU’s 2011 Outstanding Graduating Seniors in recognition of their scholarship and contributions to the community, and Danielle Frechette and Hector Nuno have received the 2011 Outstanding Thesis Awards in recognition of the exceptional quality of their research.
Ingram will graduate with a bachelor’s in chemistry. He says that he has tried to make the most out his time at San Jose State. He is graduating with a 3.99 GPA and an impressive list of accomplishments that are often reserved for graduate students. Ingram has already published in scholarly journals, taught general chemistry labs and facilitated workshops for the Louis-Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. He has devoted considerable time to research, but has also made time to volunteer at the Children’s Discovery Museum and at the University Preparatory School Science Fair. A Salzburg Scholar, Ingram has represented SJSU and himself well on and off campus, both in the United States and abroad, and he will continue to do so at Stanford University, where he’ll begin a Ph.D. program this fall.
Mohammadi will graduate with a bachelor’s in health science. She believes that each person’s actions and decisions affect more than just that one person. A single person can impact his or her family, the community and ultimately the world. While at San Jose State, she has dedicated herself to the service of others. Mohammadi founded a student organization called Global Health Association, and led a team of eight student volunteers to Haiti for disaster relief. She has served as a teaching assistant, collaborated with fellow SJSU Salzburg Scholars, participated in the first Provost Honors Seminar, and is graduating with a 3.8 GPA. Off campus, she has managed a holistic spa and worked as a life coach for adults with developmental disabilities. One person can indeed make quite a difference.
Frechette will graduate with a master’s in marine science. She didn’t think that passion could carry her across the United States, but after attending college on the East Coast, she found herself at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories doing what she loves: studying the interactions between marine predators and fisheries. For her master’s thesis, “Impacts of Avian Predation on Central California Salmonids,” Frechette studied how predation by gulls can affect recovery of endangered salmon. Before her study, there had not been much research on how gulls prey on salmon in California. By tagging western gulls and observing their behavior, she was able to figure out where, when and how many salmon were getting eaten in central California. Frechette has enjoyed sharing her research with others, and says that reaching out to the public helped make her research a success.
Nuno will graduate with a master’s in chemical engineering. He has always been good at chemistry, but his grades in physics and mathematics made clear to him that engineering was the best direction to go. In his master’s program, he says his nterest for physics flourished when he started to delve into the literature of silicon particles during his internship with IBM. For his thesis, “Functionalized Silica Nanostructures for Biosensing Application,” he studied the physical and chemical processes of star polymers in order to create a silica shell encasing that makes further testing of biomedical applications possible. Nuno hopes to continue to work in industry, but eventually would like to become a high school or community college teacher.