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| President Suzuki and Vice President Morales present graduate student Sheng Rui Gu a scholarship at the Paula Sandoval Memorial Graduate Awards Dinner on April 7. |
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| Paula Sandoval died of cancer on Sept. 11, 2001, after 23 years of service to Cal Poly Pomona. |
The Office of Academic Programs held its first Paula Sandoval Memorial Graduate Scholarship Awards Dinner on April 7 at the Shilo Hilltop Suites Hotel Restaurant in Pomona. President Bob H. Suzuki and Vice President Tomás Morales were among those in attendance.
Paula Sandoval died of cancer on Sept. 11, 2001, after 23 years of service to Cal Poly Pomona. Sandoval worked in the offices of Evaluations and Records for many years before transferring to Academic Affairs in 1998. As the graduate programs analyst for Academic Programs, she assisted countless students in achieving their academic goals.
?She was so well liked and an inspiration to the campus community for her long and courageous fight against cancer. Her legacy should live on at Cal Poly Pomona,? President Suzuki wrote a few days after Sandoval died.
A 16-year cancer survivor, Sandoval volunteered extensively with the American Cancer Society and the City of Hope. She also contributed her time to campus programs, including Staff Council, the Posada Planning Committee, and the Latino Faculty, Staff and Student Association.
With the contributions made by Sandoval?s on- and off-campus friends and family and the president?s support, the Office of Academic Programs established the endowed Paula Sandoval Memorial Graduate Scholarship fund in fall 2002. Two $600 scholarships were offered to graduate students or seniors admitted to a master?s program at Cal Poly Pomona who have a grade point average of at least 3.0.
The scholarship encourages and recognizes graduate students who have overcome serious obstacles or struggles in their lives to obtain a college education. This year?s scholarship recipients are Rachel A. Fay, a graduate student majoring in psychology, and Sheng Rui Gu, a graduate student majoring in animal science. Fay?s educational goals are to complete the graduate program and then obtain a license in marriage and family therapy. Sheng Rui Gu plans to find ways, using gene therapy, to treat tumors and cancer in animals or humans, and to pursue a doctorate.
Suzuki and Morales presented certificates in recognition of the students? achievements, along with $600 checks, at the inaugural awards dinner. Suzuki announced that he plans to award an additional $400 to each of the students.
For more information about Sandoval and her named scholarship, visit www.cpp.edu/~academic/gradprograms/scholarship.