Eleven Cal State L.A. graduate students, including one from Santa Monica, who have been focusing on doctoral studies ranging from applied biotechnology to urban schooling were recently selected for the 2012-13 Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar awards.
The University is one of the largest contingents in the California State University system to receive the prestigious awards.
Each scholar will receive a $3,000 award, covering travel expenses to doctoral-granting institutions and to attend professional conferences as well as fees for college applications and graduate exams.
Santa Monica’s Omar Padilla, a Chicano studies major, plans to pursue a doctoral degree in an interdisciplinary field, such as American studies, ethnic studies or Chicano studies. His study seeks to explore the Mexican immigrant populations established in the Los Angeles west side communities of Santa Monica and Venice, focusing primarily on the immigrant population that began to arrive through the Bracero Program (1951-65) and through the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
Since 1998, more than 165 students from Cal State L.A. have been recognized as Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholars. Fifty percent of the CSULA students have entered top-ranking doctoral programs throughout the United States and in several foreign countries.
