Although she never attended a university, Ninfa Sanchez fought hard throughout her life for the education of her children and for access to higher education for children of all backgrounds. Like many parents in immigrant families and families of color, Mrs. Sanchez exemplified the commitments to academic excellence, racial/ethnic equity, and social justice embodied in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity. Having insured that all three of her children receive undergraduate degrees, this Memorial Fund has been established to support students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, in American Studies and Ethnicity that also embody these commitments she held so dear. The following awards are from this Memorial Fund set up by her family and friends to commemorate her life of dedication and those of other families who have had similar struggles for educational access and equity.
Ninfa Sanchez Memorial Undergraduate Prize ($500)
Ninfa Sanchez Memorial Graduate Prize ($500)
For the best paper written in a class in the past year by a student in each category in the department of American Studies & Ethnicity at USC. To be eligible, an undergraduate must be enrolled as a major or minor in the Department of American Studies & Ethnicity, and a graduate student must be enrolled in the Ph.D. program in American Studies & Ethnicity.
1st Annual Ninfa Sanchez Award Winners
Graduate Student: |
|
|
Terrion Williamson is the inaugural winner of the 2008 Ninfa Sanchez Memorial Graduate Prize for her paper, "Blackness, Death and the Pleasure Principle: Of "Nappy-Headed Hos" and the Serial Murder of African American Women." |
Undergraduate Students: |
|
|
Divinity Barkley, graduating senior in African American Studies and Political Science, took top honors in the humanities category at the 10th annual Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work for her project, "Kaya Hip-Hop in Coastal Kenya: The Urban Poetry of Ukoo Flani." That paper was also selected as one of two inaugural winners of the 2008 Ninfa Sanchez Memorial Undergraduate Awards in American Studies and Ethnicity by the ASE Undergraduate Studies Committee. The paper was nominated for the award by Professor Francille Wilson and was produced in her class, American Studies 499: Special Topics: The African Diaspora, in Spring semester 2008. This fall she plans to return to Africa to start a program benefiting teenage girls in Kampala, Uganda. |
|
Adriana Resendez, graduating senior in American Studies and Ethnicity, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study issues of gender and race in Guatemala next year. Her senior thesis, "'Here we are all the same?': Pre and Post-migration Intra-Ethnic Relations Among Guatemalan Women," was selected as one of two inaugural winners of the 2008 Ninfa Sanchez Memorial Undergraduate Awards in American Studies and Ethnicity by the ASE Undergraduate Studies Committee. The paper was nominated for the award by Professors Macarena Gomez-Barris and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, her two advisors for her thesis, and was produced in the two classes set up for senior honors thesis production, American Studies 492 and 493, taught by Professors George Sanchez and Alexis Isfahani-Hammond, in Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 respectively. |
