Your Westmont Alums Win National Research Fellowships

by Scott Craig, photos by Brad Elliott

Two Westmont alums have received prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation. Braden Chaffin (’23) and Chisondi Warioba (’21) have been chosen for the program whose purpose “is to ensure the quality, vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States.” The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support that includes an annual stipend of $37,000.

Warioba, a second-year graduate student halfway through his doctorate in medical physics at the University of Chicago, applied for the fellowship to continue research on his project, “fMRI and DTI analysis of functional connectivity loss related to cerebral arterial occlusion.” His award announcement states: “Being chosen as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow is a significant national accomplishment and places you among an elite group of fellows, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in STEM or STEM education.”

Warioba plans to attend medical school and aspires to become a physician-scientist. He is engaged to alumna Brittany Bancroft (’19), and they plan to marry in September.

Chaffin, who graduated last semester from Westmont and will return to campus to walk in Commencement on May 6, attends UCLA this fall to earn a doctorate in organic chemistry. “This fellowship allows me greater flexibility and security, and I will not have to teach to support myself, thus freeing up more time dedicated purely to research,” he says. After graduate school, he hopes to work in small molecule development, possibly in the biopharmaceutical industry. “In the very long term, I hope to teach at some point in my life, possibly becoming a professor closer to retirement,” he says.

Symposium Offers Glimpse of Student Research

More than 40 Westmont students will present their findings on 29 posters at the 2023 Spring Student Research Symposium on April 20 from 3:30-5 pm around the Winter Hall third floor atrium. There will also be four students reading selections of their original works of fiction and poetry as part of their English capstone project. Research topics include differentiating between species of gorgonian soft corals, “Iranian Activists’ Use of Social Media for Social and Cultural Change,” the cor- relation between heart rate variability and cognitive bias, “Investigations of Fetal Mortality and Injury Following a Motor Vehicle Accident,” and “Gendered Work: Continuity of Cherokee Foodways in the Life of a 20th-Century Cherokee Woman.”

One of the hallmarks of a Westmont education is the opportunity for undergraduate students to work directly with faculty on research projects.

Student researchers include: Sydney Azzarello (’23), John Baker (’23), Leannah Barreto (’23), Lydia Bastian (’23), Charlie Bloom (’25), Nicole Bond (’23), Riley Bream (’24), Kennedy Burkett (’26), Eliana Choi (’23), Kylen Christiansen (’23), Ashley Compton (’23), Paige Freeburg (’24), Esther Green (’23), Emma Hammond (’23), Ciboney Hellenbrand (’24), Madison Huntington (’24), Daniel Jang (’23), Siena Keck ’23, Bailey Lemmon (’23), Michael Lew (’24), Jordan Lewicki (’23), Brooke Murphy (’23), Camdon Park (’25), Theo Patterson (’23), Ashley Pitzen (’25), Mariyan Popov (’24), Gabriela Rego (’23), Carli Roberson (’23), Lillian Robinson (’24), Sean Ryan (’24), McKenna Sawitz (’23), David Schaupp (’23), Victoria Silva (’23), Naomi Siragusa (’24), Isaac Song (’26), Madeline Stiles (’24), Noah Tseng (’24), Evan Tsuei (’23), Ashley Vanyo (’23), Raymond Vasquez (’23), Arianne Vethan (’25), Samie Watanabe (’25), Monique Welch (’23), and Grace Williams (’24). The senior English majors who will be reading their works are Sydney Abraham, Caleb Beeghly, Luke Spicer, and Margaret Taylor.

Fringe Festival: A Gathering of the Arts

Westmont’s Fringe Festival, an annual smash-up of experimental theatre, dance, film, and performance art, kicks off for four days from April 20-23 around Porter Theatre, and downtown at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop. Tickets — $10 for a day pass, $20 for an all-access pass, and $15 for a student/ senior all-access pass – may be purchased at westmont.edu/boxoffice.

The student-led celebration, themed “The Gathering,” allows students to challenge themselves to experience life and live art in fresh new ways. “In order to realize your full artistic potential, you have to commit fully and wholeheartedly to making the art that only you can make,” says Fringe Artistic Director Ford Sachsenmaier. “Fringe is a space that can host that highly individualized, intensely unique kind of art, even when other spaces aren’t as welcoming to it.”