From Ghana to China, Urban Aid to Rural Artists,
Graduating Students Contribute Wide Support

By Pat JaCoby I June 13, 2005

Following are profiles of some of the many outstanding UCSD graduates this weekend, some who were commencement speakers and others with remarkable college records.

Cheryl Bourne Murray, '05, Muir College graduation speaker and re-entry student who has persisted in her studies at UCSD for 33 years. An anthropology major, she first came to UCSD in 1972 and in the years following raised children and administered her husband's dental practice in Del Mar. In her commencement speech, Murray gave her perspective of the university "then and now." Home town: Del Mar, Ca. Amanda Scheffman, '05, Muir College graduation speaker and junior college transfer student. Amanda was a high school runaway who wound up homeless, addicted and penniless. She had an "epiphany" at age 18, after almost dying, and turned her life around. She transferred to UCSD after graduating from junior college and found her "life's passion" in medicine. After graduation (with a 3.8 GPA) she plans to attend medical school. At Muir she has served on three different student organizations, became an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), went to Africa as a clinic volunteer and is organizing a textbook drive for South African schools. Brian Israel, '05, Thurgood Marshall College, international studies student and associate director of the Youthbridge Initiative, a Vienna-based NGO that supports youth in the wartorn town of Vukovar, Croatia. Brian will receive the Alumni Award at graduation. Through UCSD scholarships, Brian spent last year working with youth to develop peaceful means of conflict resolution in this ethnically-divided town, which saw horrific destruction in the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The photography project he completed during his work in Vukovar has been displayed in Vienna, Berlin and Croatia. Brian also interned for the Legends of China program in China, taught English in Vienna, and spent his junior year at the Bristol, England, University of Law where he played on the semi-pro football team, the Bristol Bullets. Hometown: Sonoma, Ca. Jeff Le, '05, Thurgood Marshall College, will join the State Department immediately after graduation for assignment with the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Jeff spent his junior year with the UC Study Abroad program at the University of Leeds, England, and on his return interned with the Bureau of Public Affairs in the State Department, Washington, D.C. He spent five months in the Republic of Ghana under a UCSD research grant and traveled through West Africa under a scholarship from the UCSD Friends of the International Center. He returned to the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Division of the State Department and was assigned to monitor the Iraqi elections. After a personal interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he was sent with a State Department delegation to monitor elections in Skopia, Macedonia. Hometown: Irvine, Ca. Christine Nguyen, '05, Sixth College, is one of only seven graduates in the first graduating class at UCSD's new Sixth College. The only female in the class, she will give the commencement speech. A biology major, Christine will graduate from UCSD in three years, as opposed to what is routinely four or five years for most students. She credits this to her studies at Troy High School in Fullerton, ranked in a recent Newsweek poll as 21st in the nation academically. She took many advanced courses there and was able to transfer those for credit, then followed a plan of course work she developed for herself to complete her studies in three years. Christine is a health and fitness advocate and serves on the Student Health Advisory Committee, which considers such things as health options for dining halls. She also is a Student Health Advocate and coordinates fitness assessments for UCSD members at RIMAC. Home town: Diamond Bar, Ca. James Ingham, '05, Sixth College, a general biology major enrolled in the integrated bachelor's/master's program, completed his bachelor's degree in three years and expects to earn a master's from UCSD next year. He will receive the Alumni Association's Outstanding Student Award this year. James joined Sixth College when the college itself was started and was involved in its first student council as the On-Campus Housing and Dining Service committee representative. As part of a course in the Teacher Education Program, James tutored students at The Preuss School and KIPP Adelante charter schools. A co-founder of the Quiz Bowl Club at UCSD, which aims to prepare college students for trivia competitions, he is an avid stargazer/astronomy buff. James grew up on a 40-acre plot outside Sacramento and spent the first 13 years of his life living in a mobile home on the property, helping his family build their house. James works in a plant molecular genetics lab on campus and credits his passion for plants to his childhood experience-planting and then caring for oak, sequoia, almond, peach plum and many other trees on the family land. Hometown: Sacramento, Ca. Alex Schafgans, '05, Revelle College astrophysics major, served as president of the UCSD Student Foundation, a philanthropic organization with a $120,000 endowment and mission of providing scholarships to qualified students. Alex also is a COAST (Chancellor's Organization of Allied Students) ambassador who recently served as a delegate with the UCSD Alumni Association on UC Day at the state capital. He will have a paper on condensed master physics published in the journal, Physical Review Letters, and in the fall will begin work on his Ph.D. in physics at UCSD. Home: Mill Valley, Ca. Jenelle Marie Dean, '05, Revelle College, has been named a Stellar Student for her work on the chancellor's "Imagine What's Next" campaign, and has been involved in Revelle College and university service since her first semester. Jenelle will graduate with a B.S. in human development, an interdisciplinary major which allowed her to explore a broad spectrum of subjects and career paths. She is a graduate of the Emerging Leaders Program, and a three-time recipient of her college's Ernie C. Mort Leadership Excellence Award. She served as chair of Revelle College's organizations committee, co-chaired the Careers in Student Affairs Club, and served as an intern with UCSD External Affairs, among other activities and services. She will attend the University of Arkansas on a full scholarship to pursue a master's degree in higher education administration. Home town: Oxnard. Desiree Jabson, '05, Roosevelt College political science major who started a new organization/program called the Dance-a-thon at UCSD to raise funds for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation, a national, non-profit group which provides services to Third World mothers and children afflicted with the HIV virus. The Dance-a-thon is scheduled for Nov. 19-20, 2005, and Desiree will be back on campus to assist. She will be involved in its promotion during the summer and beyond, and hopes it will become an annual charitable event on campus. Desiree has been a COAST ambassador, served on the Roosevelt College Student Council, as the Roosevelt representative to a committee on University Centers expansion, and on a committee on student regulations. She has accepted a position with a house care consulting firm, where she will be involved in financial analysis and improving patient flow from entry to dismissal in health organizations. Home town: Oahu, Hawaii. Orrin Isaac Franko, '05, Thurgood Marshall College, is graduating with a 4.0 GPA in his major, Biology, and has been accepted at six medical schools, including Harvard University, which he will enter next fall. He had an MCAT score of 98.7. During his nearly four years at UCSD, Orrin served with the Jewish Family Services as a Big Brother to 10-year-old Michael; was a resident advisor at Marshall; served as chapter advisor for his fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi; served as vice president of outreach for the Union of Jewish Students; founded the Radio Control Sailplane Club at UCSD, and served as a mentor for freshmen biology students. He is a Gift of Life donor to the San Diego Blood Bank, where he donates blood every eight weeks. He is a Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Home town: Rancho Palos Verdes, Ca. Jeremy Long, '05, Graduate School of International Relations/ Pacific Studies, has been accepted for service in the U.S. Foreign Service. Jeremy served as president of the IR/PS student body and was a Dean's Fellow. He taught English while living in Tokyo for two years, and has studied French and Spanish. Home town: Carlisle, Pa. Kelly Hester, '05, Ph.D., doctoral scholar for 2003 and 2004. Thesis: proteins that regulate DNA in macrophage development. A student, mother and wife, Kelly followed the lead of her African-American father who returned to medical school in Philadelphia at the age of 35 while supporting a family of four. Kelly, 41, the mother of 2 teenagers and one preteen, received her master's degree in 1989 from the University of Michigan and then, after an interval of 10 years, returned to university studies at UCSD. The 10 years between she taught biology and chemistry at schools in Michigan but decided she wanted to return to academic life and found UCSD "was the most supportive and welcoming" of any university to which she applied, with "children not an issue." She plans to join a biotech firm after graduation. Home town: Philadelphia, Pa. Lindsay Harris, '05, Eleanor Roosevelt College, spent her junior year studying at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where she became interested in pursuing a degree in international refugee law. Since her return to the U.S. in the fall 2004, Lindsay has devoted much of her time to Bridge for Africa, a non-profit group dedicated to promoting self-sufficiency and the dignity of work among rural Africans. To help raise funds for the group she assists with the sale of colorful telephone wire baskets designed by Zulu weavers in rural South Africa. After graduation Lindsay will spend a year working as managing director of Bridge for Africa, a position that includes travel to Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa to meet the rural artists who work with Bridge for Africa. In the fall of 2006 she will start law school at UC's Boalt Hall, where she will focus on the nexus between refugee law and international human rights, particularly in the contest of Africa. Hometown: Mountain View, Ca. Megan Eckles, '05, Muir College, is studying how bumblebees communicate the location of food sources to their nest mates in a working hive at UCSD. The hive has a Plexiglas top to allow Megan and other student researchers in the laboratory of biology professor James Nieh to study and film the dances the bees make as they come in from their food foraging trips. Megan is one of three Environmental Systems recipients of the 2004 Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence, established last year by the Division of Physical Sciences to recognize undergraduates who demonstrated academic excellence and show future promise as researchers. She will start her doctoral program in biology at UCSD next fall studying bees in the same laboratory. Hometown: Lakeside, Cal. Ted McCombs, '05, Revelle College, majored in both Literatures of the World and Applied Mathematics. He served as a senior senator for Revelle College and an active representative on the Associated Student Council. Ted spent a year studying at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and will start his graduate studies in law at UC Berkeley this fall. Hometown: Thousand Oaks, Ca. Joseph (Joey) Hammer, '05, Roosevelt College. Joey has been successful in blending his learning from a double major in Math Computer Science and Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts to produce software to be used in computer and combinatorial games, the latter his Honors Project. He was president of the Math Club and served as a popular teaching assistant for lower-division and upper-division courses. Next year he will continue his research in computer games as a master's student in the Computer science and Engineering Department at UCSD. Hometown: Costa Mesa, Ca.