Presidential Scholars ‘Aim High, Achieve More’

Presidential Scholars (top row from left): Arnold Bae '09, Bobby Salehani, Nadine Zuckerman, Evan Rosenblatt '09 & Sunny Reichert '09, Trevor Barrett '08, (bottom from left) Vahagn Hokhiyan, Manako Yabe, Mary Kirby '07

Cal State Northridge’s Presidential Scholars are a diverse and staunchly independent bunch. But they are alike in ways that count: they share a powerful need to serve society, and they have the smarts and drive to do it well.

The Presidential Scholars Awards program—the top tier of CSUN scholarships—is barely five years old, but its architects brim with confidence about the caliber of its students. “It’s still too young to point out a Nobel Prize,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Terry Piper, “but I hope one day we’ll have one.”

Under President Jolene Koester, it has evolved into something different from California State University presidential scholar programs that focus on the recruitment of high-achieving students. “Our program,” said Vice President Piper, “is really focused on creating high achieving students.”

Shortly after Piper’s arrival at CSUN in 2001, President Koester asked him to help chart a new direction for an existing program. He decided “a total re-think” was in order and, supported by two key faculty committees, set to work. “We wanted to offer a scholarship that would encourage students to aim high, to achieve more,” said the administrator.

Underwritten through private donations from Mary ’63 and Jack Bayramian, Medtronic MiniMed and other generous contributors, the program demonstrates the importance of private philanthropy to Cal State Northridge, President Koester said.

“We’d love to be able to fund many more of these outstanding students,” said Piper. “In times like these, when the university faces unprecedented challenges from the economy, an influx of new endowments for our scholars, their research and scholarly activities would allow us to widen the circle.”

Financial support is liberating, said Financial Aid Office Director Lili Vidal, who helped launch the program. “Many of our students work, and this scholarship gives them money so that they don’t have to work as many hours. It gives them time to concentrate on the academic experience.”

One of the program’s most attractive features is its requirement that each scholar work hand in glove with a CSUN faculty member. “In many ways,” said Piper, “it is an internship with an experienced professor. Most of the scholars plan to go on to research careers, to law or medical school, or to a professional school where investigation, problem solving and critical judgment are needed at the highest possible level. This is a way to give them a leg up in that process.”

Campus scholarship coordinator Jannaee Brummell said the scholars must hit the ground running, scouting out their faculty mentors and developing their scholarship projects just weeks into the fall semester. “But Presidential Scholars are not intimidated by challenge,” she said.

On these pages, Northridge Magazine takes a look at a few scholars past and present.