After two decades of volunteer work with cancer charities, Will Ellis (B.A., communication and Italian, ’04) wasn’t about to let the cascading crises of 2020 derail him. Despite pandemic restrictions on in-person events, Ellis raised more than $103,000 in 10 weeks for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) Greater Bay Area Chapter to win its “Man of the Year” title.
Whether writing scientific articles or screenplays, UC Davis College of Letters and Science alumna Laura Marsh sees a common core in her work: storytelling. Now, the wildlife ecologist is reimagining her own life story. She hopes to become a published novelist after winning the college’s 2020 Maurice Prize for Fiction for her manuscript "SAV•AGE(S)."
Three College of Letters and Science alumni and two supporters will receive UC Davis Alumni Awards. They are among eight alumni and friends being honored by the Cal Aggie Alumni Association (CAAA) for their contributions in many fields and to the university. The awards will be formally presented at the Alumni Awards Gala on Feb. 7, 2020.
Thirteen UC Davis students and alumni have been awarded 2018–19 Fulbright fellowships — the largest group of Aggies ever awarded. Seven of them are recent graduates of the College of Letters and Science.
Two of the most enthusiastic Aggies, Bill Hollingshead (B.A., political science, ’60) and Sharon Dianne Hollingshead (B.A., psychology, ’63), have organized exhibitions for this fall in the Walter A. Buehler Alumni Center to showcase the campus and region and recognize the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
José González (B.A., history, ’04) has always loved the outdoors. In 2013, he took his love for the outside one step further, founding Latino Outdoors, an organization that seeks to get Latinos into nature and engaged in environmental issues. The group now has a nationwide presence, and González has been commended by former President Barack Obama for his engagement in environmental protection.
For more than 10 years, Richard C. Larock (B.S., ’67), Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Iowa State University in Ames, has supported undergraduate research in chemistry through a generous gift that funds a yearly research conference organized by the Department of Chemistry in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science.
UC Davis College of Letters and Science alumnus Jamil Jan Kochai (M.A., English, ’17) is winner of an O. Henry Award for his short story “Nights in Logar.” This story and those by 19 other writers will be published in an anthology this fall.
“To be included amongst such a long history of incredible stories, it's unreal,” Kochai said.
Four College of Letters and Science alumni are among this year’s UC Davis Cal Aggie Alumni Association award winners—one of them, Patrick Sherwood, receiving the association’s top alumni honor. Other college honorees are Liliana Ferrer, Margaret Lapiz and Jesse Rodriguez.
Two College of Letters and Science alumni who got their journalism starts at "The California Aggie" won journalism’s highest honors this year—a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award.
UC Davis alumna Amy Gutierrez — better known as Amy G. to San Francisco Giants fans — will be back on campus to meet with students and sign books Oct. 27.
Investigative reporter Matthias Gafni (B.A, English/rhetoric and communication, ’98), who got his journalism start at The California Aggie, was a lead writer in a series of articles that won the East Bay Times the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News.
When Lauren Levin (B.A., communications, ‘11) and Jacqueline Wells (B.A., English, ‘06) wanted to connect with a group of College of Letters and Science young alumni in the Bay Area and found no such group existed, they did what Aggies do: they made it happen themselves.
