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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Previous Student Hackworth Grant Winners

Fall 2023

Adejire Bademosi, Social Impact and Education Doctorate, a $711.59 grant for "The Voices of the HoCo Student Walkout." Through a lens of justice and fairness, this project will examine high school students who challenged racism in their high school community, exploring the ethical questions they faced as they organized, advocated, and resisted institutional forms of racism. This grant will provide funding for participant honorariums, access to research platforms, and technology tools.

Anna Santana, Education in Social Justice Leadership Doctorate, a $2500 grant to support work on your project entitled "The Social, Living, and Educational Conditions of Farmworker Families Residing in a California Migrant Housing Center." This grant will investigate the educational and social challenges experienced by families residing in state-sponsored migrant housing, and how it impacts the academic performance, social integration, and general well-being of migrant children. The funds will be used for books, software, and travel expenses.

Spring 2023

Daisy Halaszyn, Accounting & Information Systems, ’25, a $2500 grant for the project entitled "Currency Use in the Developing World." This grant will explore the short-term and long-term effects of El Salvador's adoption of Bitcoin on poverty and economic opportunity, crime rates, and corruption, and how this model may help or hinder efforts towards building a more equitable society. The project will examine if this model has the potential to help other developing countries, and which parts of this model might be adapted to work on a larger, international scale.

Justin Sun, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science, ’24, a $2500 grant for the project entitled "Space Ethics." This project will examine various ethical issues related to space exploration, including but not limited to satellites & space debris, international relations in space, ethical use of space resources, and ethical issues related to the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Fall 2021

Keren Boiman, Leavey School of Business, MBA program, a $2500 grant for her project entitled “Age discrimination in the workforce and technological resolution.” This project will tackle the problem of age discrimination in the workforce (ageism) and if/how technological advancements can minimize this phenomenon and better prepare seasoned workers for today’s economy. This grant will be used to support focus groups in qualitative interviews and incentives for survey participants.

Spring 2021

Kendall Moore, Neuroscience and Ethnic Studies, ’22, a $2480 grant for “Decoding Bias: Assessing and Testing the Ethics of Anti-Bias Virtual Reality Simulations.” The project aims to create anti-bias sympathy enhancing virtual reality simulations with a focus on micro-aggressions. This will allow for an assessment and discussion on the ethics behind anti-bias technology, and to provide a framework for what ethical considerations must be taken into account with anti-bias technology. The grant will provide for student wages to help create, film, and act in the simulations, as well as provide money for promotional materials and research needs.

Fall 2019

Ashley Ricks, Marketing, ’20, $650 for "Ethical and Effective Charitable Marketing." These funds will support honors thesis research: exploring the ethics of charitable marketing campaigns along with developing a set of ethical guidelines that maximizes donations without compromising on the dignity of the benefactors. This grant will be used for graphics work, printing, transcription, and survey costs.

Spring 2019

Katherine Ang, Philosophy, Latin & Greek, Classical Studies, ’20, and Brian Buckley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, a $2000 grant for her project researching the concept of redemptive punishment. The grant will be used for student wages and incidentals expenses related to the research project.

Rachael Han, Civil Engineering, ’20, and Tonya Nilsson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, a $2000 grant for her project developing a guide to engineering for non-local communities.The grant will be used for student wages and incidentals related to the research project.

Jacqueline Rogers, Environmental Science, ’20, and Iris Stewart-Frey, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies & Sciences, a $2000 grant for her project on water policy and Bay Area water resources.The grant will be used for student wages and incidentals related to the research project.

Christopher Wagers, Psychology, ‘20 and Jamie S. Chang, Assistant Professor, Public Health Program, a $2000 grant to support work on his project researching gender and substance use. The grant will be used for student wages and incidentals related to the research project.

Spring 2018

Hallie Friedfeld, Child Studies and Sociology, ’19, and Carol Gittens, Associate Professor, Child (Liberal) Studies, $2500 to support the project “Ethical Stories for Children.” This project will help to generate ethical guides to accompany children’s books, for early childhood ethics education. The grant will be used to provide for student wages, children's books, and miscellaneous supplies relevant to creating ethics guides for children's books.

Maria Khouri-Haddad, Finance and French & Francophone Studies, ’19, and Michael Kevane, Associate Professor, Economics, Leavey School of Business, $2500 to support the project “Developing an Ethics Manual for the FAVL (Friends of African Village Libraries) Organization.” This project will contribute to the production of an ethics guidebook for the FAVL organization, to help resolve common ethical problems in a consistent manner. The grant will help to cover student wages, and printing and dissemination costs.

James Wang, Electrical Engineering and Environmental Science, ‘19, and Iris Stewart-Frey, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies & Sciences, $2500 to support the project “The Ethical Dilemma of Geoengineering.” The project will investigate various aspects of the ethics of using large-scale technologies to engineer Earth’s climate as a solution to climate change. Funds will be used to help pay for student wages and travel expenses.

Spring 2016

Jessica Frydenberg, Communication and Sociology, ’17, $1250 to support her project "Exploring the Social, Economic, and Political Effects of Poverty Tourism in South Africa." This project will examine the effect of poverty tourism on the localities which are toured. It will include archival and media research, interviews with locals and tourist agencies, and an ethical analysis of the findings. Funds will support travel, food, and lodging.

Spring 2015

Lucas Hill, Biology, '16, $100 to assist with travel expenses and miscellaneous supplies for his honors thesis project "Undocumented Immigrants and Health Care Access in California." This project will examine how local groups of undocumented immigrants are living with the repercussions of their intentional exclusion from the Affordable Care Act and Covered California programs.

Marissa Martinez, Theater and English, '16, $2190 to help stage her original play "Diversity in Play: Hapa Cup of Sugar" which will be part of her course of studies in Theater. Funds will pay for media purchases, workshop fees, props, sets, costumes, and production team compensation. After the staging of the play there will be a discussion of the ethical themes. The Office for Diversity and Inclusion contributed to this grant.

Dominic Romeo, Theology, JST, MA '16, $2500 to support his research project "China, Economic Growth, and Inequality." Funds will assist with fees, travel, food, and lodging for his master's thesis research on how inequalities of economic development in China have affected local healthcare access. Upon return his research will be shared with the SCU campus community.

Fall 2014

Morris Kim, Anthropology, '15, a $1981 grant to support work on his project entitled "The Inextricable Link between Social Inequalities and Infectious Diseases." This project will support a senior project and honors thesis by funding travel to Honduras. It will examine the extent to which social inequalities relate to the risk of infectious disease and the mechanisms through which social inequalities influence not only the distribution of infectious diseases but also the health outcomes of those afflicted.

Spring 2014

Anisha Agarwal, Psychology, '15, $500 for research for her senior capstone project "Bilingual Storytimes: A Cross-Cultural and Cross-Linguistic Examination." Anisha will be attending and comparing community storytimes in English and Spanish throughout the Bay Area to see if there are trends in how monolingual and bilingual storytimes are similar or different. The Office for Diversity and Inclusion contributed to this grant.

Fall 2013

Safiya Bouhouch, Communication ‘14, $915 for her senior capstone film project “A Second Chance at Life.” This film will explore some of the complex personal, social, and ethical issues affecting those who are awaiting organs for transplantation.