The Whitham Family Collaborative Research Awards Fund was created through a $3.8 million gift from Santa Clara alumna Jacqueline Whitham ’21 and the Whitham Family Foundation of Colorado.
As a student at Santa Clara, Jacqueline initially studied biology, but decided she didn’t want to work in that field as a career. But then she found there was no clear path for her to pursue her specific combination of interests— chemistry, mechanical engineering, and the arts. Eventually, she was able to change majors, add a minor in mechanical engineering and pursue her creative passion for art through a sculpture art minor. But doing so required five years to graduate, and she felt alone in her journey at times.
Still, the extra effort paid off, she said. Her STEM teachers noticed that she attacked problems differently from other students, while still being effective. “Art was a creative outlet, which connected me to people and my other studies in the craziest ways,” she said. “Creativity really fed into helping me understand so many concepts. I want to help people who want to walk similar paths.”
Jacqueline Whitham ’21. Photo by Jim Gensheimer
The Whitham Family Collaborative Scholarship Awards are designed to promote true cross-disciplinary collaborations between two or more Santa Clara University faculty members and their research students. While any University-wide cross-disciplinary collaboration is eligible, there will be a preference to fund projects that involve at least one faculty member of the research team from the Arts. There are two tracks for faculty applications. Details can be found here.
Undergraduate researchers are welcome to apply through our portal, the Single Portal for Undergraduate Research (SPUR).
By applying through a University-wide, single application portal with a common set of guidelines, research proposals will be evaluated for quality prior to consideration for specific grants and awards for which the student and research project may be eligible
2023 Faculty Awardees
Project: Visualizing the Unseeable
Project: The Ohlone Augmented Reality Campus Tour
Project: Creating an app for climate change forecasts, information, and adaptation in Central America through science, technology, and the arts
2023 Undergraduate Researchers

Major: Biology and Public Health
Faculty Mentor: Kirsten Read, Department of Psychology
Project: The Impact of Book Type and Reader Goals on Extratextual Talk During Shared Reading With Preschool-aged Children
Gabby Rosenberg, Class of 2024
Major: Psychology and Child Studies
Faculty Mentors: Laura Doyle, Department of Civil Engineering, and Barbara O'Brien, Department of Psychology
Project: Implementing High School Guides in a Mobile Makerspace