Scholarship Winners

Feliz Scholarship Winners

2011-2012: Andey Nunes

Andey is a sustainable building advisor and returning student at San Francisco State University. He has a unique blend of 15 years of experience spanning the wastewater industry, electrical construction, and green building. In 2010-2011 he served as the LEED AP consultant for Roebuck Construction on the Park and Presidio Branch Library Renovation projects. Andey is the author of Conserving the Future While Preserving the Past: A Case Study of Eco-renovations in Two Historic San Francisco Public Libraries which was completed as part of his internship with SF Environment’s Green Building Program. He earns his BS-Earth System Science with an emphasis in Chemical Analysis in Spring 2012. Upon graduation he plans to apply for a research position at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions in Portland, OR. He enjoys cooking, gardening and spending time with his 7-yr old son.

2010-2011: Jeanette Sasek

Jeanette was attracted to the Environmental Studies major because of her experiences growing up in rural Northern California. Though she is a city dweller now, her childhood was spent surrounded by nature where she became a keen observer of natural cycles. She grew up near the agriculture-rich Central Valley and remembers gazing at the farmland through the car window. One day she realized that farmland had now been completely taken over by a sea of houses; row upon row of identical suburban dwellings, miles away from any town. Observations like these, along with her classes relating to the urban environment, have led to her interest in sustainable urban development, transportation and land use planning. During her time at SF State, Jeanette worked with Professor Raquel Rivera-Pinderhughes on Roots of Success. This is an environmental literacy curriculum which aims to give those with limited proficiency in English, math and computer literacy a competitive advantage in the emerging green collar economy. After graduation, Jeanette plans to continue working with Roots of Success as the curriculum is continuing to be developed and expanded.

2009-2010: Virginie Corominas

Virginie is a returning student born in France living in the Bay Area since 2001. She decided to go to college at 25 after her experience volunteering for a fair trade organization. City College and SFSU have been her turf for learning about leadership, critical thinking and writing, and have also been great institutions for her to get to know people of all backgrounds, to learn from dedicated teachers and to get an affordable education. She comes from a working-class family but was very fortunate to travel the world since birth. These contrasting assets allowed her to witness and understand global injustices at an early age but also to see how fast globalization was damaging the earth. She decided to enroll in Environmental Studies because she thought that there is not much to gain from social advancement if this planet becomes inhabitable to our species. Virginie is eager to graduate from SFSU and start community involvement again, from now on focusing on food issues. She has found that food is a big part of her cultural background and as a universal tool that brings families and communities together, food reminds us of our relationship with the earth and grounds us in our necessity for a clean and sustainable livelihood.

2008-09: Karen Medina
Throughout high school, Karen was involved with the San Diego Ocean's Foundation, particularly working on the White SeaBass Grow-Out Pens. The time she dedicated to the non-profit organization gave her lots of insight to the problems facing our world and turned me onto Environmental Studies. Currently she is concentrating in NRMC, yet finds every program to be equally important to solving the problems of our future. Outside of her academic work, Karen has been battling social justice by volunteering her time at Mujeres Unidas y Activas and CAMINOS, as well as working with preschoolers at Mission Annex. As she pursues her BA, she will continue to take a holistic approach on the environmental problems she is confronted with.

2007-08: Rick Sakow
Rick has been involved in the environmental and social activist arena since high-school, when he began working with the nation's most widely heard pirate radio station, Free Radio San Diego. At 16 he worked for the County of San Diego’s, Department of Environmental Health, Watershed Protection Program protecting water quality. Thanks to the ENVS Internship Program at SF State, he is currently working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Clean Water Act Compliance Office where he is an inspector and compliance officer. he is currently applying for the masters program in Environmental Management at USF.

2006-07: Casey Batchelder
After graduating, Casey wants to teach people ways to conserve and live a sustainable life. Casey is cur-rently studying abroad in New Zealand.

Michaud Award Winners

2009-2010: Christina Manalansan

Growing up in San Diego, California, Christina began her studies in the environmental sciences focusing on marine biology, a focus that fueled her love for the ocean. She volunteered at the Stephen Birch Aquarium in La Jolla before moving to San Francisco and transferring to SF State University. A constant participant in community activities, Christina has cultivated a love for serving the student community, particularly kindergarten through 12th grade. Currently, she is an Environmental Studies major at State, hoping eventually to help sow grassroots environmental movements, a method which she believes is the only method to effectively raise awareness. Working with young students currently and in the future, in tandem with her innate desire to cultivate a more sustainable physical environment has helped Christina to formulate a belief in the absolute necessity of creating sustainable social environments of conservation and awareness in a society where both figurative and physical barriers are coming down every day.

2008-09: Marissa Speer
Marissa will never stop learning. Recently she and a friend shared some seeds from a calendula flower in her backyard. She was amazed as to the amount of seeds she collected just from one flower. This proves that life is abundant and that by working with nature everyone in the world could have their needs met. The earth is bursting with life, even our concrete sidewalks can't keep it out! Marissa recently completed the Earth Activist Training, a permaculture design course that also focuses on earth based spirituality. Permaculture can also be called Regenerative Design for human systems that build beneficial relationships with nature. She works to help spread the wealth of nature working within herself, within the human community, and working with the earth.

2007-08: Adrienne Eliza Aquino
Adrienne designed a poster for SFSU Focus the Nation and designed the T-shirts for the national Focus the Nation campaign. Adrienne describes her background and goals: I was born and raised in the Bay Area, and aspire to act locally. Ideally, I would like to apply my skills as a graphic designer to environmental communication. I have a strong interest in environmental justice and hope to become more involved with the movement. I see a strong correlation between effective communication and positive action and would like to use this knowledge to bring attention to environmental problems.