2022-2023 Award Recipients - University of Houston
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The Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards

2022-2023 Award Recipients

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    Briana Azad

    Phi Beta Kappa Key Into Public Service Scholarship
    Briana Azad is a senior graduating with a Dual Degree in Psychology and Spanish with minors in Biology and Medicine & Society. Her liberal arts education inspired her to combine her interests in medicine, community health, and supporting marginalized communities. She is particularly passionate about addressing environmental injustices in the Greater Houston area and how it disproportionately affects the health of residents in her community. This led her to found the Wildlife and Environmental Advocacy and Relief (WEAR) project which aims to bring awareness to environmental injustices, such as the Fifth Ward Cancer Cluster, and fosters leaders in environmental health. Briana has spent the last three years building connections with community members in Houston's historic Third and Fifth Wards to elevate their health narratives. She aims to build a more intimate understanding of how minority communities are being disproportionately affected by pollution in Houston. Briana is also a 2023 Phi Beta Kappa Key into Public Service Scholar. Pending graduation, she will be attending Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin.
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    Alyssa Green

    Sumners Scholarship
    Alyssa Green is a senior liberal studies major in the 3+3 accelerated law program in the Honors College. She has minors in Phronesis, Anthropology, and World Cultures and Literatures with an Eastern Asian emphasis. She will start her first year of law school in Fall 2024 pursuing her JD and LLM in International Law. Alyssa has been consistently civilly engaged with the Houston community primarily through running her own Bonner service project, amplifyHER. Her project seeks to mentor middle school girls in public speaking and STAAR training. In particular, Alyssa has centered her program on encouraging girls to use their public speaking skills to become civically engaged individuals. Ever since she was selected as a Sumners Scholar in Spring 2023, Alyssa has enjoyed going to various events to explore the bipartisan dialogue and meeting various professionals in the American political sphere. For her work as a Sumners Scholar the University of Houston has recognized her on the Scholars Walk in 2023.
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    Nikki Hammond

    Phi Kappa Phi Scholarship
    Nikki Hammond graduated from UH and Honors in 2023 with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering with minors in chemistry and leadership studies. Always interested in research, Nikki participated in HERE, Houston Scholars, and PURS, and was a DAAD RISE Germany recipient in 2021. As an undergraduate, she was also involved in Bonner and Model Arab League. Passionate about traveling, she went on multiple study abroad trips with the university to the Galapagos Islands, Egypt, and Europe. With the help of the Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship, Nikki is a 1st year Ph.D. student in chemical engineering at North Carolina State University working under Dean Jim Pfaendtner.
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    Gabrille Kostecki

    Goldwater Scholarship
    Gabrielle Kostecki is a senior mathematical biology major in the Honors College. Under the mentorship of Drs. Colin Haile and Therese Kosten, she has helped research the development of an effective anti-fentanyl vaccine that prevents relapse and opioid overdose, as well as a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine against new variants. She also contributed to ecology and conservation research in the Galapagos Islands. During the Amgen Scholars Program at UT Southwestern, Gabrielle conducted translational research on the waterborne disease schistosomiasis. This helped shape her goal to become a researcher who helps millions impacted globally by Neglected Tropical Diseases. She hopes to conduct a field study through the US/Malawi Fulbright Program in the future, before pursuing a PhD in Infectious Diseases.
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    Wajahat Mohiuddin

    Critical Language Scholarship
    Arabic
    Wajahat Mohiuddin graduated in Fall 2023 with dual degrees, a Bachelor of Arts in World Cultures & Literature with a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Development. He received the Critical Language Scholarship for Arabic which saw him spend the past summer in Nizwa, Oman where he strengthened his Arabic skills and participated in cultural exchange initiatives with Omanis and fellow members of his CLS cohort. He also earned the CLASS Dean's Development Award in the summer of 2022 for studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan. His goals are to continue learning Arabic until he can achieve fluency and work for a global organization with locations in Arabic-speaking countries so that he can utilize his language skills in the workplace. He hopes that his work is an inspiration to other first-generation and non-traditional students.
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    Sondos Moursy

    Marshall-Motley Scholarship
    Sondos Moursy is a 1L at UT Law, driven by a passion for civil rights. She aspires to run for Texas Attorney General to reverse the lasting effects of tough-on-crime agendas that have historically drained fiscal costs and impeded economic growth in marginalized communities. Moursy spent her time at UH conducting data-analysis-based research on the factors that lead to incarceration, the communities disproportionately affected, and the barriers to re-entry. To humanize the numerical data, she began collecting stories and experiences of formerly incarcerated women that provided a more intimate perspective on incarceration. Seeing a need, Moursy initiated a weekly art program called Stories of Health And Re-Entry (SHARE) at Angela House, a local re-entry home. SHARE aimed to provide formerly incarcerated women with a therapeutic outlet and a support network to manage the stressors of re-entry. Moursy is also a NAACP Marshall-Motely Scholar and has committed to practicing civil rights law in the South for ten years post-grad.
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    Nella Sakić

    Fulbright U.S. Student Program
    Bosnia and Herzegovina, English Teaching Assistantship
    Nella Sakić graduated from the University of Houston in 2023 with a Master of Arts in History. Her thesis on aid for Bosnian immigrants to the United States influenced her interest in teaching English in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She spent her time at the University of Houston as a teaching assistant and She hopes to improve her fluency in the local language and improve her ability to work with students whose first language is not English. Prior to her graduate program, she taught world and U.S. history at the high school level. Following her Fulbright experience, Sakić hopes to return to teaching social studies and to continue her research on Bosnian immigration to the United States.
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    Logan Tantibanchachai

    Sumners Scholarship
    Logan Tantibanchachai is a junior philosophy major in the Honors College. He is passionate about first amendment rights, specifically the right to free speech and the right to conscience, and has engaged a broad audience by founding and leading Minorities and Philosophy at UH and Arete, an academic journal, respectively. Beyond his leadership work, Logan has furthered his interests through research programs like Mellon Research Scholars, Provost Undergraduate Research Scholarship, and the Frameworks Fellowship. Through the Sumners At-Large Scholarship, Logan has been able to further his interest by meeting a number of influential public figures and will undertake an internship at the First Liberty Institute in the summer of 2024. Following his senior year, Logan hopes to pursue law school with a focus on constitutional litigation.
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    Damon Spencer

    NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
    Damon Spencer graduated from the University of Houston in May 2023 with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Engineering. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Computation and Applied Mathematics at Rice University. Damon's research interests center around numerical methods, machine learning, and inverse problems. The NSF-GRFP has been very useful to him as a PhD student, granting him independence from funding constraints in his research. After graduation, he is planning to work at either a national laboratory or in academia.
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    Nmeso Ukachi-Nwata

    Sumners Scholarship
    Nmeso Ukachi-Nwata is a junior in the Honors college majoring in psychology on the pre-medical track, with the hopes of becoming a pediatrician. She was selected as a Sumners Scholar in April 2023, and is a recipient of their At-Large Scholarship. She has spent time working in the field of healthcare, child development, education, and public policy. She is eager to continue learning and working towards a more equitable future.
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    Alyson Vu

    Fulbright U.S. Student Program
    Germany, English Teaching Assistantship
    Alyson Vu graduated from the University of Houston in 2023 with honors as a Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa scholar. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology while completing the teachHouston program. In pursuit of her passions in dentistry, education, and the German language, she engaged in the UH ASDA pre-dental club and the inaugural cohort of the STEM RISE research program. She was also a student biology teacher in Houston ISD. Inspired by her CBYX high school exchange year in Germany and dedication to education, she pursued the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. Currently, Alyson teaches English at a vocational school in Germany and particularly enjoys connecting with students in her English Chitchat Afterschool Club. In her spare time, she finds joy in collecting stories from strangers abroad for her passion project, The Red Book Projekt. She sees her Fulbright year as an opportunity to enhance her communication and intercultural skills, paving the way for a successful career in dentistry. Following Fulbright, Alyson is excited to announce her admission into dental school this fall.
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    Tracy Vu

    Fulbright U.S. Student Program
    Taiwan, English Teaching Assistantship
    Tracy Vu graduated from the University of Houston in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition & Foods. During her time at UH, she worked on the amplifyHER service project in the Bonner Leaders program and was a research intern for the Cougars in Cancer Research program. Tracy hopes her time as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant will grant her the opportunity to learn more about Taiwanese culture, hone her communication skills, and overall become a better teacher. Following her Fulbright experience, Tracy plans to work at a hospital to gain more patient care experience within diverse community settings before applying to medical school. As a future doctor, she hopes to serve the diverse communities in America by communicating effectively as a provider and patient advocate with cultural competence.