Bob DeLorenzo Memorial Scholarship Recipients

My freshman year at UCSD has been filled with growth, learning, and surprises!  Taking chemistry, calculus and biology simultaneously was hard on my workload, but allowed me to keep my education on track. It was a shock to me at first the structure of college classes and getting adjusted to the increased individual responsibilities I had in taking control of my own education.  However, I have since learned how to best manage my time along with working and maintaining a social life.  In my first quarter, I also was able to take a class at Scripps.  I learned about the weather in San Diego and even got to tour the Scripps Pier.  I look forward to having more classes down there.  In addition to my STEM classes, Revelle college requires their students to be well-rounded.  I ended up taking two Humanities courses along with a new language, ASL (American Sign Language)!  At first the workload of my Humanities classes was overwhelming, but as I got used to a specific analytical style of writing I found myself sometimes enjoying the course readings.  My favorite class this year however had to be  ASL.  I loved learning about the history of the language and Deaf culture in addition to the physical language. vI find myself signing words or phrases to my friends/family to keep up my practice!  Aside from classes, I have started to learn to surf - something I’ve always wanted to try.  The beaches in La Jolla are so beautiful.  I am excited to return to UCSD now with all the knowledge I have to learn more in a way that works for me!

I did a lot of new things this year at CPP, including my first job as a campus tour guide!  I built a Cryptography Capture-The-Flag (CTF) focused on hash-cracking that I presented at CPP’s Cyber Club SWIFT, Walnut High’s Women in STEM Fair, and SWIFT’s Tech Symposium.  I competed in many cyber competitions like the SoCal Cyber Cup and the National Cyber League, fighting off live red team hackers.  As the Intern Lead, I’m helping SWIFT launch more projects like my Cryptography CTF and I’m excited to work with so many amazing students.  As I complete Hash-Cracking Research at Coastline College this summer, I feel a lot more stable in my cybersecurity ability.  

I notably attended New York Model UN, visiting the real United Nations and receiving Outstanding Delegation for my performance as Mexico’s UNESCO Delegate.  I hope to bring my skills in public speaking and advocacy to a Student Gov position.  I also danced with CPP’s Bollywood Dance Team Tamanna–learning the tricky steps of Bharatanatyam, attending Garba/Diwali, and dancing at the National Desi Dance League.  Finally, I did some projects with CPP’s Data Analytics Team and learned to make ethernet cables with the Student Data Center.  Under the Kellogg Honors College, I had a lot of fun scaring children as a volunteer for a Haunted House.  Around campus, I got to meet some pretty cool people, horses, cows, bunnies, cats, and sheep.  I love sheep.  Overall, I’m looking forward to my next year!

My sophomore year at Santa Clara University was exciting. I had the opportunity to meet new people and professors who helped me grow and inspired me to pursue engineering more. I have received the opportunity to have a tour of the big technology companies up in San Jose, to my school, and the program I am in. I really enjoyed my time here this year more, and I really enjoyed Thermodynamics thanks to my professor, and I also got to learn more about Dynamics as well. Thanks to my classes this year, I have been improving in coding and can do more projects, and I am excited for what awaits me next school year.

Taeyoung (Teddy) Chun graduated from Torrance High School in the class of 2023 and is committed to Santa Clara University. Teddy will be majoring in mechanical engineering. At Torrance High, Teddy was awarded the President’s Award for Educational Excellence and the academic achievement award for science. Outside of school, Teddy was awarded the Gold Presidential Award from Hwarang Youth Foundation for 4 consecutive years for volunteering over 1200 hours. Teddy received 1st place in the MIT CubeSat Challenge during his junior year. Teddy also was in the tennis doubles CIF for 3 consecutive years. Teddy hopes to graduate college and be able to create a technology that will help clean the beaches.

In June I was fortunate enough to graduate from UCI with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a specialization in Flow Physics and Propulsion Systems. During the past year I took several interesting upper division courses in subjects such as combustion and fuel cells, heat and mass transfer, and control systems. Combustion in particular was a fascinating course and gave me a broader understanding of chemical processes that occur as well as the methods of sustaining global energy demand. This class paired with my continued hydrogen fuel cell research in the Clean Energy Institute helped to grow my passion for the thermodynamics of energy systems. I enjoyed building out testing infrastructure and helping to devise solutions to simplify fuel cell membrane production. In addition, I was grateful to help as a mechanical lead on my senior capstone design course. In this course I utilized the knowledge I learned about mechanical and fluid systems courses to design a drone aerobody and payload release system. UCI was an incredibly rewarding place to go to college. I am excited to use all of the things I learned from courses and senior design teams to help me as I enter a new phase as a full time engineer at Northrop Grumman. I am so thankful for the Bob DeLorenzo RISE Scholarship for enabling me to pursue my passion for engineering.

In my sophomore year of college at UCI I was able to push myself both academically and personally.  As a mechanical engineering student I took a variety of courses including thermodynamics, dynamics and material science. These courses were challenging but allowed me to grow my technical skills. On the UCI Rocket Project Liquids Team, I added value by serving as the corporate outreach representative. In my role, I helped the launch vehicle, propulsion and avionics subteams attain the materials needed. This opportunity showed me a passion for space exploration vehicles and grew my love for business. These experiences have increased my desire to pursue a Masters of Business Administration after my undergraduate degree. My interest in fluid mechanics has led me to join the UCI AFR (Anteater Formula Racing) team as the aerodynamics specialist. Additionally, I was able to join Northrop Grumman this summer as a Cryocooler technical intern.

Outside of my technical growth, I have had so much fun taking on extracurricular endeavors. On the leadership team for CRU, a Christian club on campus, I enjoyed planning out social events to foster community. I also served as the director of choreography for a short film that I created to engage my love of storytelling and cinema. I enjoy working out and am planning on taking on Mt. Whitney this summer.

Overall, my first two years have gone by at a dizzying pace and have left me excited for the next two to come.

Matthew Michaelian graduated from Torrance High School in the class of 2022 and is committed to the University of California Irvine. Matthew will be majoring in mechanical engineering and has a passion for biomedical engineering. At Torrance High Matthew was awarded the academic achievement award for mathematics his sophomore, junior and senior year as well the award for engineering his senior year. Outside the classroom, Matthew was the pioneer league champion in 300 meter hurdles and finished fifth place in CIF Finals his junior year. He interned at the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation and was an active participant in Rolling Hills Covenant Church. Matthew hopes to be a part of a biomedical startup to pursue his passions for engineering and medicine.