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Prestigious Scholarships Recipients

Prestigious scholarships are awarded to some of the highest-achieving students in the nation, including many of our UC Davis scholars. Undergraduate and Prestigious Scholarships was founded in the 2013-14 academic year. Since that time, we have had the distinct pleasure of working with the following candidates who prestigious scholarship foundations have recognized. 

You can visit the Recipient Archives for a complete listing of past awardees.

2025-26 recipients

Three stacked photographs: woman close-up, smiling man in vineyard, person by temple.
Top to bottom: Diba Morady, Keller Kramer, Michael Wanner

Critical Language Scholarship

  • Diba Morady, Political Science, Russian
  • Alternates:
    • Keller Kramer, International Relations and Agricultural and Environmental Technology, Portuguese 
    • Jane Lee, Nursing Science and Healthcare Leadership, Korean
    • Wayne Liao, Materials Science and Engineering, Japanese
    • Erin Morissette, Biomedical Engineering, Japanese
    • Michael Wanner, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, Japanese

 

 


 

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Lorenzo Hazen

David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarship

  • Lorenzo Hazen, International Relations, Indonesia
  • Andrew Martin, Mechanical Engineering, Japan

 

 

 

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Lillie Vehling

Donald A. Strauss Scholarship

  • Lillie Vehling, Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Science and Engineering

 

 

 

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Ava Gutierrez

Fulbright U.S. Student Program

English Teaching Assistant Award

  • Alternates:
    • Delana Baker, Psychology, Korea
    • Ava Gutierrez, History and Human Development, Spain
    • Itzelh Hernandez-Arellano, History and Spanish, Brazil
    • Allison Lopez, Human Development, Spain
Three stacked portrait photos: smiling woman, mustached man in sweater, diver smiling at sunset
Top to bottom: Aruna Nannapaneni, Kyle Elshoff, Genece Grisby

Graduate Degree Award

  • Aruna Nannapaneni, Molecular and Medical Microbiology, Australia
  • Mingxin Samuel, Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, Taiwan
  • Alternate:
    • Genece Grisby, Marine and Coastal Science, Saudi Arabia
  • Finalists:
    • Janae Bonnell, Environmental Toxicology, Canada
    • Alex Coffman, Electrical Engineering, Finland
    • Kyle Elshoff, Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity, Canada
    • Connor Spencer, Transportation Technology and Policy and Agricultural and Resource Economics, Netherlands

 

 

 

Three smiling photographic headshots stacked vertically: two men, one woman
Top to bottom: Keller Kramer, Brent Valentine, Oluwaatinuke Balogun

Research Program Award

  • Keller Kramer, International Relations and Agricultural and Environmental Technology, Brazil
  • Brent Valentine, Managerial Economics and Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, Brazil
  • Alternate:
    • Arpa Boghozian, Horticulture and Agronomy, Armenia
  • Finalists:
    • Oluwaatinuke Balogun, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, Nigeria
    • Rose Bern, Psychology, Denmark
    • Evan Martinak, Creative Writing, Turkey
    • Charles Sills, History, Jordan
    • Caden Williams, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Iceland








       

 

 

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Amrita Julka

Harry S. Truman Scholarship

  • Finalist:
    • Amrita Julka, Political Science and Human Development





       
Portrait photograph of two smiling men—top wearing navy blazer; bottom in black jacket and glasses
Top to bottom: Julian Garcia, Kush Narang

Knight-Hennessy Scholarship

  • Julian Garcia, Political Science - Public Service 
  • Kush Narang, Individual - Biological Sciences

     



 





 

Smiling young woman in white sweater standing in sunlit snowy forest; photograph
Lillie Vehling

Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation, or SMART, Scholarship

  • Lillie Vehling, Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Science and Engineering

 

 

 

 

Latest News

Smiling woman with curly hair sitting against a beige wall in a bright hallway

Jumana Esau '20 Awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship

  • by Sharon Knox

Literary scholarship at the nexus of human rights and climate change has earned English major Jumana Esau ’20 a prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship. The scholarship will fully fund Esau to earn her Master of Philosophy in Criticism and Culture at the University of Cambridge, where she plans to study climate fiction with the author Robert Macfarlane. Building on her undergraduate thesis, her research will focus on climate narratives written from the perspective of marginalized communities and developing countries.