Class Notes

Dezhen Kong (MSFE) partnered with the Drucker Finance Club to offer a two-part career workshop for students this spring. Kong shared what led him to pivot toward a career in quantitative finance and what his experience as client services analyst at Qontigo has been like so far.

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) named 48 new Emerging Voices Fellows for 2021 and Danae Hart (PhD, Cultural Studies, 2020) and Francesca Gacho (MA, PhD, English, 2021) were among the winners. The program allows recent PhDs in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to take up one-year positions at select institutions in ACLS’s Research University Consortium, where they can advance their research and professional development while contributing to the teaching, programming, and administrative work of their host university. Hart will join the Arts & Humanities program at the University of California, Berkley, and Gacho will join the Communication of Science and Technology program at Vanderbilt University as Postdoctoral fellows.

Diverse Issues in Education recently highlighted two CGU graduates. Soua Xiong (PhD, Education, 2019), Asst. Professor at CSU Fresno, was recognized as an emerging scholar. The journal also announced Yvonne Hernandez Friedman’s (PhD, Education, 2013) appointment as Assistant Vice President for Student Engagement at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

The Financial Engineering program recently surveyed some of the companies where MSFE graduates are working. Some of these alumni are Jiahuan Huang (MSFE, 2019), Financial Analyst, Acumen Robot Intelligence, Inc.; Imad Fahim (MSIST/MSFE, 2019), Liquidity Reporting Associate, MUFG; Kun Liu (MSFE, 2020), Internal Control, Huatai Securities Co, Ltd.; Carlos Meléndez​ (MSFE, 2020), Senior Analyst, Banco de Guatemala; Pogu Zhou (MSFE, 2020), Data Analyst, Shenzhen Capital Group; Irene (Yue) Wu (MSFE, 2020), Actuarial Analyst, Milliman; and Joseph Puhalla (MSFE, 2020), Model Validation Quant, MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International).

The Financial Engineering program recently surveyed some of the companies where MSFE graduates are working. Some of these alumni are Jiahuan Huang (MSFE, 2019), Financial Analyst, Acumen Robot Intelligence, Inc.; Imad Fahim (MSIST/MSFE, 2019), Liquidity Reporting Associate, MUFG; Kun Liu (MSFE, 2020), Internal Control, Huatai Securities Co, Ltd.; Carlos Meléndez​ (MSFE, 2020), Senior Analyst, Banco de Guatemala; Pogu Zhou (MSFE, 2020), Data Analyst, Shenzhen Capital Group; Irene (Yue) Wu (MSFE, 2020), Actuarial Analyst, Milliman; and Joseph Puhalla (MSFE, 2020), Model Validation Quant, MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International).

Joseph Dietrich (MA, Politics) received a grant from the American Philosophical Society Phillips Fund to cover research expenses connected with his work studying voting by mail in Arizona. Dietrich is an adjunct professor at Cal Poly Pomona.

Angus McClellan (MA, Politics) has been appointed a 2021-22 Fellow of Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. See the full list of fellows here.

Sandra E. Hodgin (PhD, Education/Political Science) offered her comments on Title IX policy in an Inside Higher Ed report about a recent case at Florida State University. Hodgin is the founding president of the Title IX Consulting Group and an expert witness on Title IX.

Carlos Echeverria-Estrada (MA, Public Policy and Evaluation) has won a Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy Dissertation Award for his work, “Local Immigration Enforcement and Bureaucratic Discretion: Why Do U.S. Counties Accept the Mexican Consular Card from Unauthorized Immigrants?”

Louise Yoho (PhD, Education) accepted a tenure-track special education position at Southern Illinois University.

Congratulations to Meghan Chen (PhD, Education) who has been appointed as the Associate Vice President of Instruction at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA.

Sherif El-Sabbahy (MS, Math, 2014; MSFE, 2015), Miguel Lopez Velarde (MSFE, Math, 2015), Hanutosh Baria (MSFE, 2017), and Naomi Rinaldi (MBA, 2016) participated in a virtual panel discussion moderated by Professor Ayça Altintig in mid-February. They shared personal experiences from their professional journeys and offered students advice on how to prepare for a successful career in the finance industry.