Cal State L.A. students receive doctoral incentive program awards

July 25, 2012 - PRLog -- Three Cal State L.A. students—Margaret Johnston,  Jacqueline Kiwata and Paulo H. Medina—are recipients of the 2012-13 California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) awards, which are given in an effort to boost the number of CSU students who enter doctoral programs as well as to increase the pool of potential faculty for the CSU system.

CDIP provides student loans—in amounts of up to $10,000 per year—to a limited number of individuals pursuing full-time doctoral degrees at accredited universities throughout the United States. After participants receive their doctoral degrees and obtain a qualifying instructional position in the CSU, a portion of their loan from this program will be forgiven every year.

Margaret Johnston, a seasoned nurse practitioner, has worked in several hospitals for the past 30 years—including Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Northridge Hospital Medical Center and Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center—as a critical care clinical nurse specialist, family nurse practitioner and program manager. Over the years, she has shared her extensive knowledge and skills in nursing with CSULA students through clinical supervision. Since 1990, Johnston has been an instructor for CSULA’s School of Nursing. An Altadena resident, she has applied to three Doctor of Nursing Practice programs and is waiting for admissions decisions to begin in fall 2012.

A kinesiology graduate student, Jacqueline Kiwata received the 2011-12 Western Association of Graduate School (WAGS) Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award for her research on “The Effects of Vigorous Exercise on the Content of Cholesteryl Linoleate, A Novel Antimicrobial Effector Molecule in Upper Respiratory Tract Secretions.” Kiwata has authored a publication with her faculty mentors, presented at a professional conference, and taught several upper division undergraduate courses for CSULA’s School of Kinesiology and Nutritional Science. She has been admitted to doctoral program in biokinesiology, with a specialization in exercise physiology at the University of Southern California, where she intends to begin in fall 2012. She resides in Highland Park-Los Angeles.

As a recipient of the Cotsen Fellowship, Paulo H. Medina conducted anthropology research in El Mirador, an early pre-Columbian Maya settlement, in Guatemala. He has received 17 awards and honors, including the Sally Casanova Pre-doctoral Fellowship. His archaeological research focuses on the role of warfare of the lowland Maya during the Preclassic period.  Medina has participated in several archaeological excavations and has presented his work at six professional conferences. He was admitted to the doctoral program in anthropology at State University of New York-Albany, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the archaeology program at Boston University (BU). Medina decided to attend BU, where he was awarded the Dean’s Fellowship by the university’s College of Arts and Sciences. He is a Pasadena resident.

Established in 1987, the CSU CDIP is the largest program of its kind in the United States. As of June 2011 the program has loaned $40 million to 1,872 doctoral students enrolled in universities throughout the nation, and 1,054 of these participants have successfully earned doctoral degrees. Among participants who have earned their doctoral degrees, 600 (57 percent) have subsequently obtained employment in CSU instructional faculty positions. For details: http://www.calstate.edu/hr/cdip/program/.