They are the $5,000 William Randolph Hearst/California State University (CSU) Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement, the $5,000 CSU Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholarship and the $3,000 Ali C. Razi Scholarship.
The Hearst cash award goes to students who demonstrate superior academic performance, personal accomplishments, community service and financial need.
The Sally Casanova scholarship provides recipients with trips to professional meetings and research visits to doctoral-granting institutions as groundwork for embarking on doctoral programs.
As top scorer among recipients of the Hearst Award at the CSU’s 23 campuses, Ms. Bayer is this year’s winner of the Razi Scholarship, also a CSU-affiliated cash award.
Afflicted with a grave childhood speech impediment, Ms. Bayer became a voracious reader and prolific writer; it took her 14 years to learn to speak English.
The serious and permanent health problems of several family members resulted in a prolonged financial struggle that nearly prevented her from pursuing a higher education. Eventually, however, she entered Dominican University of California, 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, on a minority scholarship that helped defray the costs of her undergraduate studies. They culminated in two degrees, one in English, one in history.
Highly accomplished academically, Ms. Bayer is a lifetime member of Phi Beta Kappa, Gamma Sigma and Alpha Chi honor societies. She is also a member of the National Association for Humanities Education.
Her recent contributions include teaching English classes at College of the Redwoods under the auspices of the Upward Bound program for low income, high risk high school students and serving as an intern with the California Center for Rural Policy at Humboldt State. She interviewed disabled individuals as part of a Rural Health Information Survey and will participate in analysis of data gained from a study this summer of the Latino community’s health needs. She also volunteered for HSU’s Science of Design Conference and started a year-round reading club to encourage young adults to read outside of school.
After completing her Ph.D., Ms. Bayer plans to teach college English and write historical fiction. Of the latter, she says, “It can illuminate the mistakes of the past and keep the future bright and hopeful. As a teacher, I will encourage critical thinking skills and help students learn how to express themselves when writing and speaking. I want others to understand that they can achieve their dreams despite obstacles that seem impossible to overcome. . . . It is my responsibility as an educator to believe in the impossible and make it possible.”
Click on http://www.calstate.edu/foundation/hearst/ for more information about the Hearst Award. Click on http://www.calstate.edu/PreDoc/cpdp_program.shtml for more information about the pre-doctoral program.