On Nov. 3, Wasserman Dean Marcelo Suárez-Orozco welcomed students, their families, alumni, and supporters of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies to the annual Dean’s Scholars Dinner in Carnesale Commons. More than 100 scholarships and fellowships have been awarded to students this year. IS alumnus James Ding (’90, MLIS) was also honored with the Dean’s Scholars Award for his outstanding achievements in information and technology. Suárez-Orozco expressed his gratitude for donors and supporters of the UCLA Departments of Education & Information Studies, and his admiration for Ed & IS students and their commitment to their work.
“We know how difficult it is to work for a graduate degree… juggling family, jobs, and many other responsibilities,” he said. “But careers in education and information are absolutely imperative for a democratic society in the 21 Century and beyond. We congratulate you for you perseverance, your dedication to your goals, and we thank you for the impact your work and your lives will have once you leave the Bruin family.”
Ding, who is the General Partner and Managing Director of GSR Ventures, an early stage venture fund focused on technology, media, and telecom investment in China. He co-founded AsiaInfo Holdings, Inc. in 1993, was largely responsible for introducing the Internet to China. He has held various leadership positions in the organization including CEO and President, senior vice president, and chief technology officer. He currently serves as director of the AsiaInfo Holdings Board.
Ding has also served as an independent director of Baidu, a NASDQ-listed company that was established in 2005, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, and ChiNext. He earned his bachelor’s of science degree from Peking University in 1986. His daughter, Rene Ding, now attends UCLA with a double major in political science and anthropology.
“James was a visionary, able to [foresee] the possibilities inherent in the new digital world,” said Suárez-Orozco. “The world has been digitally transformed thanks to leaders and visionaries like James.”
Suárez-Orozco shared current and future initiatives and successes at UCLA Ed & IS, including the recent hiring of eight new assistant professors – two in the Department of Information Studies and six in the Department of Education; Professor Carlos Torres being chosen as the inaugural UNESCO Chair of Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education and the graduate school’s partnership with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability to form the UCLA Children’s Environmental Educational Initiative; and a summit on narrowing the achievement gap for immigrant-origin youth at UCLA Community School, co-hosted by The Ford Foundation. He also shared plans for a two-day invitational workshop on mass migration, presented by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Ross Institute, and UCLA.
Suárez-Orozco announced that UCLA Community School, which is operated in partnership with LAUSD, has achieved an unprecedented 99 percent graduation rate in its service area of Koreatown-Pico-Union, and introduced several of the school’s alumni who are now attending UCLA as undergraduates. He also shared the newly established partnership between Horace Mann Middle School and UCLA to form a new UCLA Community School.
Student representatives from the Departments of Education & Information Studies thanked donors and supporters on behalf of their fellow students with a special video presentation and remarks from Sharim Hannegan-Martinez and Alex Valencia. Hannegan-Martinez is a student in UCLA’s Teacher Education Program (TEP) and a first-year Ph.D. student in the division of Social Sciences and Comparative Education (SSCE); she is this year’s recipient of the Gordon and Olga Smith Fellowship. Valencia is a first-year MLIS student and this year’s recipient of the Osborn Family Fellowship.
“Getting into UCLA was a dream come true,” said Valencia, a former children’s librarian from the Bay Area, who was also featured in the video. “There is so much history within these walls and to be a part of that history is amazing. And receiving this Fellowship just flipped the switch. It showed me that someone out there who recognized my goal and who wanted to see me succeed.
“Not only has it relieved some of my financial burden, but it has allowed me to partake in the community of students and focus on my work at the Powell Library not just for financial need but for the experience as well,” he said. “I will be able to take these experiences with me far past graduation and into the world.”
“I first experienced school by hating it,” said Hannegan-Martinez, who grew up on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border and taught in Oakland schools for five years. “By the time I was in the 10 grade, I was ready to drop out. I decided that I wanted to be the kind of teacher that I never had,” she said. “And so much of what I was seeing in schools resonated with the experiences that I had.
“I really became interested in studying how teachers can become better,” she said. “Being here with this Fellowship is a blessing for my family and for the young people that I was able to teach… and who I hope as a result of my being here and the work that I will be able to do, will one day have the opportunity to be in this space.”
For a Facebook album of the Dean’s Scholars Dinner, click here.
Photos by Todd Cheney, UCLA