Submitted by Teresa K. Morrison
Photo courtesy of Judith SpiegelThe College of Humanities is delighted to announce Alan Malfavon as its 2014-15 Dean’s Scholar. Alan graduated this spring with a double major in modern languages and culture (concentration in Spanish) and history.
Alan is a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and a Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar. Both highly selective scholarships are focused on increasing the presence of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in graduate programs at elite institutions. The Casanova scholarship is a CSU program that targets and mentors extraordinary CSU students who have the potential to earn a Ph.D. and return to the CSU system to teach.
Alan says that his lifelong dream has been to become an academic historian, and his career is already off to a brilliant start. His CSUN instructors report that he routinely helps peers struggling with class material. In fall 2014 he was invited to be a guest lecturer in the Survey in Latin American History course, where he presented a talk and held a discussion on the social consequences of the Mexican Revolution.
Alan is a member of the elite honor societies Phi Alpha Theta and Phi Beta Delta and has won more than a few undergraduate awards and scholarships. While earning these accolades, he maintained a 3.95 GPA, appearing on the Dean’s list in both Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences every semester he has been at CSUN. All the while he held down two campus jobs and served as president of CSUN’s Spanish Club—and in his spare time he plays guitar in a jarocho band!
Alan received full scholarship offers from Ph.D. programs at the University of Texas at Austin and University of California, Riverside. He accepted UCR’s offer and will begin his doctoral study in the fall. His fondest wish is to one day be a professor at CSUN. He says that he regards this institution not just as his university, but as his home. We could not ask for a finer campus representative to demonstrate what’s possible when a student with relentless drive mines CSUN’s boundless resources. ◊