Special Programs For Undergraduates Award Original Research And Excellence in Foreign Studies

The University of Southern California (USC) School of Architecture is pleased to announce that graduating 5th year students Olen Milholland and Catherine Tang have both been awarded 2009 Global Scholars Prizes.  Michael Leung, also a graduating 5th year student, will receive the 2009 Discovery Scholars Prize.  In addition to receiving a $10,000 award to be applied toward graduate study, Scholars were honored on Thursday, May 14 by being included on the USC Wall of Scholars, which recognizes those students who have won certain national and international fellowships as well as certain USC awards.

About the Global Scholars Program Provost C. L. Max Nikias said, “The Global Scholars program is designed to encourage our students to become outstanding world-citizens, while preparing them to navigate our increasingly-interdependent global community.

”Global Scholar Catherine Tang spent the summer of 2007 in Malaysia with the School of Architecture Asia Study Abroad Program.  She worked alongside an architecture student from the Universiti Malaya designing an elementary school at Krabei Riel, a small village outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia.

 “This summer was more than just an opportunity to tour foreign countries…it was a real-life design experience.  Our group still remains active in helping to fund construction. It is a daunting task, but because we made a promise to the children at Krabei Riel, it has become more personal than ever."

Scholar Olen Milholland documented travels in Nicaragua that were funded by the Avi Gesundheit Traveling Fellowship as well as his semester based in Como, Italy with the Anthony A. Marnell II Italian Architecture Studies program.  In contrasting the two locations he observed, “The thing linking the two together is that in both cases, the relation to the social interactions is what informs good architecture.  We must concern ourselves in the way our buildings impact and help the lives of those using them.” 

Of the Discovery Scholars Program Provost Nikias said, “Our aim is to bolster academic achievement among our talented students, while nurturing the intellectual breadth and flexibility our students will need in this rapidly changing century.” 

Discovery Scholar Michael Leung submitted a collection of research and design projects that address the phenomenology of architecture, which defines the role of materiality as a sensory device. His projects pursue a logic of material performance that allows the criteria defined by environmental and climate variations to create form and space.  His projects included a material exploration, a solar farming research facility and a fog-harvesting hydroponic farm.

USC President Steven Sample launched both the Global Scholars and the Discovery Scholars programs in 2007. The Global Scholars Program recognizes undergraduates who have excelled in their studies both at home and abroad, including spending at least ten weeks outside the U.S. as part of their undergraduate experience.  The Discovery Scholars Program awards students who excel in the classroom and display the ability to create exceptional new scholarship or artistic works.

The USC School of Architecture is located in the heart of Los Angeles, a singular laboratory in which to study and understand urban conditions and their architectural implications. With the appointment of Dean Qingyun Ma the School extends its global reach into new territories, launching new initiatives in cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary discourses, strengthening ties in the community and around the world.  Established in 1919, the USC School of Architecture was the first of its kind in Southern California.  Educational offerings include architecture, landscape architecture, building science and historic preservation.  Among its notable graduates are Conrad Buff III, Donald H. Hensman, Pierre Koenig, and two Pritzker Prize Laureates: Frank O. Gehry (1989) and Thom Mayne (2005).

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May 26, 2009

Jane A. Ilger    213 740 2092 ilger@usc.edu