Pasadena Community Foundation Funds Caltech Fellowship for Local Student Scholar

This summer, Pasadena Community Foundation has one more reason to be proud of its PCF Scholars Program. Christian Dimayuga – who was selected for PCF Scholars last September and is now a rising sophomore at Pasadena City College (PCC) – was chosen to participate in a 10-week WAVE Fellows Program at Caltech this summer. PCF provided funding for Christian’s room, board, and program materials.

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR CAREERS IN SCIENCE

Caltech’s WAVE Fellows program aims to foster diversity by increasing the participation of underrepresented students in science and engineering. Undergraduate students are paired with a graduate student and/or faculty mentor to define and develop a research project in a scientific area that interests them. Fellows can attend weekly seminars by Caltech faculty & JPL scientists and engineers, writing workshops, student-faculty dinners, and a series of classes that help them explore a research career and understand the graduate school admissions process.

Christian, who was raised by his single mom, graduated from Marshall Fundamental High School in 2022 and hopes to become a research scientist. At Caltech, he chose to pursue research within the Center for Environmental Microbial Interactions (CEMI) and is exploring the area of limb regeneration.

PCF staff members Jeannine and Sarah visited Christian near the end of his fellowship in late August and got to tour his laboratory and research spaces. Christian was clearly comfortable with his work and showed us how he amputates the legs of fruit flies to better understand how organisms can regenerate limbs.

“Being here is a dream,” Christian emphasized. “This opportunity would not have been possible without Pasadena Community Foundation. They were really vital in me being here. I want to go to Caltech for grad school and continue on doing this line of work and eventually be a research scientist. So I am really happy that PCF could help make that dream happen.”

Watch a short video about Christian at Caltech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSN5IrRZgg4

Story reference: https://pasadenacf.org/pcf-scholar-lands-research-fellowship-at-caltech/