The Skull and Dagger Foundation was able to award four scholarships this year, each in the amount of $5,000. All of the scholarships are awarded annually to continuing USC students who have demonstrated significant campus and/or community leadership.
Adam Karelin, a junior majoring Music Composition with a minor in Linguistics is the recipient of the Dr. Kenneth Owler Smith Memorial Scholarship. His interests include the intersection of music and language, particularly the interface between the acoustics of speech perception and production of musical perception and production. He is the Music Director of the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC and is the recipient of the Aspen Music Festival Conducting Fellowship in both 2020 and 2021.
Alberto Ortega, a third-year medical student at the Keck School of Medicine, is the recipient of the Barden Centennial Scholarship. Alberto obtained his undergraduate degree from USC in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies and Spanish. He is the Founder of CommunityCPR.org, which provides free multilingual first aid and CPR workshops throughout Los Angeles as well as Co-Founder of Project for Los Angeles’ Youth (PLAY), which partners with the LAPD’s Community Safety partnership to improve outcomes for K-12 youth from inner-city housing projects.
Tommy Nguyen, a junior majoring in History from Irvine, California is the recipient of the William I. Griffith Memorial Scholarship. He is President of the Unruh Associates of the USC Center for the Political Future, and Orientation Advisor, and is serving as a Research Assistant for Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen. He most recently was elected as a Senator for the USC Undergraduate Student Government.
Elyse Pollack, a junior majoring in Civil Engineering from Los Angeles, is the recipient of the Dr. Harrison M. Kurtz Memorial Scholarship. She has been accepted into the Masters program in Structural Engineering. She is President of Chi Epsilon, the civil engineering honor society, a member of the Trojan Marching Band (trombone section) and as Director of External Correspondence of USC Helenes spearheaded the creation of the 100-year anniversary book of the organization.