College of San Mateo students and faculty earned major recognition earlier this month at the 16th Annual Community College Honors Research Symposium hosted at Stanford University, showcasing the strength of CSM’s Honors Project learning community and its growing reputation for undergraduate research, interdisciplinary scholarship, and transfer preparation.
Held on Saturday, May 2, the statewide symposium brought together top community college scholars from across California. Organized by the Bay Honors Consortium, the event received more than 300 presentation proposals from students representing colleges from San Diego to Sacramento. Of the 97 students selected to present, nine were from CSM.
The strong CSM presence at the symposium reflected the continued growth and impact of the college’s Honors Project, an interdisciplinary learning community that supports highly motivated students through advanced research, collaborative inquiry, and honors-level scholarship. Through the program, students pair transfer-level coursework with intensive honors seminars where they develop original research projects spanning the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and interdisciplinary studies.
One of the day’s top honors went to current CSM Honors student Anthony Friis, who received the prestigious Katharine Award, recognizing the symposium’s most thoughtful and justice-forwarding presentation. Friis earned the distinction for his project, “The Logic of the Ledger: Tracing Antebellum Plantation Accounting to Modern Workforce Analytics,” which examined how labor management systems developed during slavery continue to shape modern workforce analytics and management practices today.
Professor of Film and Honors Project Coordinator David Laderman also received statewide recognition, earning the prestigious Klaschus Honors Faculty of the Year Award for his leadership in developing and expanding CSM’s innovative Honors Project.
“The liberatory model of Honors at CSM has relied on the inimitable hustle and compassion and creative brilliance of David,” said colleague Sarah Mangin-Hinkley. “His legacy is a program that exemplifies what a rigorous and inspiring intellectual community can be, how it can feel, at its very best.”
The symposium also highlighted the success of former Honors Project students. CSM alumna and Stanford transfer student Antuaneth Sosa Mejia participated in the event’s Stanford Transfer Student Panel, where she spoke about how the Honors Project prepared her for the academic rigor and expectations of Stanford University. Sosa Mejia, now a senior at Stanford, will begin graduate studies at San Francisco State University this fall.
The event concluded with a Stanford admissions workshop and campus tour for participating students.
The following CSM Honors Project students were selected to present their research at the symposium:
- Alan Alcantara, “Flight Path to Safety”
- Clio Anesti, “Protein as Virtue: Food, Masculinity, and Moral Performance in Contemporary American Diet Culture”
- Anthony Friis, “The Logic of the Ledger: Tracing Antebellum Plantation Accounting to Modern Workforce Analytics”
- Archana Narasanna, “We Don’t Want to Be the World’s Garbage Dump: San Mateo County’s Response to China’s National Sword Policy”
- Angel Perez Garcia, “Identifying Support: How Anti-Immigrant Discourse and I.C.E. Activity Impact Academic Success”
- David Rabinovich, “Correlation Between Facial Harmony Metrics and Perceived Attractiveness Across Diverse Faces”
- Arden Salotti, “Reanimating Frankenstein: Science, Ethics, and Cultural Fear from Whale to del Toro”
- Pauline Tymchenko, “Not Surviving but Living: How Ukrainians Reconstruct Ontological Security in Wartime Kyiv”
- Brian Young, “Parkinson’s Disease Handwriting Patterns: A Directional Analysis”
The breadth of research topics presented by CSM students reflected the Honors Project’s interdisciplinary approach and its commitment to fostering intellectually adventurous student scholars.
Students interested in learning more about the Honors Project can visit the program website to explore seminars, transfer opportunities, and application information.
