ABOUT THE PRIZE
Disability Studies lauds the generosity that the Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation has provided via scholarships to promising students in the Disability Studies Minor. From 2013-2020, students were rewarded for their ongoing dedication to service and advocacy on issues of importance to the disability community.
ABOUT SAMUEL OSCHIN
The Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation was founded in 1981 by the late Samuel Oschin, an entrepreneur, explorer and philanthropist who was dedicated to giving back to the Los Angeles community. Under the direction of Mrs. Samuel Oschin, the Foundation continues her husband’s work by supporting a variety of causes in the areas of astronomy, medicine, education, and the arts.
Lynda Oschin says her husband wanted nothing more than to make a difference and encourage others to share in the work of improving our world and bringing hope for the future through stimulating collaboration. With this generous gift to UCLA’s Disability Studies program, students are able to continue Samuel Oschin’s legacy and dedicate themselves to improving the quality of life for those in the Los Angeles community and beyond.
PROFILES OF 2020 STUDENT WINNERS
Thanks to the generous support of the Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation, UCLA Disability Studies is pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Fall Disability Studies Scholarships. Kathleen De Nicola, Natalee Decker, and Amy Vandyken were the winners of the 2020 Samuel Oschin Scholarship – they will be awarded $2,300, $2,300, and $1,000 respectively.
The winners were chosen from a pool of truly exceptional candidates of high academic caliber and a strong history of service within the disability community. Kathleen, Natalee, and Amy were the top candidates for the award due to their adept linking of disability scholarship to their goals and service initiatives.
KATHLEEN DE NICOLA
Kathleen is pictured smiling against a blurred, white background. She has long brown hair and brown eyes. She is wearing a ruffled, pink tank top that is layered over a white t-shirt.
Kathleen De Nicola is a graduating senior with a major in Dance and minors in Applied Developmental Psychology and Disability Studies. As a dancer who experienced impairment herself, Kathleen has been exploring ways to address ableism and inclusion in dance education. Kathleen is a founding member of the Expressive Movement Initiative and currently serves as the Assistant Artistic Director, where she teaches dance classes to more than 20 children with disabilities. As part of Kathleen’s capstone research, she will be working with Victoria Marks, chair of Disability Studies, to investigate how verbal descriptions can contribute to making dance accessible to the blind and visually impaired community. Kathleen is currently the Disability Studies Student Ambassador and will be interning at the Disability Rights Legal Center. In the future, Kathleen aspires to work at the intersection of art, education, and advocacy and to participate in movements that are increasing inclusion in the world of dance.
NATALEE DECKER
Photograph of Natalee, a white woman, sitting on a blue couch with her legs crossed. She has straight dark brown hair and red lipstick and is wearing a blue and green silk scarf on her head, a black and white daisy pattern long sleeve shirt, and cow print pants. She has her hands folded on top of the handle of a silver quad cane.
Natalee Decker (she/her) is a transfer student in the Design|Media Arts program, minoring in Disability Studies. She is a Chicago born Los Angeles based artist who employs a multidisciplinary and ever shifting approach to investigate the disability aesthetic and the transformation of scarred memories. As a co-founder of the UCLA Disabled Student Union she advocates for better campus accessibility and creating space for cultural celebration. She is currently working on programming for the Disability Inclusion Lab, and is a member of the UC System Disability Ad Hoc Committee and the UCLA Committee on Disability. She is employed as an animator and content manager for the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge and as a faculty assistant tasked with bolstering web accessibility for a future online software art archive. In fulfillment of her DS Minor, she is interning at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, assisting with web accessibility and the digital media lab. Artistically, she is working at the intersection of 3D computer generated animation, machine learning, and the disabled body. Natalee is a white queer disabled cis-gender woman.
AMY VANDYKEN
Portrait of Amy Vandyken standing under the columns of UCLA’s Royce Hall. She is smiling, and wearing a blue shirt and blazer.
Amy Vandyken is a third-year student majoring in Political Science and minoring in Disability Studies. Amy’s service has centered on education and she is currently a Team Leader for Jumpstart Americorps. Amy’s experience as an intern at the Disability Rights Legal Center and as an alumna of the Autism Media Lab, a two-quarter class where undergraduates collaborated with Autistic Self-advocates to create short documentaries on important issues affecting the ASD community, fueled her efforts to address the lack of higher education opportunities for young adults with ASD. Amy is currently advocating for UCLA’s Office of Strategic Communications to create internship opportunities for young adults with ASD. In the future, Amy hopes to complete a Ph.D. in disability studies and to explore social mobility outcomes for students with ASD who participate in higher education programs.
PAST WINNERS
| Amy Bugwadia – 2019 Major: Political Science |
| Thaksaporn Chitrakorn – 2019
Major: Psychology |
| Lily Shaw – 2018 Major: Political Science |
| Isita Tripati – 2018 Major: Neuroscience |
| Egle Urbonaite Major: Psychology |
| Elizabeth Stephens – 2017 Major: Psychology |
| Zhe Zhang – 2017 Major: Statistics |
| Jake Abarca – 2016 Major: Anthropology |
| Jameelah Najieb – 2016 Major: Political Science and Sociology |
| Rachel Davis – 2015 Major: Linguistics & Psychology |
| Justin Kawakami – 2015 Major: English |
| Rowan Smith – 2015 Major: Theater |
| Sonia Fan – 2014 Major: Psychobiology |
| Cindy Sayani – 2014 Major: Psychology |
| Jessica Kianmahd – 2013 Major: Psychology |
| Ashton Rosin – 2013 Major: International Development Studies |
HONORABLE MENTIONS
| Elaine Lu – 2017 Major: Neuroscience |
| Amanda Mekhail – 2016, 2015 Major: Psychology |
| Rachel Davis – 2014 Major: Linguistics & Psychology |
| Olivia Hansell – 2014 Major: Human Biology and Society |
| Sonia Maldonado – 2014 Major: Sociology |