THE MARCIE ROTHMAN CENTENNIAL SCHOLARS UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP
The Food Studies Minor is pleased to announce the establishment of the Marcie Rothman Centennial Scholars Undergraduate Scholarship available for students pursuing the minor in Food Studies.
The Marcie Rothman Centennial Scholars Undergraduate Scholarship was established to support students in the Food Studies minor with their academic interests and endeavors at UCLA. This scholarship is awarded annually to Food Studies minors and aims to support the expansion of food in the world as an area of interdisciplinary study, including research and practice as it relates to culture, public health, nutrition, sustainability, the environment, food activism, and justice.
ABOUT MARCIE ROTHMAN
Marcie H. Rothman grew up in Los Angeles surrounded by good cooks, fresh seasonal produce, and hundreds of restaurants full of the ethnic cuisines that have inspired her throughout her career. She studied cooking with such notables as Wolfgang Puck and Ken Hom, and was a longtime member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the San Francisco Professional Food Society and Toastmasters International. She continues to support the International Slow Food Movement. During her career, Rothman took great interest in the notion of creating healthy and delicious meals that are also affordable and accessible to all. This led to the development of the “The $5 Chef,” a weekly television show where Rothman impressed viewers with her uncanny ability to put seasonal foods together into quick, delicious $5 meals. She is the author of two cookbooks as “The $5 Chef.”
Rothman received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA and later completed the Executive Program at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management. She has extensive experience on the boards of non-profit organizations and is extremely excited to help foster the academic advancement of the field by supporting Food Studies minors in their studies. With this generous gift to UCLA’s Food Studies program, students are able to share Rothman’s passion for food, and dedicate themselves to understanding and improving its production, preparation, sharing, access, consumption, and disposal.
FOOD STUDIES SCHOLARSHIP
THE MARCIE ROTHMAN SCHOLARSHIP
Award Amount: $7,100 (one award or split into two awards)
Eligibility Criteria:
Recipients of the Marcie Rothman Centennial Scholars Undergraduate Scholarship are Food Studies minor students who demonstrate passion for their interests and pursuits and academic achievement in the field of Food Studies and/or financial need.
To be eligible for the scholarships, students must have:
- Be in good academic standing and;
- Be admitted to the UCLA Food Studies minor
- Note to non-Food Studies minors: Students who are not yet admitted to the minor may submit their application to the minor at the same time as their application for the scholarship—but their scholarship application will only be reviewed once admission to the minor is confirmed.
Application instructions:
1. In a single PDF document, submit the following items before or on the deadline:
- A complete scholarship application form
- A current resume that highlights professional experience and extracurricular activities as well as community service and/or volunteer experiences
- A short essay of 500 words or less that answers the following question:
- Describe your experience in the Food Studies Minor and how it has informed your passions and interests in cultivating a healthier, more sustainable, and equitable world. Include how the knowledge and tools learned in the Food Studies Minor contribute to the direction of your academic career, future plans, and to the field of food studies.
Save the PDF in the following format:
- LastName, FirstName.pdf
2. Obtain a copy of your unofficial transcript and save it in the following format:
- LastName_FirstName_Transcript.pdf
- Block_Gene_Transcript.pdf
3. Email both files to the Marcie Rothman Scholarship Committee*. Your application materials will be automatically uploaded to a drive once they are received.
Confirmation email:
You will receive a confirmation email for each file when your application materials have been successfully uploaded. Important: If you do not receive a confirmation email or if you are having issues uploading your application, please send application materials to Nicole Chavez at nchavez@college.ucla.edu.
*Your application materials should be sent directly to the committee via the following email address: 2024_20.tf9stzrrt8ol9vh1@u.box.com
If selected as a scholarship recipient, your accomplishment will be announced via email to the food studies community, including the Rothman family, faculty, and staff. Charlotte Vo will be in touch to confirm pronouns and announcement details prior to it being shared. Please let her know if there is anything that was shared in the scholarship application that should be remain confidential.
Application Deadline: Monday, October 28, 2024, 11:59pm
2024-2025 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
Thanks to the generosity of Ms. Marcie Rothman, the Food Studies Minor is pleased and excited to announce the recipients of the 2024-2025 Marcie Rothman Centennial Scholars Undergraduate Scholarship. This year Emily Cheng and Meileen Taw will each receive a $3,550 scholarship. Tammy Shen is recognized with an honorable mention.
Scholarship Awardee – Emily Cheng
Photo of Emily Cheng. She wears beige turtleneck, black leather jacket, maroon pants, and white tennis shoes. Emily smiles as she leans against the railing in front of a water fountain with trees in the background.
Emily Cheng is a fourth-year Physiological Science major with a Food Studies minor. Growing up, she connected with her Chinese heritage by preparing traditional dishes with her family. At UCLA, she has continued to use food as a means of connection, bonding with friends through food tours and multicultural potlucks. Promoting these cross-cultural connections, she runs Confections for a Cause, giving students the opportunity to share recipes central to their identity. In her Food Studies courses, Emily worked on interdisciplinary projects, including a mini documentary on Los Angeles’ street food scene, interviewing diverse vendors. This gave vendors a platform to share their cuisines and broadened her perspective. Combining her cooking passion with nutrition principles, Emily views food as comfort and personalized medicine. She leads a team preparing meals for a local veterans’ shelter every other Sunday. Her classes have deepened her understanding of food systems’ societal and environmental impacts. She researched adipogenic small molecules for cultured meat development, contributing to meat alternative innovations. Applying to medical school, Emily aims to link food and medicine as a pediatric gastroenterologist, emphasizing diet in preventing chronic ailments and advocating for community-based interventions. She intends to use her research experience to advance sustainable agriculture and improve public health through dietary education and community outreach.
Scholarship Awardee – Meileen Taw
Photo of Meileen Taw. She has black hair and brown eyes and is wearing a black sleeveless top. Meileen is smiling next to pink and red flowers in an outdoor garden at the Huntington Library.
Meileen Taw is a third-year undergraduate majoring in Human Biology and Society with a minor in Food Studies. Meileen is a research volunteer at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition where she co-authored a study investigating the impact of daily avocado consumption on gut microbiota in adults with abdominal obesity. Her lab team’s research poster was presented at the 2024 American Society for Nutrition annual meeting, and the manuscript was accepted to be published by Food & Function. This year, she is studying the effects of pomegranate extract and metabolites on colitis and has been invited to further investigate how social determinants of health influence food insecurity and food literacy. To promote sustainability in underserved communities, she volunteers to pack food for starving families/children, collect produce donations at the local farmers’ market, and distribute food at the regional food bank. Beyond advancing research and tackling food insecurity, she endeavors to promote food literacy through health education. Her pursuit of the Food Studies minor has sparked her passion to become a physician-scientist who provides patient care and advocacy that supports sustainability and highlights the power of food as medicine.
Cali M. Perez Chavez – 2023
Major: Psychology
Minor: Food Studies
Leilani Barnes – 2022
Major: Environmental Studies and Geography
Minor: Food Studies
Sarah Schecter – 2022
Major: Theater
Minor: Food Studies
Laila Adarkar – 2021
Major: Global Studies
Minor: Food Studies
Kristida Chhour – 2021
Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Minor: Food Studies
Desiree Felix – 2020
Major: Environmental Science
Minor: Environmental Systems and Society and Food Studies
Ikuko Nakano – 2020
Major: Civil Engineering
Minor: Food Studies
Carlene Francis – 2019
Major: African American Studies
Minor: Food Studies
Tierney Sheehan – 2019
Major: Communication Studies
Minor: Film, Television, and Digital Media
Saraí Ramos Gonzalez – 2018
Major: Chicanx Studies
Minors: Food Studies, Education Studies and Labor and Workplace Studies
Hannah Valenzuela – 2018
Major: Gender Studies
Minor: Food Studies
Pamela Lin – 2017
Major: Human Biology and Society
Minors: Food Studies and Geography/Environmental Studies
2024-2025 HONORABLE MENTION
Honorable Mention – Tammy Shen
Photo of Tammy Shen. She has long brown hair and dons a white top and black blazer. Tammy smiles at the camera and stands in front of a red brick building.
Tammy Shen, currently in her fourth year, is pursuing a major in Physiological Science, with a minor in Food Studies. Having grown up surrounded by many Asian cultural wellness practices and the importance of balance through food, she is deeply interested in increasing culturally tailored nutrition education.
After serving as a medical assistant, she developed a passion for addressing health disparities through culturally tailored interventions, particularly nutrition and preventative health. Tammy has actively engaged in research, collaborating with professors and research assistants to develop a dietary intervention focusing on Latino heritage. The study’s message, “Eat how your grandparents ate,” integrated the health benefits and cultural richness of traditional foods in educational seminars for Latino adults.
Fueled by her experiences leading blood pressure workshops for minorities with hypertension in South Los Angeles, she has coordinated a patient assistance program to help community members navigate health insurance and systemic barriers like food insecurity. With an interest in lifestyle medicine-focused community health, she is currently applying to medical school and leading a community health free clinic. Her ultimate goal is to leverage her learnings from the Food Studies minor and service experiences in becoming a compassionate physician who delivers culturally tailored preventative care.
PAST HONORABLE MENTIONS
Grace Wu – 2023
Major: Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics
Minor: Food Studies
Kassandra Gooch – 2022
Major: Anthropology
Minor: Food Studies
Lauren Barette – 2020
Major: Dance
Minors: Entrepreneurship and Food Studies
Juanyi Tan – 2019
Major: Psychobiology
Minors: Food Studies
Chiara Phillips – 2018
Major: Geography/Environmental Studies
Minors: Food Studies, Geospatial Information Systems and Technologies
Jesse Garcia – 2017
Major: Anthropology
Minors: Food Studies, French, and Global Health