Claire Ding

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Claire Ding

Biography: Claire Ding is a second-year student from China pursuing a B.A. in Business Economics with a minor in Accounting. As the first in her family to study abroad, Claire is highly motivated in her academics, maintaining a high GPA and actively engaging in campus organizations such as Beta Alpha Psi and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program. After taking introductory accounting classes and participating in VITA, helping residents and international students prepare their tax returns, Claire discovered her professional passion for public accounting, particularly in tax. In addition to her professional interests, Claire is an avid music lover. She sings classical voice and serves as a co-music director for a UCLA a cappella group. She is also passionate about social impact and education, which she pursues by working as a learning assistant at UCLA. 

 

Future Plans: During her junior year summer, Claire will intern at Ernst & Young (EY) in their Los Angeles office as a Diversified Staff Group Tax Intern. Upon graduation, she hopes to return to EY as a full-time staff member, become a CPA within the first few years, and specialize in tax, most likely international tax given her background. Claire is also interested in consulting and plans to network with professionals from different sectors during her internship to explore opportunities at EY. Additionally, she is eager to participate in EY’s social service organization, helping to empower youth through financial literacy education. 

 

What this scholarship means to me: I am extremely excited and honored to be the recipient of the Gumbiner Savett Inc. Endowed Undergraduate Prize. I am very thankful for the donor’s generosity. This scholarship not only relieves a part of my financial burden but also serves as recognition for my hard work in maintaining an outstanding academic record while actively engaging in school activities. It also motivates me to continue striving in my career path and to give back to my school and community in the future. 

Maria Bozhkova

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Maria Bozhkova

Biography: Maria Bozhkova is a rising junior international student of Business Economics from Bulgaria. Driven, motivated, and ambitious, she is a stellar honors student, part of the William F. Sharpe Fellowship Program and the UC Investments Academy. She has experience in the financial industry, ranging from start-up companies to multi-million dollar corporations. Outside of academics, she is actively involved on campus with the student-led hedge fund club Bruin Capital Management, focusing on the AI sector. Maria has relevant leadership experience in business clubs at UCLA and has strong interests in value investing, data optimization, and innovation.

 

Future Plans: Maria sees herself working in a motivating and dynamic environment and wants to pursue a career in investment banking. Next summer, Maria will be an investment banking analyst in the healthcare sector at Citi in their New York office. She is looking forward to exploring her passion, as well as working and learning among one of the best teams in the world in that respective field. She has high ambitions for the future and wants to be a female leader in the industry.

 

What this scholarship means to me: I am beyond grateful to be receiving recognition for my academic achievements at UCLA with the award of Harold R. Mortenson Endowed Scholarship fund. With this award, I feel honored for my academic accomplishments and have faith in my future success and professional development. Being an international student, the Harold R. Mortenson scholarship gives me the confidence that I have served as a good example and have been a leader on campus. This scholarship will allow me to have more financial freedom and be able to allocate more time towards my professional development and personal growth. It will help alleviate any financial uncertainty I am experiencing. I appreciate and value this scholarship as it is the highest recognition of my academic strengths, and it is of great support to my wellbeing and education at UCLA.

Maria Jose De La Cruz

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Maria Jose De La Cruz

Biography: Maria is a first-generation queer Latina student from Fresno, California. Maria will be the first in her extended and immediate family to have a bachelor’s degree next year. She has two younger siblings and as the eldest daughter going to a top university was her biggest dream. Getting to UCLA was a life-changing experience for her, where she learned more about herself and her passions. Maria has had many opportunities at UCLA. One passion of hers is to help others achieve their goals and learn more about their own passions. Her dream job is to become a teacher and to help others find the best version of themselves.
 

Future Plans: Currently, Maria is at UCLA pursuing her degree in Education and Social Transformation and Economics with a minor Accounting. Her dream job is to become a teacher in either accounting or at the K-12 level, or both. After graduating, Maria will first continue her work in the accounting world as an auditor. She will strive to obtain her CPA license as she will be eligible for it as soon as she graduates. Eventually, she will go back to school for her double master’s in Education and Accounting and start teaching at a university and/or at a K-12 school. She will fulfill her dreams as an educator who helps other students achieve their dreams.
 

What this scholarship means to me: Getting this scholarship will have a significant impact on my academic and personal growth. In terms of money, it will release a big weight, letting me concentrate more on my studies instead of stressing about how I’m going to pay for tuition and other costs, especially since I pay for college on my own. With this funding, I will be able to buy necessary supplies, participate more in my extracurricular activities, and potentially cut down on the number of hours I work part-time, which would free up more time for me to devote to my senior capstone requirement and complete my educational career at UCLA. Additionally, it shows that my efforts and commitment have been acknowledged, which gives me more confidence and inspires me to aim for even higher academic and personal accomplishments. 

More importantly, this scholarship means a great deal to me personally. As someone whose life has always been impacted by financial difficulties, this scholarship means more than just a cash prize. It represents possibility and hope; especially as a first-generation student from immigrant parents. It gives me confidence that I am headed in the right direction and that I can achieve my goals. With this scholarship, I am more motivated than ever to succeed academically and eventually give back to my community by assisting others in realizing and accomplishing their passions in the same way that this scholarship is helping me in achieving mine. 

UCLA Graduate Student Huihuang Zhu is the 2024 recipient of the Treiman Fellowship

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The California Center for Population Research selected UCLA Graduate Student Huihuang Zhu as the 2024 recipient of the Treiman Fellowship. Huihuang’s project, “Evaluating the Equity and Efficiency Tradeoffs of Academic Tracking: Lessons from Advanced Placement,” uses event-study and differences-in-differences methodology and finds that the AP program had large effects on the likelihood that high-performing students matriculate in college and graduate with a bachelor’s degree. In the longer term, the AP program also improved the quality of college they attended and increased their annual earnings. Another fascinating part of the paper is that lower-performing students appear to benefit from high school AP programs as well, experiencing similar proportional increases in college matriculation and earnings.  One mechanism for these findings is that the AP program may allow teachers in non-AP classes to target their teaching more effectively. Although the paper finds that the introduction of AP leads to academic sorting, the results show no evidence of harms for any academic groups. Huihuang’s dissertation advisor in the economics department is Martha Bailey.

UCLA Professor Martin Hackmann wins the Warren C. Scoville Distinguished Teaching Award for Winter 2024

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UCLA Professor Martin Hackmann has won the Warren C. Scoville Distinguished Teaching Award for Winter 2024 for his course Econ131: Economics of Health and Healthcare. The course focuses on the economic analysis of the U.S. medical care sector, a major industry with $4.5 trillion in spending, accounting for 17% of GDP. It delves into the economics of health care, focusing on the production and financing of medical services. Key topics include health insurance, asymmetric information, hospital competition, physician roles in patient choices, and government interventions. Emphasizing both theory and evidence, the course covers seminal theoretical models and empirical landmark studies that test key predictions and present crucial facts for public debate. The course covers health care demand, socioeconomic health disparities, the physician labor market, the hospital industry, insurance demand, adverse selection, moral hazard, pharmaceuticals, innovation, technology’s impact on health care costs, and significant health programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and employer-sponsored insurance. Professor Hackman’s profile can be found here.

Former UCLA Graduate Student Fernanda Rojas-Ampuero Wins the 2024 Dorothy Thomas Award

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Former UCLA Graduate Student Fernanda Rojas-Ampuero, now a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin, won the Population Association of America’s highly competitive 2024 Dorothy Thomas Award for best graduate student paper. Her paper, entitled “Sent Away: The Long-Term Effects of Slum Clearance on Children and Families,” documents how Chile’s mandated slum-clearance programs between 1979-1985 had large, negative long-run effects on children and parents. Displaced children earned 14% less as adults, achieved 0.64 fewer years of education, and were more likely to work in informal jobs. Displaced parents had higher mortality rates and died at younger ages.  While at UCLA, Fernanda was a recipient of CCPR’s Treiman award, and received her Ph.D. in economics in 2022. Her dissertation was advised by Professors Dora Costa (chair), Adriana Lleras-Muney, and Michela Giorcelli.