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Tony Wu

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2016 Patricia and Harry L. Bruce Endowed Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Tony Wu is a senior Business Economics student. When he was 16, he moved to the U.S. from Hong Kong and attended Pasadena City College before transferring to UCLA. He is very grateful for the Economics and Management courses offered at UCLA – especially the finance classes. He has internship experience at PR, social media, and public accounting. Last summer, he worked at a local LA startup as a financial analyst intern. Outside of academic and professional development, he is a beginner golfer and a great fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Future Plans: After graduation, Tony will start at a financial services firm in Los Angeles. After a few years, he is considering an MBA program. In the long term, he wants to be an entrepreneur and start businesses that help make the world a better place.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am extremely grateful for the generosity of Mr. & Mrs. Bruce. The scholarship not only helps my financial need during school but also teaches me the idea of giving back to the society. Being a beneficiary, I totally understand how much it helps me and means to me. This inspires me to be as generous as Mr. & Mrs. Bruce when I have the ability in the future.

Angelyn Teo

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2016 Venu and Ana Kotamraju Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Angelyn is a third year economics major with a minor in public affairs. She is passionate about economic research, particularly in research that can be used to inform public policy. She is currently working as a research assistant for Dr. Adriana Lleras-Muney, and has previously worked as a research assistant for Dr. Jernej Copic and in Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. At UCLA, she is involved with Watts Tutorial Program. As the Finance Director, she applies for funding and manages the club’s finances, but she also proactively pushes for changes to improve the program.

Future Plans: In order to expand her research toolkit and econometrics knowledge, Angelyn is planning to pursue a Master’s degree in Economics after graduating from UCLA. Thereafter, she will be returning to Singapore to work at the Ministry of Trade and Industry as an economist, where she will be responsible for economic surveillance and conducting research to evaluate policies or answer policy-related questions.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am deeply honored and grateful to have received the Venu and Ana Kotamraju Scholarship. It serves as an affirmation of my hard work and motivates me to work even harder. It also reminds me of the importance of giving back to my community and I am determined to pay it forward in the future.

Lily Pham

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2016 Professor Harry Simons Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship for the Study of Accounting Recipient

Biography: Lily Pham is a fourth-year Business Economics major with a minor in Accounting. Serving her community through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) at UCLA led her to pursuing a career in tax as a public accountant. She is very passionate about giving back, contributing much of her time and efforts to VITA and different student retention programs within the Vietnamese Student Union. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places, reading, and designing graphics.

Future Plans: After completing an internship with PwC this past summer, Lily will be joining the firm as a Tax Associate after graduation. Inspired by her experience with VITA and witnessing her parents, both Vietnamese refugees, struggle with filing their taxes, she aspires to equip the Vietnamese community in her hometown of Westminster with financial literacy.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am very humbled and grateful to receive the Professor Harry Simons Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship for the Study of Accounting. I am sincerely honored for the recognition of my hard work and accomplishments. Because of this scholarship, I will have less of a financial burden as I focus on my studies to prepare for the CPA exam and pursue my career goals. As Professor Simons inspired his students to think critically and to serve their communities, I strive to follow his example by applying my skills and knowledge to give back to others.

Anika Rajandra Patel

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2016 Lawrence and Joan E. Henderson Fund Recipient

Biography: Anika Patel is a third-year Business Economics major and will be graduating a year early. She is involved in the leadership of several organizations on campus including ALPFA, Edubase, Project RISHI, and Bruin Shelter. Her involvement has refined her leadership and communication skills, while allowing her to impact the community on a local and global level. Over the summer of 2015 and 2016, Anika has worked in the hospitality industry. Outside of school and professional development, she enjoys skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and traveling. Anika is incredibly honored to have been awarded the Lawrence and Joan E. Henderson Scholarship.

Future Plans: Anika plans on returning to the work force after graduation. She is still exploring her options, but is interested in pursuing a career in corporate hospitality. After a few years in the workforce, Anika plans on pursuing an MBA. In the long term, she hopes to continue to impact her community and believes that her experiences will shape her professional ambitions.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am extremely grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Henderson and their family. This scholarship will reduce a substantial amount of my financial burden, allowing me to focus on my academic and professional goals. Additionally, this award recognizes my academic achievements and motivates me to keep working hard. I cannot express my gratitude to the Henderson family and the Department of Economics for their support.

Stephen Mendoza

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2016 Donald Edward Bragg & Diane Sims Bragg Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Stephen Mendoza was born in Santa Ana, California and is of Mexican descent, a trait that he takes great pride in. Since high school, Stephen has enjoyed studying economic theory, evaluating business plans, and reading autobiographies of successful business leaders. Throughout academia, Stephen’s favorite subjects were Art and Economics. Both these subjects are often seen as completely different, but to Stephen, they are exactly the same. They both answer the most important question, “Why do we see the world the way we see it?” Art provides us with a lens in which we may view the world, and Economics provides a toolset in which we can analyze the world and the allocation of its resources. Combined, Economics is the art in which we make the most out of our lives. Currently, Stephen studies Business Economics with a focus on Entrepreneurship, and he likes to study art on his free time. Stephen is very passionate about community involvement and poverty alleviation, and this is evident in his leadership roles in organizations like Furnish the Homeless, Moneythink, and the Youth Movement Against Alzheimer’s. Away from school, Stephen likes to read and enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle.

Future Plans: Stephens approach to academics throughout his career at UCLA has been to learn as much as he could, as quickly as he could, from as many people as he could. As such, Stephen plans to graduate one year early, in the spring of 2017. This summer, he will be working under the Global Treasury Management department for JP Morgan in New York City. In this internship, he will be able to apply his technical knowledge and contribute to a growing practice that is at the heart of international finance.  In the future, Stephen plans to focus on entrepreneurship and philanthropy, as he aims to start his own business and give back to his community.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am extremely grateful to be receiving the Donald Edward Bragg & Diane Sims Bragg Scholarship. As both of my parents approach retirement, sources of income are very limited for my family, and this scholarship will help alleviate some of the financial burdens that my family has been dealing with. Graduating a year early is also a result of my attempt to minimize my yearly cost expenditure. Most importantly, knowing that there are people out there that believe in me and support my academic mission adds reassurance and unparalleled motivation for me to push towards reaching my goals.

Jamika Rose Martin

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2016 Donald Edward Bragg & Diane Sims Bragg Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Jamika is a third year Business Economics student who grew up on the Central Coast of California. With a passion for entrepreneurship and working with businesses since a young age, she applied to UCLA as a Pre-Business Economics major and went on to be the only student from her high school accepted to UCLA. Once enrolled, Jamika has taken up multiple extra-curriculars and has served as a president of Mixed Student Union and a dialogue facilitator with Intergroup Relations. Along with business and being a Bruin, Jamika has passions in social justice, environmental preservation and traveling the world. One of her main goals in life is to see her entrepreneurship passions come to fruition with a successful business and be able to use her success in her endeavors toward improving talks of environmentalism in communities of color.

Future Plans: During her time as an undergraduate, Jamika has consistently worked full time over summers and went on to study abroad during the summer before her final year at UCLA. Before going abroad, during this last summer, Jamika founded and launched her own natural skincare business ROSEN. After she graduates from UCLA, she plans to immerse herself full time as the owner of this start up and work on product development, online marketing and scaling the brand. Jamika’s goals for ROSEN. is to create natural alternatives for effective skincare that is currently on the market. She hopes to build ROSEN. into a household name through online platforms and, eventually, getting into large retail locations.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: The Donald Edward Bragg & Diane Sims Bragg Scholarship is such a privilege to receive! As a student who has had to fund my higher education needs wholly through scholarships or federal loans, receiving this scholarship means more to me than many can imagine. I am now able to have less debt on my hands once college finishes and easier access to the opportunities that UCLA has to offer. This scholarship alleviates some of my post-graduate stress and allows me to be able to focus much more on my entrepreneurial endeavors. I am very grateful to have received this scholarship because, as an entrepreneur and former basketball play, I felt the most connected to this opportunity and I am very proud to be chosen as a representative for the scholarship by the Bragg family.

Lizzie (Yuting) Ma

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2016 Professor Harry Simons Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship for the Study of Accounting Recipient

Biography: Lizzie (Yuting) is a fourth year Business Economics student with minors in Accounting and Russian Language. Lizzie started fathoming into accounting during her sophomore year, and decided that she would like to become a tax professional. Lizzie has been heavily involved in the UCLA Residential Life the past three years, and really appreciated the professional experience she gained from staffing at the ResLife Learning Centers. Lizzie is a huge fan for classical piano and her favorite artists are Claude Debussy and Frédéric Chopin. She enjoys reading Theodore Dreiser, Margaret Mitchell and Jane Austen for leisure. Lizzie also likes to scribble her own music and pieces of literature.

Future Plans: Lizzie will be working for PricewaterhouseCoopers starting this summer as a tax associate. She is thrilled to transition from school life to professional life. In the meantime, she will be preparing for the Certified Public Accountant exam.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: It was a huge honor for me to receive the scholarship. The scholarship will help reduce my financial burden substantially and enable me to smoothly finish off my college career. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Harry Simons Scholarship Donors for offering me this award. This means everything to me and I will go from here and strive for higher achievements in my life.

Jiahua Li

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2016 Harold R. Mortenson Endowed Scholarship Fund Recipient

Biography: Jiahua Li is junior at UCLA with a major in Business Economics and a minor in Mathematics. She was born in China and raised in Markham, a city just north of Toronto, in Canada. She moved to the United States in 2014 to attend UCLA. Throughout her undergraduate career, Jiahua has developed an interest in business and finance. She interned at a Venture Capital firm called JUMP Investors last year. This past summer, she was a fixed income analyst intern at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China. With a deep passion for sports and leadership, she actively competed for UCLA’s fencing team and dragon boat team. She served as the fencing club President and women’s foil Team Captain.

Future Plans: Upon graduation in June 2017, Jiahua will attend University of Toronto to complete a 1.5-year degree in Masters of Financial Economics. She plans to pursue a career in Corporate Banking. However, she hopes to keep her options open over the duration of her Masters program and explore other careers in finance and banking.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: It is a great honor to receive the Harold R. Mortenson Endowed Scholarship award as recognition for my academic achievements. I am deeply grateful for the generosity and support of Mr. Harold R. Mortenson. The scholarship will significantly reduce my financial burden and allow me to focus on my academic and professional development during my final quarters at UCLA. This recognition of my academic achievements fills me with motivation to continue seeking out new challenges and upholding myself to high academic standards. I would like to thank my family, friends, professors, teammates, and coaches and many others, who have made my achievements possible with their support. I will continue to work hard so that one day, I can pay it forward to the next generation of Bruins.

Jae Ho Lee

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2016 Demsetz Undergraduate Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Born in December 1992 in Seoul, South Korea, Jae Ho is a Senior majoring in Business Economics and minoring in Accounting. He graduated with the class of 2012 from St. Maria Goretti High School in Maryland. He will graduate from UCLA in August 2017. Since coming to UCLA, he successfully served in the Republic of Korea Army and interned at Boston Consulting Group. He is now in the process of searching for jobs in Accounting as he is interested in international taxation, in which he thinks he has an advantage as he has endorsed various cultures while growing up.

Future Plans: Jae is in the process of searching jobs. He hopes to get a job at an accounting firm to gain more experience in the real business world. He also plans to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). In the long run, he also expects to continue his education by joining an MBA program.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am very delighted and honored to be chosen as a recipient of the Demsetz Undergraduate Scholarship. I am very touched by their commitment to the future generations of UCLA students. This award will allow me to focus on academics and my job search while alleviating some financial burden. It encourages me to continue working hard as it is also a sign that my academic achievements were recognized. I hope I can pay it forward to the community some time in the future as Mr. Demsetz did. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Demsetz for his generosity.

Heather Lee

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2016 Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Heather Lee is a fourth-year Economics major with a minor in Accounting. She is involved in various student organizations and holds several leadership positions including Selections Co-Chair of Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society. In addition to academics and extracurricular activities, Heather has participated in several professional undergraduate case competitions, for one of which she and her team was a finalist. In her spare time, Heather enjoys volunteering, watching football games, and spending time with her friends and family.

Future Plans: Having completed an internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers this past summer, Heather will be joining the firm after graduation as an assurance associate in the Los Angeles office. In the long term, she hope to continue her educational journey by pursuing a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) to gain a better understanding of the business realm and global economy.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am extremely thankful and honored to have been selected as the recipient of the Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship. This scholarship will allow me to focus more on my academics and extracurricular activities while relieving some of the financial burden of higher education. I am eternally grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Shapiro for their generosity and support of not only my undergraduate studies, but also my intended career in public accounting. I hope that one day I will be able to give back to the community just as they have given to theirs.