OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
The Year in Awards Faculty and students make Oxy proud with accolades, advances, and academic excellence
Four years ago, Raffy Cortina ’13 chose Occidental over some of the country’s more established film schools because he wanted a liberal arts education. It came down to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Oxy, and “for a filmmaker it’s almost a sin against humanity not to choose NYU,” Cortina says with a laugh. “In the end it came down to wanting to leave New York and try something new, and wanting an intimate college experience where there was a sense of community.” Until the College flew Cortina out to Los Angeles as part of its Multicultural Visit Program, “I wasn’t really considering Oxy,” he admits. But after visiting campus, “I bought into it.” On June 8, Cortina became the first Oxy student to win the national student film competition held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with his 13-minute short, Bottled Up. He joins a select list of filmmakers who have left their footprints in the cement of the Hollywood landscape over the last 40 years. Past honorees include Pixar mastermind John Lasseter, Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis, “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker, and Spike Lee, whose landmark 1989 film Do the Right Thing “solidified my desire to want to be a storyteller,” says Cortina. “I could relate to it so much being from New York City, and I figured if Spike Lee could tell a story like this, that my voice could also be heard.”
“In the end it came down to wanting to leave New York and try something new, and wanting an intimate college experience where there was a sense of community.”
4
34
Libby Evans Blanchard ’06 received her second Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. in geography, focusing on environmental issues. Oxy’s first Gates Scholar, she received the award last year to pursue her M.Phil. degree in environment, society, and development.
Number of Barry Goldwater Scholarship recipents in Occidental history. Cullen Faulwell ’14, an economics and mathematics major from Simi Valley, was named Oxy’s first Goldwater Scholar since 2007 last spring. The award allots up to $7,500 to rising seniors and is given to students intending to pursue careers in math, science, and engineering fields.
Tamara Shogaolu ’08, currently a graduate student in film studies at USC, has been named a Luce Scholar. Shogaolu is the 15th Luce Scholar from Occidental since this award was initiated in 1974, and the College's fourth winner in four years. She will be placed in a major Asian city, connected to important institutions and people in her areas of interest, and given a year of financial and administrative support. Shogaolu recently worked on Chavez, a biography of civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, and aims to tell stories through film and multimedia projects that inspire crosscultural dialogue and understanding.