Percy Undergraduate Grant Recipients

Tara Madhav

Class of 2022
2021 Percy Undergraduate Grant

Tara Madhav is a senior majoring in history and political science. Her research interests include twentieth-century American legal history, particularly with regards to the history of housing segregation and the history of educational inequality. Tara is an associate editor for Clio's Scroll, the undergraduate history journal, an undergraduate library fellow and a Travers Fellow at the Commonwealth Club of California.

Research Description: My thesis project examines the politics of integration in majority-black communities with a focus on the history of desegregation in East Palo...

Tomi Jinhuang Chung

Class of 2022
2022 Percy Undergraduate Grant

Tomi is an ethnic studies scholar and sociologist who is curious about her cultural and built environment. In her interdisciplinary honors thesis project, she is studying the politics of youth identity formation, the ethnic suburb, and spatial racial formation. Her broader intellectual passions include: cooperative business administration, sustainable economic development, system-impacted trans youth of color leadership development, and the nationalist and anti- imperialist politics of the Global South. In her free time, she likes reading critical theory, laying in bed with her elderly cat...

Juliette Margaret Tafoya

Class of 2022
2022 Percy Undergraduate Grant

Juliette is a fourth year Legal Studies Major, Public Policy Minor. Her concentration of study is in Constitutional Law and History. She received a Certificate of Commendation from the City of Los Angeles for her outstanding service in the community when she worked for the city. She previously worked for the Restorative Justice Center at UC Berkeley, where she helped build community and address social harm happening within the university. Juliette has been involved with multiple organizations on campus, ranging from her Political Computer Science club to participating in Latinx geared orgs...

Emily Ma

Class of 2022
2022 Percy Undergraduate Grant

Emily is a first-generation Chinese-American college student and a community college transfer. For the last six years, she has avidly volunteered for social and criminal justice centers, nonprofit organizations, homeless shelters, and mental health institutes throughout California. For personal reasons, she fiercely advocates for children, women, low-income families, and those with mental health conditions. She was a fellow in the Bridges Multi-Cultural Resource Center and now serves in the office of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harrassment Prevention within the ASUC Senate. Additionally,...

Aaron Perry Hill

Class of 2023
2023 Percy Undergraduate Grant

I am a fourth-year student, originally from Forest Falls, California. I am a History major and Public Policy minor. The decision to pursue such coursework was fueled by my passion for the improvement of our Republic, something I have pursued via campaigning at the local, state, and national political levels. While this work has been illuminating, it has also convinced me that elected office is not for me. Instead, I hope to attend law school and begin a career in housing law in government or a non-profit organization. I am optimistic that my varied experiences...

Anjika Pai

Class of 2022
2022 Percy Undergraduate Grant
Anjika Pai is a senior majoring in Environmental Sciences and minoring in Music. Throughout her time at Berkeley, she has developed experience in policy and communications with a strong focus on environmental justice. At Cal, Pai enjoys attending concerts at Hertz Hall and writing for Caravan Magazine.

Anjika's Research: The ongoing political and legal struggles of Indigenous peoples are connected to issues of land and their degree of connection to it. Neo-colonial environmental laws fail to value Indigenous views of nature and, at times, ignore the presence of humans in the environment...

Sanjana Manjeshwar

Class of 2023
2023 Percy Undergraduate Grant

Sanjana Manjeshwar is a senior majoring in Legal Studies and Sociology. Her research interests include workers' rights and access to justice. At Berkeley, she has worked as a research assistant at the Othering & Belonging Institute, the UC Berkeley Labor Center, and Berkeley Law's Civil Justice Research Initiative. Sanjana is an intern at the Impact Fund, a legal nonprofit in Berkeley, and previously interned for the Oakland Mayor's Office. She also writes for the Berkeley Political Review and the Daily Californian.

Research:...

Monica Gao

Class of 2023
2023 Percy Undergraduate Grant

Monica is a fourth-year student majoring in sociology, with a concentration in research methodology. Her research interests include immigration, race and ethnicity, and social movement. Her honors senior thesis focuses on the naming preferences of Asian Americans to understand assimilation. She has been awarded the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and Institute of International Studies Undergraduate Fellowship. After graduating from Cal, Monica plans on pursuing a Ph.D. degree in sociology.

Research bio: My research seeks to...

Eva Michela Polovina

Class of 2025
2023 Percy Undergraduate Grant

Eva Michela Polovina is a second-year at Berkeley majoring in Legal Studies. She eventually wishes to pursue law school. Her passion for immigration law developed from learning about the injustices of the immigration system and observing the sentiments driving the anti-immigration movement. In the future, Eva hopes to learn more about the different legal fields and American legal history.

I explore how immigration law and the political climate affect international students’ decision to attend university and stay in the country after graduation. The research is...

2023 Percy Synar Award Ceremony and Reception

February 24, 2023 2:00pm - 4:00pm Please join us as we congratulate the 2023 recipients of the Charles H. Percy Undergraduate Grant for Public Affairs Research and the Mike Synar Graduate Research Fellowship.

An Awards Ceremony and Reception for the 2023 Charles H. Percy Undergraduate Grant and the Mike Synar Graduate Fellowship Recipients, by the Institute of Governmental Studies.

Each year, the Institute of Governmental Studies awards up to four Charles H. Percy research grants in the amount of $500 each to U.C. Berkeley undergraduate students who...