Synar Fellowship Recipients

How to Apply to the Synar Fellowship

Application

The Synar Fellowship application is due by Sunday, November 30, 2025 at 11:59pm.

The application includes:

Brief questionnaire Dissertation synopsis (25o words or less) Statement of Purpose (including a timetable for completion of dissertation, budget, and justification of need) (1,500 words or less, not including timetable, budget, or brief budget justification) CV Transcript Name of recommender (must be one of your Dissertation Advisors) Recommendation

All applicants are required to secure a recommendation from a Dissertation Advisor. Your...

2025 Percy Synar Award Ceremony and Reception

February 28, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm Please join us as we congratulate the 2025 recipients of the Charles H. Percy Undergraduate Grant for Public Affairs Research and the Mike Synar Graduate Research Fellowship.

The Charles H. Percy Undergraduate Grant for Public Affairs Research 2025 Recipients:

Joselen X. Contreras (Public Health; Minor: Public Policy): "From Prop 187 to Power: How Rising Latino Representation in California's Assembly Has Shaped Healthcare Legislation"

Jack Guan (American Studies, Political Science; Minor: Public Policy): The...

2024 Percy Synar Award Ceremony and Reception

February 23, 2024 2:00pm - 4:00pm Please join us as we congratulate the 2024 recipients of the Charles H. Percy Undergraduate Grant for Public Affairs Research and the Mike Synar Graduate Research Fellowship

The Charles H. Percy Undergraduate Grant for Public Affairs Research 2024 Recipients:

Alina Zarate (Environmental Sciences, Interdisciplinary Studies): "The Multiple Fronts of the Fight for Farm Worker Rights: An Analysis of UFW Political Advocacy in the 21st Century"

Andrew Huong Yet Chen (Political Science, Psychology): "Unveiling Voter...

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...

Nicholas Shatan

Class of 2025
2025 Synar Graduate Research Fellowship

Nick Shatan is a PhD candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, studying the history and political economy of affordable housing development in the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Chicago and a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University. Before coming to Berkeley, Nick worked for the MIT Community Innovators Lab while supporting the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative and the Bronx Community Land Trust. Originally from Manhattan, New York, Nick interned with various New York City...

Ángel Mendiola Ross

Class of 2025
2025 Synar Graduate Research Fellowship

Ángel is a PhD candidate in sociology at UC Berkeley who conducts research at the intersection of (sub)urban sociology, race and inequality, policing, incarceration, and housing. Their dissertation investigates a contemporary and understudied driver of segregation in the metropolitan United States: prison proliferation. His previous research on racial and renter threat in California suburbs received the Graduate Student Paper Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association and was recently published in Social Problems. Ángel’s work has...

Julia Bitz Christensen

Class of 2025
2025 Synar Graduate Research Fellowship

Julia is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She researches news media and political accountability in the United States. Prior to beginning her PhD, she worked at a litigation consulting firm in Washington DC for two years. Before that, she completed her BA at Georgetown University where she majored in economics and government and minored in mathematics.

Luis Tenorio

2022 Synar Graduate Research Fellowship

Luis Tenorio is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology as a Chancellor's Fellow and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Luis's research explores the intersections of immigration, social policy, citizenship, and the law. While his current work explores the effects of obtaining legal status, his prior work examines the legal processing and integration of Central American unaccompanied youth.

Luis' Research: My research has traced broad, significant social and economic detrimental impacts to being undocumented, suggesting legal permanent residency would significantly...