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Project Protect Biographies for Spring 2016

	Brenda Yu – Project Manager Brenda Yu is double majoring in Biological Sciences and Psychology. She is the Project Manager for the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. Joining Project Protect gave Yu the opportunity to combine her interests in medicine with her desire to educate the community on major health issues through the use of technology. Highly active on campus, Yu is a member of the Campus Activities Board and president of the Distinguished Young Women club. In addition, she is researching the evolutionary effects of bacterial and viral communities in the Sistrom Lab starting. When she is not busy with academics or community service, Yu enjoys broadening her knowledge about the Marvel Universe.
	Leo Alonso Cabrera – Assistant Project Manager Leo Alonso Cabrera is majoring in Computer Science and Engineering, and hopes to pick up a second major in Applied Mathematics with an emphasis on Computational Biology. He is the Assistant Project Manager for the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. . Project Protect offers him the environment that he is looking for to apply his knowledge in application development and software design to have a tangible benefit in the community. He is involved with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, which provides several hours of community service to indulge in and developing cyber currency with the Quantitative Project. In his spare time he can be found playing video games, reading, debating, and practicing on the piano and drumming.
	Sahar Darian – Communications Officer Sahar Darian is a second year Immunology and Microbiology, and Public Health major. Darian is the Communications Officer for the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. She joined the Project Protect team due to prior research she conducted on antibiotic resistant bacteria that struck her interest. Darian has a strong passion for medicine and wants to pursue a career as an Emergency Physician. Darian hopes to be a great asset to the team through her prior experiences and interests for this research project. In her spare time, Darian loves spending time with the people closest to her.
	Kenja Corbisiero – Procurement Finance Officer Kenja Corbisiero is a fifth year Cognitive Science major. She is the Procurement and Finance Officer for the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. Corbisiero is passionate about health equality and the use of technology to improve accessibility for all people. By incorporating her experiences in Cognitive Science she hopes to create apps that are efficient and easy to understand for people of all backgrounds. In her spare time Kenja enjoys nature, yoga and traveling.
	Christina Nguyen Blaul – Intellectual Properties Manager Christina is a freshman studying premedical Biology with the goal of obtaining an M.D. She chose this particular project because it aids a health need in her surrounding community. Christina can speak fluent Vietnamese and has a personal connection to the lack of translators in the medical environment. She is interested in researching the dire medical issues that she will face in her career field. Christina’s volunteer work at the Emergency Room exposed her to the medical devices used by healthcare professionals.
	Alec Kwiatkowski – Team Leader Alec Kwiatkowski is a sophomore studying Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, Merced. Kwiatkowski is a member of the Project Protect Engineering Service Learning team. He hopes to make use of his passion of software development for both mobile and personal computing platforms for the project. The center of his study and interest involve the improvement and creation of new ways in which to interact with computational devices. Adding to the skills and work ethic accumulated through his volunteer work, Alec is pursuing multiple workshops, personal projects, and internships. He is an enormous fan of the television show “Jeopardy” and loves eggplant curry.
	Eduardo Diaz – Team Leader Eduardo Diaz is a 2nd year student pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Team Leader for the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. He chose this team because he felt like he wanted to make a difference in this community and felt that this project was best fit to fulfil that desire. Diaz currently holds leadership positions in various organizations around campus. For example, Diaz is the internal representative for The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE-IU) chapter here at UC Merced and is involved well in the organization’s various community outreach programs. Diaz enjoys playing video games, watching movies, and hanging out with friends.
	Savannah De Jesus – Team Member De Jesus is a second year Computer Science and Engineering student. De Jesus is a member of the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. She choose this team because it gave her a meaningful and hands on opportunity to improve her coding skills and help a good cause. Last year she was a part of the Engineering Service Learning team, Unmanned Arial Vehicle, which she had a great experience, yet chose Project Protect to focus more on the coding aspect that Engineering Service Learning provides. Besides engineering, De Jesus enjoys dancing on INTRO at UC Merced. She is outgoing and social and cannot wait for her career in engineering to prosper.
	Amber Bradley – Team Member Amber Bradley is a second year Computer Science and Engineering major. Bradley is a team member of the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. She chose this team because it was a way for her to give back to the community and work with other engineering majors. She hopes that working with other engineers will help her to improve her coding and communication skills. Aside from school, she enjoys exercising and traveling. She also enjoys spending time with her family and friends.
	Luis Soto – Team Member Luis Soto is a second year who is currently undeclared in the School of Engineering. Soto is a team member of the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. He chose to be part of Project Protect because it will help inform Merced County, as well as his own by researching the negative effects caused by the misuse of antibiotics and providing it to local communities. Through this project he hopes to gain experience in teamwork and time management, while at the same time coming up with solutions for real world problems.
	Thong Le – Team Member Le is a second year Chemistry major and Psychology minor at UC Merced. He is a team member of the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. Le chooses this project with the hope of supporting the community by utilizing her chemical background in order to aid research efforts on the minimizing bacteria’s antibiotic resistance levels. During her free time, Le also holds executive positions in many organizations on campus including National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Hip Hop Movement, and is an active member of the Vietnamese Student Association.
	Jose Herrera – Team Member Jose Herrera is a first year student pursuing a Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering. Herrera is a member of the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. He joined this group to help build an application that many people in the community can use. Herrera believes in giving back to the community and make it better than before. Herrera is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and he wants to offer his skills to this project and also gain valuable experience and knowledge. When Herrera is not occupied with schoolwork, he loves to play sports and exercise.
	Judith Mendoza – Team Member Mendoza is a first year Bioengineering student. Judith is a member of the Engineering Service Learning team, Project Protect. She chose this project because of the positive impact for the community. Mendoza believes the project will challenge her intellectually. She was Associated Student Body President at her high school and she hopes to apply the leadership skills she learned in this college setting. She enjoys reading articles, exercising, and being outdoors.