2024 Graduate Centennial Achievement Award Recipients

Michael Cardenas (he/him) is a fifth-year graduate student in the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, working in the lab of Dr. Katalin Gothard.  

Michael grew up in the greater Tucson area and served in the U.S. Navy for four years before becoming the first in his family to graduate college at the University of Arizona. He volunteers with the Center for Neurosciences Foundation, where he helped develop the Social and Emotional NeuroDevelopment, or SEND, curriculum for K-12 students. As a teacher, he fosters curiosity-driven learning by tying lessons to experiences, motivating youth to explore new ways of approaching the world. 

Michael's research at the University of Arizona focuses on how brain-body communication informs neural mechanisms underlying decision-making. He investigates drugs that modify bodily states, without directly affecting the brain, to assess their effect on performing decision-making tasks. This approach allows him to examine how the brain responds to changes in the body and how these responses bias task performance. Michael hopes to continue working in research and teaching as a professor in the future. 

Michael received an honorable mention from the National Science Foundation and multiple fellowships from the U of A, including the prestigious Richard A. Harvill Graduate Fellowship. He is an ARCS Foundation Scholar and a recipient of the 2023 Young Investigator Award from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, where he presented his work to leaders in the field of brain-body communication. In the summer of 2024, Michael became an alumnus of the Allen Institute's Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain, and recently received an NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. 

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Onur Ural Burns is a doctoral candidate in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, with a minor in teaching English as a second language and is pursuing a certificate in Technology in Second Language Teaching. He is expected to graduate in 2025.  

Onur works as a graduate associate in the Writing Program. His research focuses on education technologies and language teacher education. He facilitates online programs for K-12 teachers and university instructors to develop their digital competence. Some of his work was recently included in the Handbook of Language Teacher Education, published by Springer Nature. 

As a first-generation college graduate, Onur is the first person in his extended family to earn a master's degree and the only one currently pursuing a doctorate. Onur relied on scholarships and assistantships from Turkish higher education institutions to continue his bachelor's education. He also received funding from Erasmus, a European student exchange program, to study in the Czech Republic for a semester. He was also a Fulbright Scholar, and he taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara for one academic year. 

Onur is from Turkey’s southern coast, a region renowned for its cultural diversity and UNESCO World Heritage Sites. He consistently participated in activities to contribute to his community. When he was an undergraduate student in the College of Education at Çukurova University in Turkey, he volunteered to teach English to children from other low-income families. Most recently, he volunteered to teach English to immigrants online. 

Onur's Ph.D. journey has brought numerous obstacles. He faced restrictions on academic freedom from his country, COVID-19 lockdowns during his first two years, and a recent earthquake in his hometown that claimed the lives of his parents. Despite having to overcome these obstacles in pursuit of his educational goals, Onur remains hopeful about what the future holds if he continues to work hard. 

Asya Gorlova

Samantha Barrera – a mother of two, first-generation college student, and first-generation immigrant from Great Britain – is pursuing her Juris Doctor and Certificate in Criminal Law and Policy at the James E. Rogers College of Law. As a domestic violence survivor who was supported by the Tucson community and justice system, Samantha is committed to protecting vulnerable Arizonans. 

Although Samantha's commitment to public service is what brought her to Arizona Law, it was through her studies that she fell in love with the law. In turn, Samantha endeavored to hone her lawyering skills as a Senior Writing Fellow, Journal Fellow, managing editor of the Arizona Law Review, and research assistant for several professors.  

Samantha feels honored to have been awarded with the 2023 Outstanding Performance in Legal Writing Award and the Arizona Law Review Best 2L Copywork Award, as well as being acknowledged as a David A. Paige Foundation Scholar and winner of the 2023 Richard Grand Closing Argument Competition. She is excited to publish her Note on applying the principled approach to the Second Amendment in the summer 2025 issue of Arizona Law Review. 

Beyond her gratitude for a robust legal education, Samantha appreciates the opportunities to participate within the Arizona Law community as a Program in Criminal Law and Policy Fellow, a Supreme Court Teaching Fellow, a First Circuit program mentor, and a member of Innovation for Justice. She also enjoyed volunteering throughout law school, such as serving on the Marana Unified School District Safety and Security Committee.  

Samantha feels incredibly fortunate to serve the judiciary as a judicial clerk upon graduation. Thereafter, she will strive to protect and serve Arizonans as a prosecutor and by providing pro bono family law services to domestic violence survivors. 

Samantha is grateful to Arizona Law for what she considers a second chance at life. She hopes to inspire other diverse students to pursue law. Samantha never imagined being in such a privileged position as a student of law. Arizona Law empowered her to serve with passion and tenacity. Notably, Samantha credits Arizona Law for showing her that it's never too late to rewrite your narrative. 

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Rodrigo Guerra Su is a second-year master's student in the Applied Economics and Policy Analysis program at the University of Arizona. His journey to higher education has been marked by resilience and adaptability. Originally from Managua, Nicaragua, Rodrigo grew up in a country with widespread poverty and political instability, encountering numerous challenges in pursuing his education. 

In 2019, Rodrigo moved to the United States to continue his studies at Glendale Community College in California, overcoming language barriers by immersing himself in English media. In August 2020, during the pandemic, he transferred to the University of Arizona, initially majoring in animal sciences but soon discovering a passion that prompted him to switch to agribusiness economics and management.  

Graduating summa cum laude, Rodrigo is the first in his family to study abroad and earn a degree from a U.S. institution. His commitment to education is evident through his roles as a peer tutor at the Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques, or SALT, Center, and as a research intern in the Applied International Development Economics Lab, which inspired him to pursue his master's degree. Rodrigo also served as a teaching assistant, supporting students in challenging courses such as Economics of Futures Markets, Analysis of Economic Data  and the graduate-level Math for Economists. 

His research contributions include projects focused on agricultural productivity, climate adaptation, and economic analysis. He collaborated on a literature review on the economics of climate adaptation, and worked on projects with University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, including an economic impact analysis of the horse racing industry in Arizona. 

After completing his master's program, Rodrigo plans to further his studies in agricultural economics, aspiring to contribute to large-scale research that shapes policies and promotes sustainable practices. 

Margaret Mercer is pursuing a master's in wildlife conservation and management. She has always been interested in animals and nature. She graduated with a 3.99 GPA from Brigham Young University, then spent nearly two years as a full-time volunteer in Idaho, where she learned Spanish and focused her work on serving immigrant communities. She then worked as an ecological field technician in her hometown of Fresno, California, before beginning her master's degree at the University of Arizona. 

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Margaret has maintained a 4.0 GPA in her classes and fulfilled her responsibilities as a teaching assistant. In her research, she is investigating the effects of human disturbance on North American carnivores. She hopes that her efforts will help conserve vulnerable species and preserve the rich diversity of the world's ecosystems.