graduation

Outstanding senior: Sujei Perla Martinez

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2024 22:43:34 +0000

Outstanding senior: Sujei Perla Martinez Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2024 - 16:43

By Iris Serrano
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

Sujei Perla Martinez was determined to take charge of her college career in the same way she takes charge of being a role model for her younger brother.

“Before college, I thought I had everything figured out since I’m the eldest sister. That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Perla Martinez said. “Over the years, I learned a lot about myself as I overcame many obstacles.”

“My community helped foster a place for self-discovery and encouraged me to be unapologetically myself while helping me grow within my values and beliefs.”
Sujei Perla Martinez

And she did so in style: She’s graduating as the William W. White Outstanding Senior for the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design, having completed a degree in strategic communication with an emphasis in media design. The White awards are chosen by CMCI faculty and honor students for their academic accomplishments, professional achievements and service to the college.

Perla Martinez said when it came to overcoming those obstacles, the community she built at CMCI was key, especially the people she met through her countless volunteering experiences and her classes.

Most important was her multicultural leadership scholars cohort, the Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority, and the UMAS y MECHA student group, as well as the classroom.

“My community helped foster a place for self-discovery and encouraged me to be unapologetically myself while helping me grow within my values and beliefs,” Perla Martinez said.

Her academic and extracurricular achievements were not just due to her hard work. She said she recognizes the efforts of those who came before her who fought for her right to an education—in particular, her parents.

“Growing up, I saw my mother work hard jobs to raise my brother and me,” Perla Martinez said. “Every day, I stand on campus and try my hardest to show my mother that her sacrifice wasn't in vain.”

“I’m the first in my family to get a degree. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but I can finally say we did it.”

The first in her family to graduate college, Sujei is grateful for the family sacrifices that empowered her success.

Off

Traditional

White

Outstanding senior: Bianca Perez

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2024 22:39:42 +0000

Outstanding senior: Bianca Perez Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2024 - 16:39

By Joe Arney
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

When Bianca Perez called her mom in the middle of the day to tell her she’d been accepted to a prestigious doctoral program at one of the nation’s foremost universities, she expected there might be some tears.

She wasn’t wrong. But it wasn’t her mother who cried.

Perez’s mother, Leyda, was born and raised in Mexico, while her father, Ernesto, came to the United States from Peru. For almost 30 years, they have worked tirelessly at growing Perez Cleaning Services, in Steamboat Springs, in order to provide their daughter with opportunities they couldn’t imagine—and don’t always understand. When she explained that she was applying to schools to be a doctor, Perez (Comm, MediaSt’24) would clarify “a doctor of words,” since her family thought she was maybe interested in a medical career.

Now, as she explained on speakerphone that she was accepted to the PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Annenberg School for Communication, in Philadelphia, “my mom wasn’t sure what to make of it,” Perez said. “I could tell she was happy because she could hear the excitement in my voice.”

But the client her mother was speaking with when Perez called couldn’t believe his ears.

What I have is like a wish coming true. You can work very hard and that can still not be enough, and I’ve seen that happen to people around me my whole life.”
Bianca Perez (Comm, MediaSt’24)

“He was like, ‘Did I just overhear that your daughter's going to graduate school at Penn?’” she recalled. “And I could hear him start crying, and my mom said to me, ‘Oh, no, I have to go, one of the clients is upset.’ But he wasn’t—the guy went to UPenn for his undergrad, had wanted to go to grad school there but couldn’t, and he was so happy and excited for me.

“I think for my mom, seeing a random person cry like that and be so joyful, helped her understand just how exciting this was for me.”

Driven to change the world

It’s not the first time she’s had to overcome the barrier separating her lived experiences from those of her parents. But her working-class upbringing—combined with her curiosity, care and enthusiasm for working hard—has already made her a promising scholar in the realm of artificial intelligence and labor.

“It’s because of her humble background that she understands that the ability to be in college, to read books and write for a living, is a privilege,” said Sandra Ristovska, an assistant professor of media studies at the College of Media, Communication and Information at the ��«��Ƶ, and Perez’s advisor. “It’s unsurprising she’s interested in questions around technology and labor because she is seeking, through her research, to improve the lives and livelihoods of working-class people, immigrants and people of color.”

Perez studies generative artificial intelligence and labor through the lens of copyright law. In the past year, artists and publishers have sued tech companies that have used copyrighted work to train generative A.I. platforms like ChatGPT, opening up a larger question of how to fairly value labor—not just of plaintiffs like J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and The New York Times, but everyday social media users, whose likes and shares train algorithms to better recommend content that keeps people online.

Because that data is disassociated from the users, the labor of whoever generated that data—those likes and shares—is obscured, meaning they can’t be compensated. And these are, of course, some of the world’s deepest-pocketed tech companies, whose forays into the development of A.I. are far ahead of gridlocked government regulators and already-alarmed ethicists.

“We have no way to check these models, even though we’ve all been producing them through our work,” Perez said. “It’s a new and complex expansion of wage theft. They’re taking all our labor and remixing it to make something else—but it’s still our labor. How is that fair?”

Fairness focus

That question of what’s fair is central to Perez’s identity. Just the time and space to work as hard as she does, she said, is a privilege, especially when in high school she would see other smart, ambitious students fall behind because of work or family commitments.

“I always feel that there’s only a few degrees separating me being a migrant daughter who’s picking cherries, to my being here,” she said. “My parents taught me how to work very hard—I can’t underscore that enough—but what I have is like a wish coming true. You can work very hard and that can still not be enough, and I’ve seen that happen to people around me my whole life.”

Fairness also ties into her related research interest in the exploitation of Black and Latino tech labor—like DoorDash drivers during the pandemic, or Amazon warehouse workers toiling in hotter facilities in a warming climate. The combination of her interests has resulted in some unique scholarship that’s already getting noticed: This summer, Perez will present her thesis at the annual conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research, in Christchurch, New Zealand—an honor usually reserved for PhD students and faculty.

Ristovska, her advisor, also attended a prestigious conference as an undergraduate before going on to Annenberg for her PhD, and is excited to see how sharing her work at one of the field’s most prestigious events influences Perez’s future work.

“What she does is bring the human back to the discourse around A.I. and technology,” Ristovska said. “Her work makes us think about how human creativity and human engagement are central to the development of A.I., and why it’s so important we figure out labor protections now, before the technology is even more advanced.”

‘Someone who knows how to push me’

Perez called Ristovska “an incredible influence on me—someone who knows how to push me and who has held my hand on this journey, even though we were going uphill sometimes.” Among her mentors, she also counts professors Omedi Ochieng and Danielle Hodge, of the communication department, as well as Rory Fitzgerald Bledsoe, who is pursuing a PhD in media studies; Perez called her first course with Bledsoe the foundational moment of her time at CU.

Bledsoe recalled Perez for both her insatiable curiosity and her writing talent, which she called “refreshing and invigorating in an increasing sea of generic ChatGPT.”

“Bianca will be successful in her PhD for the normal things, like being diligent and curious, but also for her inimitable voice—both creative and critical—that I have no doubt will contribute to our field and make it better,” Bledsoe said. “People would benefit from being a little more like Bianca, by following your passion until it blooms in full force.”

“Her work makes us think about how human creativity and human engagement are central to the development of A.I., and why it’s so important we figure out labor protections now, before the technology is even more advanced.
Sandra Ristovska, assistant professor, media studies

Perez’s focus wasn’t always so direct. She arrived at CU ��«��Ƶ thinking she’d major in media production, given her interest in documentary filmmaking, but after exploring different paths, arrived at her current combination after briefly considering information science. At commencement, she was honored as the William W. White Outstanding Senior for both communication and media studies, the first time a student has been recognized by two departments. The White awards are chosen by CMCI faculty and honor students for their academic accomplishments, professional achievements and service to the college.

“My different majors helped me discover different frameworks of thinking about the topics I was interested in, which has helped me think about my research more critically,” she said. “It wasn’t always a specific lesson I was taught, but professors like Dr. Hodge showed me to think about whether what I’m working on actually speaks to the community—and you do that by speaking with that community.”

It’s a new twist on what Perez said is the most important lesson she learned at home.

“The best thing my parents taught me was to actually care about what you’re doing—to show up for others when it matters,” she said. “Maybe cleaning is trivial to some people, but their business is pretty exceptional in our town, and it’s because they care very much for their reputation and the people they serve.”

That’s why her mentor is convinced Perez will make her CMCI professors proud years after she has graduated.

“Whether she chooses an academic career or the policy realm, I really think she’ll make the world a better place, because her commitment to justice is ingrained in her,” Ristovska said. “I’m so excited for what comes next for her.”

A CMCI graduate’s working-class upbringing has given her a unique perspective on tech, wage theft and exploitation, which she’s bringing to an Ivy League doctoral program.

Off

Traditional

White

Outstanding senior: Lisa An

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2024 22:39:07 +0000

Outstanding senior: Lisa An Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2024 - 16:39

By Iris Serrano
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

“Unpredictable” is how Lisa An describes her college experience.

“I learned that keeping your work to yourself because of the fear of not being good enough does no good. If you share your work and receive feedback, you are able to improve your craft and obtain opportunities you otherwise never would have been able to.”
Lisa An

She felt pressured to pursue a computer science major, in preparation for a technical career path, but realized it wasn’t her calling. Eventually, she came across media production and enjoyed the creative freedom that came with it.

“It ended up being one of the best decisions I made,” An said. “I often struggle to find the right words to describe what I'm feeling. With photography, I’m able to create something where the emotion I pour into the piece can speak for itself.”

She carried her curiosity and love for creativity and completed a second major in Art Practices with minors in Art History and Sociology. Now she’s graduating as the William W. White Outstanding Senior for the Department of Critical Media Practices. The White awards are chosen by CMCI faculty and honor students for their academic accomplishments, professional achievements and service to the college.

The award didn’t come without hard work and effort. An has completed countless projects for her media production classes, but the one that stood out most was a book she made compiling her photography and design work. It was, she said, “rewarding to see my creation come to life physically, as well as being a part of the entire process of creating something.”

She has also completed an internship at the ��«��Ƶ Museum of Contemporary Art, which she said gave her a clearer picture of what to expect in the field after graduation.

Her path may not have been linear, but she said that journey helped her surround herself with friends who guided her on the way.
“One thing I’ll miss is the sense of community and support I received from my professors and peers. I could feel that they all genuinely cared for my success and pushed me to produce work that I could be proud of,” An said.

The outstanding senior in the Department of Critical Media Practices, Lisa said her winding path helped her meet mentors and friends that set her up to succeed.

Off

Traditional

White

Outstanding graduate: Andrew Schwartz

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2024 22:32:18 +0000

Outstanding graduate: Andrew Schwartz Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2024 - 16:32

By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

Before Andrew Schwartz knew he’d be an information science major, he had already attended a class. Now, he’s graduating—with a second major in philosophy—as the College of Media, Communication and Information's William W. White Outstanding Graduate.

Faced with a plethora of potential fields, it was a lecture by Morgan Klaus Scheuerman (PhDInfo’23) that initially attracted Schwartz to the field.

The discussion focused on ethics, machine learning and gender—and created a sense of curiosity to explore more topics through the lens of data.

“I chose information science because I am interested not just in computing, but computing as a social and cultural phenomenon,” he said. “Info gives us the skills to look at topics from a lot of different domains with a critical thinking lens and data-driven quantitative perspective, and that’s a skill that’s broadly applicable.”

The White Outstanding Graduate award honors the CMCI student with the highest overall GPA in his or her graduating class. Schwartz’s academic record is important to him, but more important is the societal impacts of both technology and his work. In the middle of the pandemic, that meant connecting with The COVID Tracking Project, whose data were used by news organizations, two presidential administrations and an array of federal agencies—including the CDC and FDA.

“Working on this project kick-started me thinking that I can actually make things with code that are useful for people,” he said.

As a first-year student, he assisted Robin Burke, professor and chair of information science, in studying fairness in recommender systems. Not only was he able to quickly understand the platform they used for conducting machine learning experiments, but he also helped make improvements to the software that increased its efficiency. Moreover, despite ongoing releases of the software, Schwartz’s code is still supporting it.

“His interest in philosophy was one of the things that attracted him to our research group, which looks at fairness and other ethical dimensions of recommender systems,” Burke said. “For our department as a whole, ethical and critical reflection is a key value, so I think that’s one reason info was a good fit for Andrew.”

Thanks to his work with Burke as well as developing a relationship with Brian Keegan, he was able to take both his experience and his education abroad as an invited researcher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

“Info gives us the skills to look at topics from a lot of different domains with a critical thinking lens and data-driven quantitative perspective, and that’s a skill that’s broadly applicable.”
Andrew Schwartz

“I studied in Seville for my junior year and completed most of my philosophy coursework while I was in Spain,” Schwartz said. “One of the priorities for me was language acquisition and immersion. So, I lived in Madrid over the following summer and did a research collaboration with Brian’s colleagues—Andrea Peña-Calvin, Javier Arroyo and Samer Hassan—and we got published this spring.”

In Spain, he and the team studied how online communities govern and organize themselves. This experience, and others, emphasized to him the myriad ways data touch various fields, as well as the critical thinking skills needed to leverage technology effectively.

That’s something he feels he developed through both his majors.

“When it comes to impact and being able to make something I’m proud of, a big part of that is being able to make technology for the people to use it, and make things that people enjoy using and improve their lives,” he said. “Info places a big emphasis on that.”

Not only has Andrew Schwartz contributed to a collaborative paper investigating online communities, he also developed code for The COVID Tracking Project, among other research opportunities.

Off

Traditional

White

Outstanding senior: Nicolas Tamayo

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2024 16:37:42 +0000

Outstanding senior: Nicolas Tamayo Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2024 - 10:37

By Iris Serrano
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

Being a first-generation college student means discovering new things and pushing past limits. In their time at the ��«��Ƶ, Nicolas Tamayo went above and beyond those expectations and didn’t let fear hold them back.

“I'm absolutely a different person than I was four years ago, and I hope to be able to continue growing as time goes on.”
Nicolas Tamayo (Fren,JourSt’24)

As he prepares to graduate, Tamayo will go on their greatest adventure yet: They were accepted to the highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and will be teaching English in Montpellier, France.

“It can be daunting to try new things, especially if you’re going in by yourself,” Tamayo said, “But it’s so much more rewarding and fulfilling to say yes to new opportunities, instead of saying no and missing out on what could have been.”

Tamayo will be graduating as the William W. White Outstanding Senior for the Department of Journalism with degrees in both journalism and French. The White awards are chosen by CMCI faculty and honor students for their academic accomplishments, professional achievements and service to the college.

Service, in particular, defined Tamayo at CMCI: They participated as a resident assistant for summer bridge programs, served as president of CMCI student government and were active in multicultural organizations. As they go forward, they’re looking to continue that mindset.

“I want to work with people and help them find success in whatever they choose to set their mind to,” Tamayo said.

Much of that relates to paying forward all the support they received as a Buff.

“I achieved so much more than I ever thought possible. Every person who’s been a part of my life and my network over the past few years has helped me to grow,” they said. “I'm absolutely a different person than I was four years ago, and I hope to be able to continue growing as time goes on.”

Saying yes to opportunities served Nic well as a student—and will help him in a competitive Fulbright program in France.

Off

Traditional

White