Michael Tayag will work with Filipino caregivers in Santa Clara County.
Stanford juniors IVY NGUYEN and MICHAEL TAYAG have been awarded scholarships from the Donald A. Strauss Foundation to pursue service projects during their senior year.
Tayag, of Vista, Calif., will work with the People’s Association of Workers and Immigrants in San Jose to conduct a paticipatory research project designed to capture the direct experiences of Filipino caregivers who work in residential care facilities for the elderly in Santa Clara County.
Nguyen, who is from Milpitas, Calif., will work on a water sanitation project in Phuoc Binh village in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam. She will spend the summer working with village residents to modify a low-cost ceramic water filter to be adaptable to the different water conditions in the rainy and dry seasons. She will return later in the year to begin establishing a local manufaturing center to mass produce the filters for the greater Mekong Delta.
Ivy Nguyen will conduct a water project in Vietnam.
Tayag is majoring in comparative studies in race and ethnicity; Nguyen is a chemical engineering major.
Established by the family of alumnus DONALD A. STRAUSS, the $10,000 scholarships are given to 10 to 15 California college juniors annually. At Stanford, the scholarships are administered through the Haas Center for Public Service.
Strauss, AB ’37, demonstrated a lifelong commitment to public service and education, serving 10 years on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board and 12 years on the Newport Beach City Council, including one as mayor. He died in 1995 at the age of 79.
Strauss’ widow, Dorothy M. R. Strauss, established the foundation in January 1997, and since then 220 scholarships have been awarded.
Photos by Joy Leighton, Haas Center for Public Service
