May 16, 2008

A desire to continue her education and learn more about victimology led Chie Maekoya from her hometown in Hitachinaka, Japan, to Fresno.

Once at California State University, Fresno as a graduate student, Maekoya excelled in her studies and research. Described by one of her professors as modest and humble, she completed her M.S. in Counseling with a 4.0 GPA and earned national and international awards for papers on domestic violence.

In recognition of her achievements, Maekoya was named the Class of 2008 University Graduate Medal winner during the Graduate Degree Hooding Ceremony for master’s and doctoral candidates.

Maekoya, representing the Kremen School of Education and Human Development, was presented the silver University Graduate Medal by Fresno State President Dr. John D. Welty. She also received a plaque presented by Dr. Jeronima Echeverria, provost and vice president for academic affairs.

The University Graduate Medal is the top honor given to a graduate student, selected from among nine graduate Dean’s Medalists chosen as the outstanding students in each of the university’s eight schools and colleges of academic discipline and the Division of Student Affairs. The dean of each selects a graduate medalist based on academic excellence, service to the school, community involvement and other notable achievements.

As the University Graduate Medal winner, Maekoya is among 790 students eligible to receive master’s or doctoral degree hoods at the event attended by more than 5,000 people. On Saturday morning, the post-baccalaureate students will have their degrees formally conferred at the 97th Commencement in Save Mart Center.

Maekoya is driven by the need to bring wider understanding to the plight of victims. A strong proponent of victim’s rights, she wants to bring healing to those who have suffered cruelty, violence and injustice. Her goal is to make the world a better place.

Her work started with an intensive examination of bullying behaviors and the variables that are related to bullying. She has published two articles in this area, “The effects of physical child abuse on bullying behaviors” and “Physical child harm and bullying-related behaviors: A comparative study in Japan, South Africa and the United States.”

In her three years as a graduate student, Maekoya has had four publications and five professional presentations.

Her awards include a first place in Student Paper Competition at the 12th International Symposium of Victimology in 2006 and the Best Poster Presentation at the Third American Symposium on Victimology in 2005.

Maekoya’s aspirations are not only in the area of research. She strongly believes that in order to learn something, she needs to be a practitioner, so she completed internships at Community Behavioral Health Center and the Marjoree Mason Center, where she counseled victims of domestic violence and their children.

At Fresno State, Maekoya worked as an academic adviser and counselor in the International Student Services Office and a graduate assistant in the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning.

Maekoya plans to return to Japan and work as a counselor and teacher. Eventually she plans to pursue a doctorate.

Three other top students were honored at the Graduate Degree Hooding Ceremony.
Daniel Tennant, who earned a Master of Science degree in physics, received the Outstanding Thesis Award.

His thesis, praised by the awards committee as “sophisticated, profound and groundbreaking” offers an experimental test of String Theory, which is the best theory physicists have for realizing Albert Einstein’s dream of a so-called “unified field theory.”

Olga Karapanou was awarded an honorable mention for her thesis, “Wine Grape Yeast Interactions,” which the committee praised as “flawlessly written with tremendous practical applications for wine grape growers in the Central Valley and beyond.”

Martha Espitia received the Phyllis Watts Eudy Memorial Award for the outstanding international graduate student. Espitia, who is from Mexico and came to Fresno State on a Fulbright Scholarship, completed a Master of Arts degree in rehabilitation counseling last December with a cumulative GPA of 3.62.

In addition to linguistic and cultural challenges, her academic accomplishments are particularly noteworthy because Espitia is blind. All classroom printed materials had to be converted to speaking program by computer.

During her studies at Fresno State, Espitia published three articles and two rehabilitation protocols. She volunteered at the Valley Center for the Blind and completed a five-month internship with the California Department of Rehabilitation.

All Dean’s Medalists, both graduate and undergraduate, will be recognized at Saturday’s University Commencement, which begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Save Mart Center.