McCormack Scholars, Class of 2009
Allen Cheon
Elizabeth J. McCormack Scholar, Class of 2009
Hometown: San Rafael, CA
High School: San Rafael High School
Major: Economics
Career: Finance
In addition to a strong academic high school record, Allen was active in community work and played varsity tennis, serving as captain of the team in both his junior and senior years, receiving the MVP award for three years in a row. He participated in a program that introduced the blind to kayaking and volunteered in a local outreach program which served meals to the poor at a local church. During the summers of 2005 and 2006, he worked as a counselor at a camp on Orcas Island, WA.
Allen has traveled extensively. Before entering Manhattanville, Allen had gone to Nicaragua as a volunteer for the AMIGOS program. He used McCormack funds over winter break of his freshman year to return to the same small village to help the local population maintain the programs he helped establish more than a year before. His trips to Nicaragua taught him the true value of family and life. During the summer after his sophomore year, Allen volunteered in Korea and visited China and Japan. He spent fall semester of his junior year in Madrid, Spain and took full advantage of his weekends and vacations to travel extensively in Europe. His final trip as a McCormack was to spend three weeks in Egypt over winter break 2008-2009. When he returned to Manhattanville after his semester abroad, Allen served as co-captain of the varsity tennis team and also worked part time at the Purchase office of Smith Barney.
After graduating in December 2009, Allen took a job as an analyst at Cash Edge, a small investment firm in San Francisco working for a product called Popmoney. In August 2010 he started working for Bluewolf, www.bluewolf.com, a technology consulting firm. He started out as an Inside Sales Account Manager, but after only a month was promoted to Account Manager. He loves his work meeting with clients and potential clients around the Bay Area and up and down the West Coast.
Daylin-Rose Gibson
Elizabeth J. McCormack Scholar, Class of 2009
Hometown: Kaneohe, Hawaii
High School: Kamehameha High School
Intended Major: International Studies & Sociology/Anthropology
Possible Career: Lawyer or Cultural Anthropologist
Daylin-Rose Gibson was born and raised in Kaneohe, Hawaii. She graduated from Manhattanville College in December 2009 with a double major in Sociology/Anthropology and International Studies, concentrating in Pacific Studies. As a McCormack Scholar, Daylin taught children in Ecuador and the Cook Islands, studied abroad in New Zealand, and roamed various countries in Africa and Europe. Through her experiences abroad, Daylin realized her passion for people: preserving their culture, protecting their rights, and supporting their struggles. In between semesters abroad and summers volunteering, Daylin would return to Hawaii to take Native Hawaiian language courses at the local university and to participate in outrigger canoe paddling, a sport she has done since she was 9 years old.
At Manhattanville, Daylin was the president and founder of Hui O Hawai`i, the Hawaii Club, which hosted its first Hawaiian lu`au in April 2009. She also obtained an internship at the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation in Greenwich, CT, helping to organize the 2009 Annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations. During her last semester of undergraduate study, Daylin returned to New Zealand to complete researching and writing her Sociology/Anthropology senior thesis on Polynesian tattooing and identity.
Daylin is now a proud wife to Norman Heather and mother to their 16-¬‐month old daughter, Teaueroa. Daylin recently moved back home to Hawaii from the Cook Islands, where she worked as a special needs teacher. She is currently a Juris Doctorate candidate at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii. This winter break, Daylin will be interning at the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office of the City and County of Honolulu. When not in the library, Daylin can be found dancing with her daughter, playing defensive line for the law school women’s flag football team, or going on adventures to Costco with her family.
Gustavo Gimenez
Elizabeth J. McCormack Scholar, Class of 2009
Hometown: New York, NY
High School: Beach Channel High School
Major/Minor: Biology & Chemistry
Current Role: Research Associate at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Post Graduate Study: MA in Biochemistry at CUNY Hunter College
Gustavo was born in Asuncion, Paraguay and came to the U.S. in 1994. He was on the honor roll at his large public high school, and was a leader in many extra-curricular activities.
The McCormack Scholarship helped Gustavo explore his academic and career interests in the sciences during his time at Manhattanville. He worked with Dr. Annemarie Bettica, whose primary focus was on neuroscience research. Gustavo's work received multiple awards and was presented at several Society for Neuroscience (SFN) conferences. He used the McCormack opportunity grant to fund these incredible experiences, as they took place in San Diego (2007), Washington DC (2008), and Chicago (2009). He also used the grant to travel back to Paraguay. Having been in the United States for over 13 years, it was the first time he was able to visit his family and friends back home.
Since graduating from Manhattanville College in May 2009, Gustavo has been working full-time at the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Division of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City where he continues to develop as a researcher and a professional. Among his many responsibilities, his main project is the development of peptide microarray immunoassay (MIA) as a novel tool for the diagnosis of food allergies. He has adjusted well to this new field, and has already presented his work at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) annual meetings in San Francisco (March 2011) and Orlando (March 2012). He is proud of his work and has co-authored four original articles so far, with several more manuscripts currently in the works.
Not one to be academically satisfied, Gustavo is currently a graduate student at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where he is working on a Masters degree in Biochemistry.
