Two CSUB students selected for Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program

Program provides $30,000 loans to help students complete doctoral degrees

By California State University, Bakersfield

July 19^th, 2022

Two California State University, Bakersfield students have been chosen for the 2022-23 Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP).

The program provides $30,000 loans to students to help them complete their doctoral studies. CDIP fellows can also receive mentoring and have access to professional development opportunities. This year’s recipients from CSUB are America Bustos Segura and Mikennah Paddock, who both plan to pursue their doctorates in neuroscience.

“Both Mikennah and America are extraordinarily bright, dedicated, hard-working students with a bright future ahead of them,” said Dr. Amy M. Gancarz-Kausch, associate professor of psychology and the students’ faculty sponsor. “They have grown so much as scientists during their time at CSUB, and I am excited to see what they will accomplish in their academic careers. They are both most deserving of the CDIP and I am thrilled they were selected for this very prestigious award.”

If the students return as faculty members to a CSU campus, the loan is forgivable over five years of employment. The loan also has a low interest rate for students who are not hired at a CSU.

The CDIP was established in 1987 to increase faculty diversity of underrepresented populations in the CSU. Applicants to the program are typically seniors and graduate students who are applying to Ph.D. programs in fields where they are underrepresented, such as women in the sciences.

“The CDIP program provides professional, academic support as well as mentorship throughout their doctoral program,” said Dr. Gancarz-Kausch. “The program is life-changing for students in my lab. I have had the privilege of serving as a CDIP faculty mentor for four former CSUB students who are now in their graduate programs, and I can say with confidence that the support of the CDIP is critical to ensure our students’ success moving forward in their graduate careers.”

Here is more information about this year's CDIP recipients from CSUB:

Two CSUB students selected for Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program

America Bustos Segura

Bustos Segura graduated from CSUB this spring with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in biology. She will attend the University of Maryland in Baltimore in the fall.

“The University of Maryland has a really good program in neuroscience,” she said. “There’s a lot of research going on there, a lot of collaborations. I’m very excited to get started.”

Bustos Segura developed an interest in neuroscience during her time at CSUB through her research. She joined a lab led by Dr. Gancarz-Kausch in 2020 that focused on substance abuse. In 2021, she started her own research project examining sucrose and whether drug addiction is more likely in someone with a high sugar intake.

“I just fell in love with research,” she said. “What we did at CSUB helped me see that this is something that I’m passionate about. I like finding out why and how people act the way they do.”

Bustos Segura said she is thankful to be chosen as a CDIP recipient and that it will help her achieve her academic goals.

“I think this is a great program. It’s amazing that there is this opportunity for students,” she said. “It really does reassure me about my future.”

Mikennah Paddock

Paddock graduated from CSUB this spring with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She will be attending the University of Buffalo in New York this fall.

“My experience at CSUB was great. I enjoyed being there,” she said. “It’s a little scary to move across the country, but I’m excited for this new opportunity.”

Paddock initially wanted to become a school psychologist. However, after doing research in Dr. Gancarz-Kausch’s lab, she found neuroscience to be an interesting avenue to pursue.

“It intertwines a lot with psychology but is less theory-based,” she said. “Neuroscience looks at the mechanisms in our brain that affect the fundamentals of behavior, why we think and behave in certain ways.”

Paddock said she is grateful for the support provided by the CDIP program and that it has helped make her goal of getting a doctoral degree a reality.