El Camino College honors students took home more scholarships and awards than any other college at the annual Honors Transfer Council of California Student Research Conference.
Twenty-five students in the El Camino College Honors Transfer Program (HTP) presented research and gave oral presentations at the conference at the University of California, Irvine, which draws hundreds of students from throughout the state to present original research each year. Four ECC students presented research posters. Morgan Holubets won first prize for her research poster, and Samar Al-Haqab and Crystal Johnson won third-prize awards for their posters. The recognition marked the first time the ECC program received more than one poster award at a conference.
In addition, ECC students Hayden Butler and Curtis Wang earned Exemplary Achievement awards. The annual conference gives students in community college honors programs an opportunity to present their research in humanities, sciences, arts, social sciences and pre-professional programs.
The HTP also features the Transfer Alliance Program (TAP), which offers counseling, guidance, and priority admission consideration to UCLA. This year, 79 ECC Honors Transfer Program students were admitted to UCLA via TAP, an increase from 57 students last year and the highest number in the last five years. This year's 85 percent admit rate to UCLA is also impressive and significantly higher than the state average of 76 percent for honors students.
In other transfer news, three ECC Honors Transfer Program students were accepted to the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley for fall 2017, one of the most selective schools in an extremely selective university. The HTP averages one acceptance every few years; this year, a record number of three students were accepted: Eman Dalili, Nicole Mardesich, and Prince Obah. Congratulations to all of these outstanding students!