Graduate Student Ambassadors

Who are the Graduate Student Ambassadors?

Ambassadors are current graduate students at Rice University! They are a great resource to use when wondering what life is like at Rice. Have a question about doctoral programs? Reach out to one of our student ambassadors by emailing gradambassadors@rice.edu, register for our Coffee Chats, and make sure to check out our grad student blog here.

Our mission

The mission of the Rice Graduate Student Ambassadors is to equip prospective graduate students with accurate, honest information about graduate study. We share our unique experiences and provide informal mentoring, striving to empower prospective students to make the best choice possible for themselves, regardless of where they ultimately study.

Elsa Acosta de Anda

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering | Languages: English, Spanish

Fariha Ahmad

Home Country: USA | Program: Bioengineering | Language: English

Mert Akman

Home Country: Turkey | Program: Business | Languages: Turkish, English, French and German

Marquise Bell

Home Country: USA | Program: Mechanical Engineering | Languages: English

Sadie Brasel

Home Country: USA | Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering | Languages: English, French

Autumn Bruncz

Home Country: USA | Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering| Languages: English

Astrid Campos Mata

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Materials Science and NanoEngineering | Languages: English, Spanish

Manuel Carmona Pichardo

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Chemistry | Languages: Spanish, English

Madelyn Castro

Home Country: USA | Program: Psychological Sciences | Language: English

Chun-Ying Chao

Home Country: Taiwan | Program: Civil & Environmental Engineering | Languages: English, Taiwanese, Mandarin

Ellie Chen

Home Country: USA | Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering | Languages: English, Mandarin

Baifu Chen

Home Country: China | Program: PhD in Strategic Management | Languages: English, Chinese

Ying Chen

Home Country: China | Program: Chemistry | Languages: Chinese

Yan-Yu Chiou

Home Country: Taiwan | Program: Economics

Will Choi, Graduate Student Ambassador at Rice University

Chi Hun Choi

Home Country: South Korea | Program: Materials Science & NanoEngineering | Languages: Korean, English, Spanish

Alina Chow

Home Country: USA | Program: Chemistry

Nina Cook

Home Country: USA | Program: English| Languages: English, Spanish

Karyssa Courey

Home Country: USA | Program: Psychological Sciences

Esteban Dodero-Rojas

Home Country: Costa Rica | Program: Systems, Synthetic & Physical Biology

Michelle Duran Chaves

Home Country: Costa Rica | Program: Chemistry | Language: English, Spanish

Emily Elia

Home Country: USA | Program: Political Science | Languages: English, Spanish

Viraj Ghosh

Home Country: USA | Program: Bioengineering

Victoria Granja

Home Country: Ecuador | Program: Mechanical Engineering | Languages: English, Spanish

Carly Graverson

Home Country: USA | Program: Chemistry

Rosa Selenia Guerra Resendez

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Systems, Synthetic & Physical Biology | Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese

Dallas Havens

Home Country: USA | Program: Philosophy | Languages: English

Chia Hsieh

Home Country: Taiwan | Program: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology| Languages: Mandarin, Taiwanese, English

Jennifer Hunter

Assistant Dean | Graduate Student Ambassador Staff Contact

Rodrigo Ibarra Garcia Padilla

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Biochemistry and Cell Biology | Languages: English, Spanish, French

Onyekachi Idigo

Home Country: Nigeria | Program: Biosciences | Languages: English and Igbo

Jeannette Ingabire

Home Country: Rwanda | Program: Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology

Sathvik Ajay Iyengar

Home Country: India | Program: Materials Science and NanoEngineering Program | Languages: English, Japanese, Tamil, Kannada

Debadrita Jana

Home Country: India | Program: Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences | Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi

Esther Jimenez

Home Country: USA | Program: Biochemistry & Cell Biology | Languages: English, Spanish

Maranda Joyce

Home Country: USA | Program: Political Science

Mirae (Sunny) Kim

Home Country: South Korea | Program: Computer Science | Languages: English, Korean

Vinod Kumar

Home Country: Pakistan | Program: Materials Science and NanoEngineering | Languages: English, Urdu, Sindhi, Dhatki

Nhi Le

Home Country: Vietnam | Program: Statistics | Languages: English, Vietnamese

Wei-Hao Lee

Home Country: Taiwan | Program: Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology Program | Languages: English, Chinese, Mandarin

Kashif Liaqat

Home Country: Pakistan | Program: Mechanical Engineering | Language: English, Urdu, Punjabi

Seiichi Matsuda

Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies; E. Dell Butcher Professor of Chemistry; Professor of Biochemistry & Cell Biology

Robin Mo

Home Country: Hong Kong | Program: BioSciences | Languages: English, Mandarin

Joshua Moore

Home Country: USA | Program: Biochemistry and Cell Biology Program

Fernanda Morales, Ph.D. student and graduate student ambassador at Rice University

Fernanda Morales-Calva

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Psychological Sciences | Languages: English, Spanish, French

Yuya Nakatani

Home Country: Japan | Program: Chemistry | Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese

Nam Nguyen

Home Country: Vietnam | Program: Statistics | Languages: Vietnamese, English

Miguel Angel Ortiz Salazar

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Biochemistry & Cell Biology | Languages: Spanish, English

Toni Panzera

Home Country: South Africa | Program: Physics & Astronomy | Languages: English, Afrikaans

Erin Porter

Home Country: USA | Program: Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering | Languages: English

Neethu Pottackal

Home Country: USA | Program: Materials Science and NanoEngineering| Languages: English, Malayalam

Dinora Nicole Rodriguez, graduate student ambassador at Rice University in Houston Texas

Dinora Rodriguez

Home Country: USA | Program: Chemistry | Languages: English, Spanish

Edgar Ruiz

Home Country: Mexico | Program: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Languages: English, Spanish

Joshua Samba

Home Country: USA | Program: Applied Physics

Phelecia Scotland

Home Country: Dominica | Program: Materials Science and NanoEngineering Program

Lul Sharif

Home Country: USA | Program: Chemistry

Roy Shen

Home Country: Taiwan | Program: Civil & Environmental Engineering | Languages: Mandarin, English

Yingru Song

Home Country: China | Program: Mechanical Engineering

Ken W. Ssennyimba, Rice grad student ambassador

Ken Ssennyimba

Home Country: Uganda | Program: Applied Physics | Languages: English, Luganda

Daziyah Sullivan

Home Country: USA | Program: Mechanical Engineering

Carlos Taveras

Home Country: USA | Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering | Languages: English, Spanish

Akpan Ubong-Abasi Asukwo

Home Country: Nigeria | Program: Religion | Languages: English, Yoruba, Igbo, Ibibio

Utana Umezaki

Home Country: Japan | Program: Chemistry | Languages: Japanese, English

Jason Uwaeze

Home Country: USA | Program: Computer Science | Language: English

Kayla Vokt

Home Country: USA | Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering

Bohan Zhang

Home Country: China | Program: History | Languages: English, Chinese