Alumni News

Mendez-Dorantes ’15 Receives Ford Fellowship for Cancer Research

Carlos Mendez-Dorantes ’15 was one of 60 students nationwide to be awarded a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. 

Mendez-Dorantes

The $24,000 annual stipend will fund Mendez-Dorantes’ graduate education for the next three years at City of Hope, a clinical research center, hospital, and graduate medical school located in southern California, where he worked as in intern during Field Work Term when he was a student. Mendez-Dorantes is now pursuing his Ph.D. at the institution’s Graduate School of Biological Sciences, where he studies the formation of cancer-causing changes in DNA.

“As a Mexican immigrant and a first-generation college student from Southeast Los Angeles, I am humbled and excited for the opportunities this fellowship will provide during my graduate education at City of Hope and beyond,” Mendez-Dorantes said.

Mendez is the co-author of three papers that were published during his time as a student at Bennington, two of which came out of two separate Field Work Term positions. The third was completed as part of project in a Genetics course with his advisor, Bennington faculty Amie McClellan. "Beyond these publications and FWT experiences" he said, "I think it is due to my active science education at Bennington, and the dedicated mentorship of my advisor Dr. Amie McClellan and my professors, that allowed me to strongly compete for this fellowship."