Appels to Appels

Elena Castellanos is a 2021-2022 Henry Luce Scholar based in Seoul, South Korea. First becoming attuned to the intrinsic value of public spaces while working at her local library, Elena is invested in understanding how communities navigate public life in their neighborhoods. She graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2021 with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) and in Public Policy. Elena’s work as a researcher began as a 2017 Claremont McKenna College Appel fellow, conducting ethnographic research on multi-generational Latinx enclaves in the United States. Her research on space and equity led her to study the impacts of the 2008 recession on rural community development in Ottumwa, Iowa, and the uses of design as a tool for social exclusion during apartheid in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2019, Elena studied Urban Planning and Design at the University of California-Berkeley’s Design and Innovation for Sustainable Cities (DISC) summer program. She was a 2020 Carnegie Mellon University Public Policy and International Affairs fellow and studied Public Policy and Data Science there. Currently, Elena is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research fellow studying how feminist epistemology can serve as a tool for evaluating unjust spatial arrangements and aid urban planners in adopting participatory planning.

At Claremont McKenna, Elena led a group called College Knowledge that supports school-wide college-readiness programs at Chaffey High School. She also managed the Kravis Lab for Social Impact Fellowship, a human-centered product design fellowship for non-technical student social entrepreneurs. Elena is committed to a career at the intersection of community capacity building and inclusive urban planning, creating opportunities for neighborhoods to learn, collaborate, and design together. A Los Angeles native, she never misses the opportunity to watch a sunset at the beach, take an ocean view hike, and enjoy the city’s culturally rich food scene.

Maddy Menard was an Appel Fellow in the summer of 2019 and is very excited to be serving as an Appel Mentor for the 2021 cohort. Maddy is majoring in Government at CMC and is minoring in Italian at Scripps. Writing has had a huge influence on Maddy’s college experience, as she served as not only an Appel fellow but also a Harrison Fellow. Her 2019 Appel Project took her to the Tuscan region of Italy where she studied and composed photojournalism articles on the unique dynamics between local Italian politics and traditions of medieval sport. This project spurred her love for all things Italian and inspired her to minor in Italian. Her Harrison Fellowship (2020-2021) project titled, Principled Secularism or Politically Prejudiced? focused the constitutional basis of the French burqa ban and how factors such as politics, racism, and the Covid-19 pandemic influenced the longevity of the ban. Outside of her classes and writing, Maddy is a member of the CMS women’s water polo team and spends a lot of time in the pool. For the summer of 2021, Maddy will be interning at AIG with the intent of gaining professional experience and learning new things that she will use for the rest of her life. When she is not at school or work, she can be found in the ocean surfing or in the mountains skiing!