Himadhari Sharma has earned UC Santa Barbara Graduate Student Association (GSA) Excellence in Teaching Award. She was one of thirteen 2020-2021 winners selected from a pool of two hundred nominations. Daniel Ulises Rios Arroyo was given an honorable mention for the same award, one of only four students to receive such an acknowledgement from the GSA.
Sharma is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology with an emphasis in counseling psychology. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and her master’s degree at NYU. She has worked internationally with organizations in India. Her research interests include multicultural psychology, access and utilization for mental health services among minority populations (especially South Asian communities), cross-cultural/international psychology, culturally salient and indigenous treatment/therapy methods as well as bi-lingual treatment services (Hindi-English).
Rios Arroyo is a doctoral student in the Department of Education. He earned his bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 2019. He is interested in how English Learners (EL students) perceive and interact with their educational environments, how teachers form relationships with EL students, and how schools can better support the development of EL students and prepare them for higher education.