Branson announced the recipients of the Junior Fellowships from the Class of 2027 in Assembly on Monday, January 26, 2026. These fellowships are awarded annually to deserving Branson juniors through a competitive selection process.
This year, a committee of faculty and staff first evaluated the 66 applications (a record number of submissions!) though an anonymous process, from which 26 proposals were selected and invited to present to the committee in person. Following these presentations and intense deliberations within the committee, the final twelve fellowship recipients were chosen by the committee on the strength of their projects and presentations.
Congratulations to all of the winners! Read more about their projects below:
The Chase Fellowship
Blake Cussen & Farah Allen
Blake and Farah will channel their passion for athletics into a sports medicine education project designed to help youth athletes learn how to stay healthy, confident and strong. Through a variety of formats, including clinics, workshops and mini-lessons, they will use science-backed information to teach young athletes about injury prevention, nutrition, and wellness.
Noah Goldman
Noah’s project focuses on making improvements to the living conditions for the residents of the Hilarita affordable housing complex in Tiburon. This planned improvement project over the summer includes making benches at landings along difficult stairways, creating colorful accent walls, and building small planter boxes for the residents to use for gardening.
Shiloh Williams
Shiloh’s project is a “student-led” men’s mental health and support initiative that builds a real and structured support system at Branson.The goal is to create a strong and safe space where male students and athletes can express their struggles and successes, openly and honestly, without fear or judgment.
The Werner F. Chilton Fellowship
London Mullarkey
London will use this fellowship opportunity to expand her storytelling and public speaking educational program, which aims to give youth the tools to communicate ideas powerfully and with confidence in many different professional and personal settings. London plans to host a summer camp and develop curriculum to be implemented in middle school workshops as well.
Alegra Valente
Aly, in her pursuit of social justice, will use her fellowship to create a youth-centered storytelling and advocacy project that addresses the lives of children growing up in mixed-status families in the context of rising fear of family separation and deportation. She will develop a public and digital exhibit to be showcased at a community event.
The Barney Glaser Jr. Fellowship
Alyssa Huang
Alyssa’s project combines her love of STEM with her passion for reaching young people and sparking their joy of learning. During her own elementary and middle school education, Alyssa saw the need for more resources for eager math students like herself. So, for her Junior Fellowship, she has designed her own science and math curriculum and will be providing free STEM resources and instruction for elementary students as well as growing a student mentorship program and summer program.
Francesca Kunney
Francesca’s project stems from her own passion for politics which began in elementary school where she followed presidential, state, and local elections. Her project features a series of podcasts based on her interviews with Bay Area politicians relating to issues involving microeconomics and local policies. These podcasts are dedicated to presenting perspectives from both sides of the aisle and presenting young people with digestible opinions from all parts of the political spectrum.
The Reid Mangels Fellowship
Roya Becker
Roya aspires to create a small booklet or guide for teens living with type-one diabetes that discusses the intersection of diabetes with the life of a high schooler from a more emotional perspective. She wants to create a pillar of support that is "by teens for teens" that will be easily accessible and confidential (potentially in both print at local medical offices as well as online).
Gabe Halbrecht
Gabe’s project, Eyes on the Future, focuses on protecting vision and improving access to eye health care for underserved immigrant families in Marin. Through partnerships with various doctors, he is helping provide free UV-protection sunglasses and bilingual education on preventing not just pterygium but also other UV-related eye diseases.
Ryan Kafayi
Ryan’s project confronts the fast fashion industry’s significant environmental impact, including its role in driving carbon emissions, depleting water resources, and heavy pollution. He will work at a Berkeley-based lab studying textile deconstruction and fiber recovery, applying his environmental passion to a clearly defined project with a focused and achievable scope.
The Raabe Family Fellowship for the Arts
Christopher Poore
Chris’s junior fellowship will explore the intersection of youth engagement, wildfire resilience, and public land stewardship through a week-long field experience in Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Parks in early July 2026. The project will involve collaborating with and interviewing park rangers, observing ecosystem management practices, and examining how public education supports wildfire prevention. Through photos, notes, reports, and possibly a short documentary, Chris will document how young people can play an active role in national park conservation and climate resilience efforts.
Daaniya Zaidi
Daaniya’s junior fellowship project takes her love of music to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. This summer, she will host a series of workshops for children in the hospital in which she will first teach them how to play musical instruments with the help of Branson students, teachers, and UCSF therapists. She then plans to have additional workshops in which Branson musicians will perform, and alongside them the children will be able to sing and play their instruments. She hopes to bring joy to the children as they play music together, and their parents, while they stay in the hospital.
L to R: Shiloh Williams, Gabe Halbrecht, Farrah Allen, Roya Becker, Blake Cussen, Daaniya Zaidi, Francesca Kunney, Aly Valente, Chris Poore, London Mullarkey, Alyssa Huang, Ryan Kafayi, Noah Goldman