Summary
Alexandria Firenzi is the Fellowships Coordinator (Graduate Assistant) in the Office of Undergraduate (and Graduate) Fellowships (OUF) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). In this role, she advises students pursuing nationally and internationally competitive fellowships, providing personalized guidance, writing support, and tailored programming to strengthen applications and advance their research endeavors. As a student who was not always academically focused and having navigated a non-traditional interdisciplinary path, Alexandria mentors with empathy and creativity, empowering applicants of all backgrounds to navigate their academic journeys and competitive fellowships holistically.
Throughout her early undergraduate career, during community college (Sierra College and Kalamazoo Valley Community College), Alexandria shifted disciplines giving her a unique perspective on an array of disciplines, in addition to her interdisciplinary research background, for advising. This journey began working in emergency and surgical veterinary care, eventually shifting to biological anthropology, earning her B.A. with Honors alongside a Certificate in Forensic Science (California State University, Chico, 2022). Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, focused on environmental baseline reconstruction and applications in archaeology and historical ecology using archaeological and modern reference shell collections from the Channel Islands. Alexandria's research is competitive and innovative blending anthropology, chemistry, marine biology, and the geosciences in a quantitative fashion, earning her a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention in 2024. Beyond her dissertation, Alexandria also brings qualitative research experience, to apply in her advising, from her work as director and co-editor on the NATAS Emmy-nominated documentary Beyond the Shell. As an interdisciplinary researcher with extensive lab and field as well as quantitative and qualitative research experience, Alexandria is well-equipped to support students in preparing competitive fellowship applications across a broad range of fields.
Outside of academics, Alexandria enjoys practicing yoga, training animals (from service dogs to her ball python and cats), sharing tea and picnics with friends, and spending time outdoors hiking, camping, snowboarding, and diving along California’s coast with her fiancé.
Education
- B.A. with Honors, Department of Anthropology, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, California State University, Chico, 2022
- Certificate in Forensic Identification, Department of Anthropology, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, California State University, Chico, 2022