First Zarri Scholar to pursue doctorate at UCSD

Philosophy M.A. student Jacob Zellmer and first recipient of SF State's new Jason Louis Zarri Memorial Scholarship, has been admitted with generous funding to the Philosophy PhD program at the University of California, San Diego. UCSD is one of the world's leading programs for the study of modern European philosophy, Zellmer's area of specialization. 

Jacob Zellmer received his undergraduate degree at Azusa Pacific University, where he majored in Biblical studies and minored in philosophy. While an undergraduate he studied abroad at Oxford University and spent a semester reading philosophy near Yosemite at Azusa Pacific's High Sierra semester. At San Francisco State he studied philosophy of religion, ancient philosophy, and the leading philosophers of the early modern period. His thesis, "Can Philosophy Destroy Faith? Spinoza on the Relation between Philosophy and Theology" is about how communities can grow more philosophically-minded while retaining particular theological beliefs. At UCSD he expects to continue to pursue his interests in these areas, studying under Samuel Rickless, Donald Rutherford, and Eric Watkins, among others.