University of Oregon Consumer Protection Research Grant

Grants Disbursed During the 2023-2024 Cycle

The Committee awarded $265,936.00 in grants to twelve projects, led by both faculty and graduate students.

Faculty Awards

1. The Perils of Crypto for Consumers in the Age of the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Jessica Gamlin, Assistant Professor, Lundquist College of Business

Chi Tran, Ph.D., Candidate, Lundquist College of Business

Grant funding: $34,750

Abstract:

The past few years have witnessed rapid developments of cryptocurrency, a new form of digital currency that could potentially be used anywhere in the world thanks to its ability to verify and record transactions using a decentralized system instead of a centralized institution. While the first crypto was only recently introduced to a highly niche market of users in 2009, the rise in popularity of the complex blockchain-backed crypto is remarkable. In 2016, there were only 5 million crypto users world-wide; by 2022, 400 million people are active users of crypto.

Little research has been dedicated to understanding how crypto consumers navigate their financial decisions. While legislators slowly build more structures and regulations around crypto, many businesses already exploit the vulnerabilities of the market environment to take advantage of even more educated consumers, who would not otherwise make risky financial decisions.  It is, therefore, critical to understand (1) who the (most vulnerable) crypto consumers are; (2) what kinds of consumers are the most vulnerable to risky crypto decisions; (3) what factors in the environment could cause the most harm to these users; (4) how (crypto) consumers make financial decisions in the larger digital context of the metaverse and advanced AI; and (5) critically, what types of interventions help minimize the harmful aspects of crypto markets.

This research aims to build a grounded understanding of crypto consumers while leveraging extant knowledge and theories in consumer psychology in relevant domains such as self-control, identity, motivation, risk, and financial decision-making.

Research team:

Professor Gamlin received her Ph.D., in Marketing from Northwestern University. Her research centers on consumer behavior through the lens of the goals people adopt, how they stay motivated during the pursuit, and the products and brands they deem instrumental along the way. She is the recipient for the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award 2021-2022. Gamlin is the co-author of her most recent publication, Dispositional Optimism Weakly Predicts Upward, Rather Than Downward, Counterfactual Thinking: A Prospective Correlational Study Using Episodic Recall.

Chi Tran is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s Marketing department. She is primarily interested in the strategic marketing implications of shifting cultural, technological, and social forces. In the context of diffusion of social movements and diversity related causes, one of my research streams investigates how consumers respond to portrayals of diverse identities in cultural products (e.g., films) using objective financial performances. Her other research stream examines how consumers strive to protect their identity and privacy in the fast changing, analytics- and AI-driven technological marketplace.    

2. Measuring the Effectiveness of Mortgage Servicing Standards: Evidence from Senate Bill 98 of the 2017 Oregon Legislature 

Keaton Miller, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics

Edder Martínez Lazo, Ph.D., Candidate, Department of Economics

Grant funding: $26,876

Abstract:

Consumers who seek to finance the purchase of a home through a mortgage must navigate a complicated marketplace with a wide variety of actors who generally have access to more information about the market than any individual consumer has. From realtors and loan originators to loan servicers, consumers must rely on the actions of these third parties. Despite the major post-crisis developments in favor of market discipline, enhanced disclosure, and consumer protection, substantial issues remained.

In hopes of addressing some of these issues, in 2017 Oregon adopted the Mortgage Loan Servicer Practices Act (SB 98) which set standards for mortgage loan servicers. We propose to study the effect of loan servicing standards as implemented by SB98 on the mortgage market in Oregon. Specifically, we will examine the effect of the policy on mortgage-related complaints, mortgage delinquencies, interest rates at origination, and homelessness, by implementing a difference-indifference regression design leveraging the staggered adoption of servicing standards across states. To this end we will use publicly-available datasets on consumer finance complaints, housing surveys, mortgage origination and performance representative samples, and annual homeless assessment reports, all at the county level or metropolitan area, and whenever possible, by age group, race, and ethnicity.

Research team:

Professor Miller received his Ph.D., in Economics from the University of Minnesota.  He is an industrial organization economist who studies interactions among firms, consumers, and the government to understand and improve others’ lived experiences.  His research focuses on delivering sophisticated answers to critical policy questions across multiple micro-economic domains, including health care, recreational substances, state court systems, and anti-trust regulation by using and extending the most sophisticated tools of the industrial organization kit.  Miller is the co-author of his most recent publication, What do High Medicare Advantage Payments Buy?

Edder Lazo is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s Economic department. He received his master’s degree in Economics and Development at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras.  He is the recipient of multiple grants and awards which recently includes the Graduate School Promising Scholarship and Graduate Employee Award, in 2020.

3. Protecting Consumers' Financial Contributions to Rewards-Based Crowdfunding Campaigns

Alex Murray, Assistant Professor of Management, Lundquist College of Business

Susan Cohen, Assistant Professor of Management, University of Georgia Terry College of Business, Farhan Iqbal, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Georgia Terry College of Business

Grant funding: $21,021

Abstract:

Rewards-based crowdfunding has become a popular tool for aspiring entrepreneurs, young ventures, and established companies seeking alternatives to professional investors such as venture capitalists and institutional investors to fund their ideas and projects. The global crowdfunding market was valued at over $13 billion in 2021 and is expected to double by 2028.

Examples abound of companies that mobilized substantial amounts of financial capital from consumers via crowdfunding campaigns, but then failed in their subsequent efforts to manufacture and deliver their products to consumers who contributed their hard-earned money.

The repercussions of failed crowdfunding campaigns have also been felt by local Oregonians. In 2014, 62,642 individuals contributed over $13 million to the Portland-based company, Coolest Cooler. As of February 2023, The Oregonian reported that 20,762 individuals did not receive the product to which they contributed over $200 each.  The dispute gave rise to a settlement with the Oregon Department of Justice, in which affected consumer received $20 in compensation for the laws, a fraction of the amount they contributed to the project.

These examples highlight the lack of protections, and ensuing risks, for consumers contributing to presale campaigns on rewards-based crowdfunding platforms. This proposal aims to address the ways in which companies and entrepreneurs can communicate effectively with consumers in the aftermath of their crowdfunding campaigns, during their efforts to manufacture and develop a promised product offering. Specifically, it aims to address how companies can communicate in the face of internal operational issues. While operational issues often occur when companies research and develop new products, it is important for companies to also have protocols and guidelines in place detailing how to communicate with consumers to ensure these external stakeholders are understanding of their efforts. This research aims to help companies develop such protocols to protect consumers.

Researcher:

Dr. Murray received his Ph.D., in Management & Organization from the University of Washington. His research focuses on developing theoretical frameworks to explain how entrepreneurs mobilize resources from distributed resource providers and how distributed resource providers use novel technologies to coordinate resource allocation. Teaching interests include entrepreneurship, technology innovation, and strategy, and often draws on qualitative fieldwork to write teaching cases for my courses.  Murray is the co-author of his most recent publication, When more is less: Explaining the curse of too much capital for early-stage ventures.   

4. Digital Sanctuary: Harnessing Consumer Data Privacy Law to Reinforce Oregon’s Sanctuary Status

Bryce Newell, Assistant Professor of Media Law and Policy, School of Journalism and Communication

Grant funding: $21,463

Abstract:

This project seeks to investigate the connections between sanctuary laws in Oregon—those that limit state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts—and the development and application of consumer data privacy legislation, including specific legislation proposed in the Oregon legislature in 2023 (as S.B. 619) after a year-long development process overseen by a Data Privacy Task Force established by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.

Specifically, this project is designed to investigate 1) what impact this proposed data privacy law might have on undocumented consumers resident in Oregon, a descriptive aim, accomplished through legal research and analysis; and 2) what could be done to develop stronger sanctuary protections into state (data privacy) law, a normative perspective driven by the concern that current state law and proposed data privacy legislation do not adequately provide sufficient “digital sanctuary” for undocumented consumers living in Oregon.

In this project, I seek to produce research-based outputs that can inform future proposals for improving and updating comprehensive data privacy legislation in Oregon as well as existing privacy laws. It will result in the publication of multiple academic papers and a public report that will include policy recommendations and model statutory language designed to inform the development of comprehensive data privacy legislation here in Oregon.

Researcher:

Dr. Newell received his Ph.D., in Information Science from the University of Washington and his J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law. He is trained as an information scientist and academic lawyer, with a research agenda focused at the intersections of surveillance, privacy, policing, immigration, technology, information ethics and politics, and the law. He has published in both law reviews and social science journals, and is the author of his most recent publication, Police Visibility: Privacy, Surveille, and the False Promise of Body-Worn Cameras.

5. Private Equity and Financial Adviser Misconduct

Youchang Wu, Associate Professor of Finance, Lundquist College of Business

Grant funding: $11,537

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of private equity ownership in investment

advisory firms on the misconduct of financial advisers. Financial adviser misconduct directly affects the community of consumers relying on financial advisory services. Many consumers of financial advisory services are financially unsophisticated, which makes them potential victims of the misconduct by the financial advisers they hire.

Our project is highly relevant for Oregonians. According to the 2022 Industry Snapshot from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory organization the regulates broker-dealers and exchange markets, there were 181,120 FINRA-registered individuals working as a broker and/or investment adviser in Oregon in 2021.

We examine how private equity ownership affects financial adviser misconduct by analyzing the records of individual advisers around private equity-backed buyouts of investment advisory firms.  In addition to raising public awareness of the issues of financial adviser misconduct around the ownership structure change of advisor firms, our study contributes to two fast-growing strands of literature in finance, one on the conflicts of interest in financial advisory services, the other on the effects of private equity ownership on firm operations.

Researcher:

Dr. Wu received his Ph.D., in Finance from the University of Vienna. His areas of expertise include delegated portfolio management, institutional investors, financial advice, corporate finance, and production networks. His research has been published in leading journals including Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Finance, Management Science, and Journal of Corporate Finance. He has also coauthored a popular textbook on money and banking in Chinese with Dr. Gang Yi.

6. Maximizing Consumers’ Understanding of Privacy Laws and Privacy Options

Hong Yuan, Professor of Marketing, Lundquist College of Business

Chi Tran, Ph.D. Candidate, Lundquist College of Business

Brandon Reich, Assistant Professor of Marketing, School of Business, Portland State University

Grant funding: $28,100

Abstract:

The past few decades have witnessed massive expansion of technology infrastructure and digital devices. As technological advancement continues to upend many existing social and business norms, it fundamentally changes how consumers perceive and protect their digital identities Increasingly, consumers are susceptible to online environments that solicits and subsequently exploits their personal information for profit.

Efforts by consumers to protect their personal information online are often met with great challenges. Our ongoing work in consumer privacy shows that when privacy violations occur, consumers perceive a loss of control. As a result, consumers attempt to reclaim control by taking some kind of action against the company that violated their privacy.

In this research, we focus on understanding consumers’ perceptions and reactions to privacy laws

and situations that may impair their ability to practice their privacy control. Our proposed empirical plan will use a multi-method approach. Applying advanced text analyses and machine learning techniques, we study how consumers discuss privacy laws and privacy contexts in their daily lives both online (e.g., social media) and offline. We plan to use these findings to inform and supplement our proposed experiments, in which we will construct and test different theories of consumer privacy behaviors.

Second, we plan to study consumer understanding of privacy laws and their awareness of their

privacy options in different contexts. We will then study the consequences of communicating these laws and options on consumer behavior and well-being. Finally, we plan to compare several alternative approaches to increase awareness and maximize impacts of privacy laws and options. This will be done by first interviewing consumers directly and studying their discussion of privacy laws and options on public platforms to form hypotheses. We will then run experiments to test these hypotheses on consumer outcomes.

Research team:

Professor Yuan received a Ph.D., in Marketing from the University of Michigan. Yuan's expertise includes retailing, pricing, promotion, services marketing, and sustainability. Since joining the Lundquist College, her research has been funded by organizations such as the National Bureau of Economics Research, Marketing Science Institute, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.  Hong is the co-author of her most recent publication, Too Tired for a Good Deal: How Customer Fatigue Shapes the Performance of Pay-What-You-Want Pricing.

Chi Tran is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s Marketing department. She is primarily interested in the strategic marketing implications of shifting cultural, technological, and social forces. In the context of diffusion of social movements and diversity related causes, one of my research streams investigates how consumers respond to portrayals of diverse identities in cultural products (e.g., films) using objective financial performances. Her other research stream examines how consumers strive to protect their identity and privacy in the fast changing, analytics- and AI-driven technological marketplace.    

Graduate Student Awards

7. The Commission Rate of App Distribution Platforms and its Impact on Consumers

Boyoon Chang, Ph.D., Candidate, Department of Economics

Grant funding: $36,324

Abstract:

The commission rate charged by app distribution platforms has been a topic of much discussion in recent years. For many years, this commission rate has been set at 30%, which has been a point of contention for both app developers and consumers. This research proposal aims to analyze the effects of changing this commission rate on both app developers and consumers, as well as analyze how increased competition in mobile in-app payment systems affects consumers and app developers through lowered commission rate.

Our estimates imply that opening in-app billing systems may lead generate an average of $5.40 in payments to developers per Oregon consumer per year that previously would have gone to platform owners (or $21 million total per year). However, the point estimates found in our working paper (The Short-run Effects of Opening Mobile Payment System) are imprecise due to data limitations both in terms of the number of apps studied and the length of data we were able to capture. Thus, we propose to conduct further research with the grant to address these limitations.

Using this data, we implement a difference-in-differences analysis to compare a large set of apps to measure the average effect of commission rate drop. We will observe the effect of opening the in-app billing system market, which indirectly leads to commission rate drop. We will compare app performance in South Korea to app performance in other countries where the in-app billing system market is not yet open. In addition, we plan to analyze a subset of apps from the data we gather that are more likely to create significant changes for users and developers.

Researcher:

Boyoon Chang is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences. She specializes in empirical industrial organization, microeconometrics, and microeconomics. Some of her work revolves around exploring platform economies and analyzing the effects of competition policy. Chang is the recipient of the Kleinsorge Summer Fellowship and Graduate Employee Fellowship.

8. Assessing the Impact of Forbearance on Oregon Consumers and Communities

Christine Downs, Ph.D. Candidate, Lundquist College of Business

Grant funding: $25,000

Abstract:

This research project aims to examine the impact of federal forbearance policy on Oregon homeowners and to investigate potentially asymmetric outcomes for low-income and minority homeowners. Using a unique data set that spans over twenty years and econometric difference-in-differences regression techniques, we analyze two economic shocks periods to discern the immediate and lasting impact of this federal policy for Oregon households and communities. The results of this project will be informative for the assessment of cost-effective consumer protection policies to close the racial wealth gap by improving homeownership retention for minorities and low-income households.

Much of the academic work on homeownership was focused on asset attainment strategies, and validation of various aspects of the minority wealth gap.  The path to financial wealth and opportunity equality seemed fairly clear.  Then, starting in 2008, the Great Recession happened.  Many suspected the political policies designed to make homeownership affordable for traditionally disadvantaged households resulted in predatory mortgage practices that paradoxically harmed the very populations the original policies intended to support.

This quantitative research will use a unique, primary source data set created by combining proprietary real estate data, open-source census data, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data.  The data encompass over 140 million properties in the United States of America.  Using a natural experiment, we will investigate the impact of forbearance policy by analyzing two economic shocks: the Great Recession without forbearance and the COVID-19 pandemic with forbearance.  We will analyze the impact of this federal policy on home retention and residential real estate price stability in Oregon, with a specific focus on asymmetric outcomes for low-income and minority homeowners.

Researcher:

Christine Downs is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s Finance department. Her research interests include Methodology (optimization, marginal utility, applied econometrics, boundary theory, various interest rate theories, rational decision making, and behavioral finance) and Topics (renewable energy use, corporate governance, monetary policy, interest rates, consumer lending practices, national and corporate debt structures, corporate retention incentives, market liquidity, tax code incentives, and household saving behavior). Downs served as a professional military officer with over 17 years of progressively complex experience across a wide range of planning, resourcing, and education functions.

9. Picking in the dark: harvesting debt and illness. Examining Access to Health Relevant Information and Services Among Oregon Farmworkers under the H2A program

Lidia Esther Munoz Paniagua, Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology Department

Grant funding: $19,545

Abstract:

Oregon Health Authority (OHA) estimates that approximately 174,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers, as well as their family members, support Oregon’s agricultural industry. It is widely recognized that farmworkers endure a disproportionate disadvantage in terms of access to healthcare. OHA state that “migrant and seasonal farmworkers experience higher rates of specific health problems such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer than most other Oregonians.”

Within this already marginalized population there is a growing number of people, Oregon seasonal farmworkers under an H2A visa contract, whose access to health faces further limitations due to the invisibility and lack of attention to the social circumstances that surround them. In this project, I will explore how lack of information and knowledge about the health system, care options, and health insurance have made H2A workers particularly vulnerable as healthcare customers.

This project addresses unequal access to healthcare and the deleterious effects of inequities at a community level. The goal is to identify the primary obstacles to accessing health care form the perspective of H2 A workers and the ways that recruiters, employers, outreach workers, and healthcare providers can facilitate that access.

Researcher:

Lidia Esther Munoz Paniagua is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s Anthropology department. Lidia’s research interests are migrant farmworkers, H2-Visa program, immigrant health, and temporary migrant workers. She presented at the “COVID-19 Impact among Mexican H-2 workers” Society for Applied Anthropology, in South Lake City, 2022.

10. Visualizing Privacy Protections: Informing Consumers of their Legal Coverage

Hugh Paterson III, M.A. Candidate, Department of Nonprofit Management

Grant funding: $14,820

Abstract:

Privacy rights are an important component of consumer protection law. Five US states have passed privacy laws since 2018. Oregon’s proposed privacy law is currently introduced as Oregon Senate Bill 619. Oregon SB 619 is legislation brought at the request of the Oregon Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, who laid out her own vision for a privacy law in Oregon.  It is widely understood that privacy rights are necessary in creating equitable relationships between consumers and service providers or product manufacturers—especially in digital environments.

My project seeks to make Oregonian consumers aware of rights under the (currently proposed) law in a clear and comprehensible way, situating these rights in context to other state laws. I want to take previously developed categories for describing consumer protections via privacy laws and display those via geographical overlays in a consumer/citizen oriented website.

I served as a research associate on Professor Bryce Newell’s 2021/2022 funded Consumer Protection Research project: Towards a Comprehensive Data Privacy Law for Oregonians. In the project we investigated how draft legislation in Oregon compared with protections provided via state laws in other states, as well as model legislation proposed by privacy advocate groups. We then compared these laws with the well-known EU privacy law, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). As a result of this work, it became clear that there are different motivations inspiring advocacy around consumer privacy laws. It also became clear that the term ‘Privacy’ is used differently to refer to various relationships in a complex business economy.

The solution proposed here is to take the same categories which were derived via a bottom-up approach to statutory analysis (in previous work) and present them via an interactive website where consumers can compare coverages across jurisdictions. This helps consumers understand what “privacy” means or which “consumer protections” actually exist in their jurisdiction. Such a communication piece is important to informing Oregonians as the Attorney General’s office continues to press for legislation related to protecting Oregonians’ privacy in certain contexts.

Researcher:

Hugh is a graduate student in the University of Oregon’s Masters of Nonprofit Management at the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management, College of Design. Hugh refers to himself as a high-level thinker, focusing on strategy and implementation. He has experience in business planning, work-flow development, product design, services design, project management, business analytics, and the planning of organizational structures. Patterson is the LEADING Fellow through the LIS Education and Data Science Integrated Network Group, April 2023.

11. To whom does the Second Amendment apply: Experimental evidence of law enforcement's impact on equitable access to firearms

Tami Ren, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Philosophy

Garrett Stanford, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Economics

Grant funding: $18,500

Abstract:

Recent trends in firearm-related tragedies have motivated the federal government and several states to pass stricter firearm laws. Oregon’s narrow passage of Measure 114 in November reflects the successful efforts of gun-control advocates and the divisiveness of conversations around gun ownership. Oregon’s new law requires that citizens acquire a permit from local law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to purchase a firearm legally. Proponents argue that this type of law is critical to address the gun-death crisis. However, in addition to the common refrain that the law infringes on a constitutionally protected right of ownership, critics question the unintended distributional consequences of a LEA’s involvement in directly managing firearm ownership.

Motivated by the language of Measure 114, our project will document whether there are disparities in how LEAs respond to requests for information about gun purchases and permits from different demographic groups.  Our study examines whether LEAs exhibit bias in communicating with citizens wanting to purchase firearms legally. The primary objective of our study is to leverage an experimental design to rigorously analyze the equity impact of gun control laws that place law enforcement at the center of managing and distributing firearms. 

The results of this study have significant implications for policymakers, LEAs, and citizens at large. Understanding the distributional ramifications of gun control laws, like Measure 114, will provide essential insight to policymakers in designing laws that address gun safety while avoiding unintended unjust outcomes. The results will communicate to LEAs their success or failure to equitably regulate gun ownership, motivating improvement in their ability to serve communities. Finally, our study will inform citizens voting on inevitable future gun control laws.  

Research team:

Tami Ren is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences. She has a professional background in the energy industry, and research interests include education, labor, and behavioral economics. She uses experimental methods motivated by theory to conduct her research. Current research work in progress includes Online grading and biased assessments: experimental evidence on the relationship between effort and discrimination (Job Market Paper).

Garrett Stanford is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences. Garrett is an applied microeconomist who loves running experiments. His research is motivated by social justice, particularly issues concerning the environment and policing. Garrett is also interested in projects concerning houselessness, gun control, and the intersection of machine learning and racial equity.

Garrett Stanford is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences. Garrett is an applied microeconomist who loves running experiments. His research is motivated by social justice, particularly issues concerning the environment and policing. Garrett is also interested in projects concerning houselessness, gun control, and the intersection of machine learning and racial equity.

12. An Examination of the Impact of Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act (UTPA) On Consumers in the Digital Age

Addison Sandoval, Ph.D. Candidate, Lundquist College of Business

Grant funding: $8,000

Abstract:

Every state in the country has Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices (UDAP) laws which are intended to prevent malicious actors from engaging in unfair or deceptive practices that could potentially harm consumers. Under Oregon's own Unlawful Trade Practices Act (UTPA), false advertising, deception, and other forms of unfair practices in trade are prohibited. The act covers various activities, including the sale and distribution of goods, services, and real estate. The UTPA also provides Oregon consumers with the right to sue for damages resulting from unlawful trade practices.  However, despite the existence of laws to protect Oregon consumers in the 21st century digital economy, malicious actors have found new and innovative ways to evade these regulations.

There are growing concerns that legal maneuvers are being used to circumvent UTPA, as well as to contravene public policy in Oregon. These and other issues raise important questions about the effectiveness of the current legal framework in protecting Oregon consumers, and highlight the need for continued efforts to strengthen consumer protections and to ensure that malicious actors are held accountable for their actions.

Firstly, we will conduct legal research on UTPA legislative history and recent case law. Secondly, we interview victims of fraud to gain a better understanding of their experiences. Thirdly, we will hold an interview with a representative from the consumer protection division of the Oregon Attorney General's office. Additionally, we will analyze internet consumer complaints from Oregonians that were filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Lastly, we will gather feedback from Oregon consumer protection advocates to hear their thoughts and opinions on the research.

Researcher:

Addison Sandoval is a doctoral candidate in the University of Oregon’s Business School, and School of Law. In 2016-2018, he was a Story Analyst for Paramount Pictures utilizing strong editorial judgment to provide creative input at production meetings, while reviewing script submissions. Sandoval was the recipient of the Lundquist Merit Scholarship, April 2023, and the Oregon Law Merit Scholarship, March 2023.