April 23, 2009
Goldwater, Udall and Beinecke scholarship winners announced
It’s the time of year when major scholarships are announced and student futures are planned. The Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards, part of the Center for Experiential Learning in Undergraduate Academic Affairs, has announced student winners of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater, Morris K. Udall and Beinecke scholarships.
The Goldwater Scholarship, established in 1986, honors longtime Arizona senator Barry Goldwater with a permanent trust fund endowment designed to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in math, the natural sciences and engineering. In a competitive year with fewer scholarships to award, the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation selected UW sophomore Pranoti Hiremath of Seattle as a Goldwater Scholar.
Hiremath is also a Space Grant Scholar and a Bioengineering Departmental Scholar. She conducts research with Mei Speer in the UW Bioengineering Giachelli lab and mentors fellow undergraduates in the Space Grant Program and the UW Honors Program. Junior Andrew Ishizuka, who is majoring in biochemistry, received honorable mention.
The Goldwater Foundation awarded 278 scholarships from a field of 1,035 mathematics students who were nominated by colleges and universities nationwide. Since 2001, 24 UW undergraduates have been named Goldwater Scholars and four earned honorable mention.
Two UW students have been announced as winners of Morris K. Udall Scholarships, which are awarded based on students’ commitment to careers in the environment, health care or tribal public policy as well as their leadership potential and academic achievement.
From a pool of 515 candidates nominated by 233 colleges and universities, senior Sarah Ellison and junior Cecilia Gobin were selected Udall Scholars and sophomore Geoffrey Morgan received honorable mention. Each scholarship provides up to $5,000 for one year; honorable mentions will receive a $350 award.
Ellison, of Colbert, Wash., is majoring in Environmental Studies and Political Science, and has learned about sustainability working in an ecovillage and organic farm in Aurovile, India, as well as on organic farms in England, Ireland, and Greece. Gobin, of Tulalip, Wash., a first-generation college student, is majoring in American Indian Studies.
The Foundation selected 80 students from 66 colleges and universities as Udall Scholars and 50 students as honorable mentions. Since 2001, 10 UW undergraduates have been named Udall Scholars and four earned honorable mention. Morgan, of Maple Valley, Wash., who received Honorable Mention, is majoring in Civil and Environmental Engineering and International Studies.
UW undergraduate Luke Caldwell, majoring in the Comparative History of Ideas, was selected for the Beinecke Scholarship, a major national scholarship that provides juniors with $34,000 for graduate studies in the arts, humanities, and social science fields. Beinecke Scholarships are awarded based on students’ intellectual ability, scholastic achievement, personal promise, and financial need. Applicants are expected to have well-formulated ideas about the direction of their studies and their future careers.
The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the Board of Directors of The Sperry and Hutchinson Company to honor Edwin, Frederick, and Walter Beinecke. The Board created an endowment to provide substantial scholarships for the graduate education of young men and women of exceptional promise. Since 1975 the program has selected more than 430 college juniors from 100 different undergraduate institutions for support during graduate study at any accredited university.
A selected group of universities participates in this competition and each nominates one student per year. Caldwell is one of 21 students from a pool of 107 nominees.
The Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards helps UW undergraduates develop the tools and personal insights necessary to match their goals with local and national merit-based scholarship opportunities. National scholarship opportunities include the Fulbright, Goldwater, Marshall, Rhodes, Truman scholarships and many others. The office is part of the Center for Experiential Learning in Undergraduate Academic Affairs.
