UND National Scholarships

Please follow the link in our bio to read the May issue of UND NSPA’s monthly Communique! There are two student spotlights, student updates, along with an interview with Nathan Foster, a 2021 Boren Scholar. Goodluck on finals students!

NSPA is honored to announce that Elisabeth Kolb is a Finalist (Selected) for the 2022-2023 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant in Bavaria, Germany! Her grant will cover the period of September 19, 2022- June 30, 2023. The U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Program is one of the most prestigious international exchange programs. Alumni have become heads of state, CEOs, and judges. Elisabeth has been offered a fully funded immersive learning experience to help German classroom teachers teach English.

Elisabeth’s selection reflects her demonstration of leadership and contribution to her community. Elisabeth is the President of the German Cooking Club. She is the President of the UND Triathlon Club. She has many years of experience tutoring campus students in Chemistry and Biology and working in Dr. Diane Darland’s lab. Elisabeth also volunteered in Spring 2021 to tutor Grand Forks middle and high school students struggling with their virtual classes.

We want to thank the UND Fulbright Committee (Dr. Thyra Knapp, Dr. Amanda Boyd, and Dr. Melissa Gjellstad), Elisabeth’s recommenders (Dr. Amanda Boyd, Dr. Diane Darland, and Brandon Pokarney), and writing consultant Carissa Green for their assistance on Elisabeth’s application.

Congratulations, Elisabeth!

NSPA would like to congratulate Taylor Roehl on being selected as one of 75 participants for the 2022-2023 year of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals. This year, CBYX had many promising candidates from 47 out of 50 U.S. States as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Candidates had diverse backgrounds with career fields ranging from automotive engineering to costume design to conservation policy. 

Taylor is majoring in forensic science and German with minors in Chemistry, Biology, and Pre-Medicine.  She is also in the Honors Program with aspirations of becoming a medical doctor.  She is the Vice-President of the UND German Cooking Club, Vice-President of the Undergraduate Medical Association, Vice-President of Service for the Mortar Board, is a German tutor at UND, volunteers at the Northland Rescue Mission, and does so much more for UND and the broader community. 

The CBYX Young Professional scholarship will allow Taylor to take courses at a German University, participate in a 9 month field placement, and live with a host family.  Taylor was selected for her potential to serve as a citizen ambassador while in Germany and fulfill the public diplomacy mission of the CBYX program. 
 
A special thank you to Dr. Amanda Boyd and Dr. Thyra Knapp for helping Taylor prepare for the interview.

Congratulations, Taylor!

NSPA is overjoyed to announce that Sabrina Sullivan, a sophomore majoring in petroleum engineering, is a 2022 Goldwater Scholar!  Sabrina joins the ranks of the brightest undergraduate researchers in the nation.  417 new scholarships are being awarded for the 2022 competition. 433 institutions nominated students. UND’s last Goldwater recipient was in 2013.

The Goldwater scholarship, which was created in 1986 in honor of the late Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, is considered one of the most prestigious scholarships available to undergraduate students studying natural science, engineering, or mathematics

Sabrina has 14 years of experience working in the oil and gas field and 4 years working in the Air Force before she transferred to UND to pursue her online undergraduate degree. She continues to work full-time, while taking a full-time course load. Sabrina, therefore, is fully immersed in conducting research and leading a team of researchers. During this time, her most recent and proudest achievement is helping to develop an innovative lift to more efficiently and ecologically extract oil. This lift is currently under review with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
 
Thank you to the UND Goldwater Committee that reviewed Sabrina’s application and provided feedback:  Dr. Ryan Zerr, Dr. Rebecca Simmons, and Dr. Wayne Barkhouse.  Thank you to her letter writers: Tom Robinson, Operations Superintendent at DJR Operating, David Brown, Manager of Regulatory, Government, and Public Affairs at DJR Operating, and Jerry Austin, Vice-President of Production Operations, DJR Operating. We would like to send a special acknowledgement of appreciation to Dr. Gisele Muller-Parker, Goldwater-Moore DEI Consultant, who provided indispensable guidance on the advising and recruitment process.  

Congratulations, Sabrina!

NSPA is excited to announce that Sydney Menne, a junior double majoring in Physics and Mathematics, is a 2022 Goldwater Scholar! Sydney joins the ranks of the brightest undergraduate researchers in the nation.

The Goldwater scholarship, which was created in 1986 in honor of the late Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, is considered one of the most prestigious scholarships available to undergraduate students studying natural science, engineering, or mathematics. Goldwater Scholars have impressive academic and research credentials that have garnered the attention of prestigious post-graduate fellowship programs. Goldwater Scholars have been awarded 94 Rhodes Scholarships, 150 Marshall Scholarships, 170 Churchill Scholarships, 109 Hertz Fellowships, and numerous other distinguished awards like the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.
 
Sydney is the epitome of a successful college student. She arrived at the University of North Dakota with the capacity to understand advanced content. She already successfully secured many prestigious local (Pearl Young) and international (DAAD-Rise/Brooke Owens) scholarships providing her the opportunity to challenge herself and develop research skills to contribute meaningfully to her field.
 
Thank you to the UND Goldwater Committee that reviewed Sydney’s application and provided feedback:  Dr. Wayne Barkhouse, Dr. Ryan Zerr, and Dr. Rebecca Simmons.  Thank you to her letter writers: Dr. Kanishka Marasinghe, Dr. Yen Lee Loh, and Dr. Tim Young.  Additional thanks to Sydney’s network of mentors through ND Space Grant Consortium, McNair, NSF-funded US MASTER program, Honors Program, and professors in the physics/astrophysics and mathematics departments. We would like to send a special acknowledgment of appreciation to Dr. Gisele Muller-Parker, Goldwater-Moore DEI Consultant, who provided invaluable guidance on the advising and recruitment process.   

NSPA would like to extend our utmost congratulations to Shealynn Wells! Shealynn - a Cobell Scholar, a United Health Foundation Tribal Scholar, and a McNair Scholar - was accepted into the UCLA Nursing PhD program to begin her graduate studies Fall 2022.

Shealynn is completing her bachelor’s degree in Nursing with a minor in Anthropology.  She will receive the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship from UCLA. This fellowship is considered one of UCLA's most prestigious awards for entering doctoral students interested in a career in college or university teaching and research. Individuals from cultural, racial, linguistic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds who are currently underrepresented in graduate education are especially encouraged to participate in the program. The intent of this fellowship is to provide access to higher education for students who might otherwise find it difficult or impossible to successfully pursue graduate study.

Shealynn will receive a minimum of four years of funding from the Graduate Division and her home department: up to $25,000/year for two years from the graduate division and the same stipend amount from her department for another two years.  She will also receive a non-resident supplemental tuition. 

A much deserved thank you goes to Shealynn’s network of mentors:
McNair, Kelly Kennedy 
RAIN- Barb Anderson, Elle Hoselton
UND Pathology Department- Dr. Aaron Mehus and Dr. Seema Somji 
UND Nursing-Kimberly Williams 

Congrats, Shealynn!

Please follow the link below to read UND NSPA’s March communique. This month’s issue includes a student spotlight on .house and numerous official scholarship deadlines!

https://www.smore.com/sygr0

Congratulations to Madelyn House who is named a finalist in the Harry S. Truman Scholarship competition!

Madelyn is a junior majoring in political science and public affairs with interests in advocacy and education. She is a UND delegate on the North Dakota Students Association and serves as an associate justice on the UND Student Government Judiciary Committee. She works as a career mentor in the UND Career Services. Madelyn has received the Philanthropic Educational Organization STAR Scholarship and the Greg and Cindy Page Business Scholarship. Madelyn has plans to apply to law school.

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academic excellence, and a commitment to public service.

Congratulations, Madelyn!

NSPA would like to congratulate Payton Cole on advancing in the Fulbright competition as a semi-finalist! She is competing to serve as an English Teaching Assistant in the Czech Republic. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides grants for individually designed study/research projects or for English Teaching Assistant Programs. The program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think.

Payton received her Bachelors of Art from UND and will graduate this May with her Masters of Fine Art. She has worked with UND Art Collections as well as for the North Dakota Museum of Art. She is currently teaching students with for an art outreach program. In her free time she enjoys hiking, paddleboarding, and traveling! Payton even went to India for her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training!

Congratulations, Payton!

Follow the link in our bio to read NSPA’s February monthly communique issue!

https://www.smore.com/mzwns

NSPA would like everyone to join us in congratulating Sydney Menne on being named a 2022 Brooke Owens Fellow! This is a very prestigious honor 🎊 This year the Brooke Owens Fellowship (BOF) received the largest pool of applicants with over 1,000 submissions from around the world, coming from Ivy League universities, major research universities, historically black colleges and universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and major international universities. Fifty-one students were selected after multiple interviews. The Fellows were selected based on their commitment to their communities, stand-out creative abilities, record of leadership, incredible talent, and their desire to pursue a career in aerospace. Sydney is the first “Brookie” from a university in North Dakota. Through BOF, Sydney will join the propulsion engineering team for the LauncherOne rocket with Virgin Orbit in Long Beach, CA this summer.

Sydney Menne is a junior double-majoring in Physics and Mathematics. She grew up around planes in Minneapolis, Minnesota and got her pilot’s license before coming to UND. On campus, she does research in physics and enjoys promoting STEM as a NASA STEM Ambassador. In her free time, Sydney enjoys hiking, traveling, and being involved in student organizations including the Advanced Rocketry Club, the Big Event, the Honors Program Student Organization, and the Nordic ski club.

Thank you to her network of supporters through ND Space Grant Consortium, McNair, NSF-funded US MASTER program, Honors Program, professors in the physics/astrophysics and mathematics departments, and especially her mentor Dr. Tim Young.

Here is the link to Brooke Owens Press Release that describes the next steps for Sydney: https://www.brookeowensfellowship.org/blog/posts/2022-press-release

Here is the link to a UND Today article that came out last week about Sydney’s accomplishment: http://blogs.und.edu/und-today/2022/01/und-junior-wins-prestigious-national-fellowship/


Thank you, Sydney, for making UND and North Dakota proud, and congratulations!

NSPA is excited to announce that Gabriel Randall has advanced in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) for Young Professionals competition as a semi-finalist! The CBYX for Young Professionals is a fellowship funded by the German Bundestag and U.S. Department of State, that annually provides 75 American and 75 German young professionals, between the ages of 18½–24, the opportunity to spend one year in each other’s countries, studying, interning, and living with hosts on a cultural immersion program.

Gabriel Randall is a second year junior at the University of North Dakota. He is a marketing major with minors in international business and communications. On campus, he has been involved with the UND Varsity Bards, UND Theatre, Chi Alpha, and he works as a video intern with UND Marketing & Communications.

Congratulations, Gabriel!