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Celebrating student success

Scholarships and fellowships

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Augsburg students earned a range of prestigious accolades during spring semester, including the following:

Eric Bowman
Eric Bowman ’15

Barry Goldwater Scholarship
Eric Bowman ’15, a biology and chemistry major and McNair Scholar, received an honorable mention in the Barry Goldwater Scholarship competition. The Goldwater Foundation provides $7,500 undergraduate scholarships to students who plan to pursue a research career in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field, and the scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. Bowman was one of only eight Minnesotans to receive an honorable mention this year.

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Since 2008, 36 Auggies have been awarded a total of $150,000 from the Gilman International Scholarship.

This spring, sociology and psychology major Pa-Loo Lor ’14 studied at Augsburg’s exchange partner, Hong Kong Baptist University. This summer, GaoSheng Yang ’14 studied and interned in Shanghai. She is an international relations major with a minor in management information systems. And this fall, biology major Fowsia Elmi ’15, international business and finance major Smeret Hailom ’15, and sociology major Ayan Khayro ’15 will study in Turkey; and music major Elizabeth Fontaine ’16 will study in Indonesia.

Kemper Scholars Program
Najma Warsame ’17, a communication studies student, was named the College’s fourth Kemper Scholar. Students in this prestigious program, which is funded by the James S. Kemper Foundation, receive academic scholarships and stipends to cover the costs of two summer internships in major nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Augsburg is one of only 16 U.S. liberal arts colleges with the Kemper Scholars Program distinction.

Newman Civic Fellows Award
Vincent Henry ’15 was named a Newman Civic Fellow for 2014. The Newman Civic Fellow Award is a Campus Compact distinction recognizing students who-—through service, research, and advocacy—work to identify the root causes of social issues and effective mechanisms for creating lasting change.

Muna Mohamed
Muna Mohamed ’15

Phillips Scholarship
Each year, the Minnesota Private College Council awards six scholarships from the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota to students who attend its 17 member institutions. This year, two of the six were awarded to Augsburg students Sagal Ali ’16 and Muna Mohamed ’15. Ali will work on a project that addresses the high risk of obesity and the rise of diabetes among Somali women, while Mohamed’s project will focus on engaging Muslim women in sports while honoring their religious and cultural beliefs.

2014 Presidents’ Civic Engagement Steward Award
The Augsburg student group Students for Racial Justice won the Presidents’ Civic Engagement Steward Award at the Minnesota Campus Compact Summit that took place this spring. This award recognizes those who have advanced their campus’s distinctive civic mission by forming strong partnerships, supporting civic engagement, and working to institutionalize a culture and practice of engagement.

Rossing Physics Scholars
Two Augsburg College students have been named Rossing Physics Scholars for 2014-15. Juan Tigre ’16 and Fikre Beyene ’16 will receive $10,000 and $7,000, respectively. The Rossing Fund for Physics Education Endowment in the ELCA Foundation was established in 2005 for physics majors at the 27 ELCA colleges.

Travelers EDGE Scholars and Travelers Internships
Stella Richardson Hohn ’15 and Lee Thao ’15 are interning in St. Paul and Hartford, Conn., respectively, as part of the Travelers Insurance Empowering Dreams for Graduation and Employment (EDGE) program. This program focuses on college recruitment and retention of low-income and first-generation students, and enhances awareness of careers in the insurance and financial industries. In Minnesota, the focus specifically is on students graduating from both the St. Paul and Minneapolis public school districts.

Five additional Auggies—Lorreal Edwards ’16, Liban Elmi ’16, Lyton Guallpa-Naula ’16, Angela Hernandez ’16, and Seng Vue ’16—also will complete internships at Travelers Insurance in St. Paul. This group will participate in professional and leadership development workshops supported by the Kemper Foundation to prepare for their internship opportunity.

Michelle Grafelman
Michelle Grafelman ’15

Vann Fellowship
Michelle Grafelman ’15, an Augsburg Presidential Scholar, was awarded the $5,000 Vann Fellowship in Biomedical Ethics at Mayo Clinic. As a summer fellow, she is working with physician and research mentors within Mayo’s Program in Professionalism and Ethics to examine issues such as end-of-life care, genetic therapies, and patient consent, among others.

Student research awards and achievements

Students participate in Zyzzogeton 2014
Zyzzogeton is an opportunity to hear about the exciting scholarship happening on campus. This year, more than 80 students presented their research and creative activity to the Augsburg community in the annual spring poster session, which is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO), the McNair Scholars program, and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program.

Summer 2014 Off-campus Research Appointments

Cedith Giddings
Cedith Giddings ’15

This summer, several Auggie researchers will be building their skills to support graduate school admissions and careers in the sciences.

  • Elly Bier ’14—physics; National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • Weih Borh ’16—chemistry; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (LSAMP Summer Research Program)
  • Chris DeVet ’15—chemistry; CIMA Labs pharmaceuticals
  • Becca Freese ’16—biology and mathematics; University of Minnesota (Summer Institute in Biostatistics)
  • Kirubel Frew ’14—chemistry; working with Armon Sharei and Katarina Blagovic at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively
  • Cedith Giddings ’15—biology; University of Minnesota (CHE-CTSI Advanced Research Program and Undergraduate Research Program)
  • Michelle Grafelman ’15—biology; Mayo Clinic (Vann Fellowship in Bioethics)
  • Daniel Hildebrandt ’15—biology and chemistry; Mayo Clinic (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship)
  • Taylor Kuramoto ’15—mathematics; University of Tennessee, Knoxville (National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis)
  • Oscar Martinez
    Oscar Martinez ’16

    Oscar Martinez ’16—chemistry; Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla. (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows Program)

  • Bethany Marlette ’14—biology; Mayo Clinic
  • Yemi Melka ’15—chemistry and international relations; Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C.
  • Lily Moloney ’15—chemistry; Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows Program)
  • Promise Okeke ’15—biology; Harvard Stem Cell Institute of the Harvard Medical School
  • Andrew Roehl ’15—chemistry; Colorado State University (Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates)
  • Ben Swanson ’15—chemistry; Northwestern University (Materials Research Science & Engineering Center)
  • Sadie Tetrick ’16—physics; Dartmouth College Physics Department

Posters on the Hill
Each spring, the Council on Undergraduate Research hosts its annual undergraduate poster session, Posters on the Hill, in Washington, D.C. At the event, students meet members of Congress, funding agencies, and foundations, and have the opportunity to advocate for undergraduate research programs.

Summa cum laude English graduate Margo Ensz ’13 was among the top 10 percent of applicants selected to present and received an honorable mention for her URGO summer research project, “Analyzing the Persistence of a Sense of Place Among Young Adults in the Technology-Rich, A-Contextual 21st Century,” advised by Colin Irvine, Augsburg College associate professor of English.

Scholars at the Capitol

Amineh Safi
Amineh Safi ’14

During spring semester, Augsburg TRIO McNair Scholars Amineh Safi ’14 and David Fowler ’14 participated in the 11th annual Private College Scholars at the Capitol event. Each private college in Minnesota annually selects two students to attend the event and present their research. Safi’s research topic, “Racializing Islam: Newspaper Portrayal of Crime Involving Muslims and Islam,” is a descriptive content analysis examining how crimes involving Muslims are portrayed in the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Fowler’s research focused on methods for studying heart development and function in the model organism Daphnia magna.

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