Examples of UHP Student Achievement 2006

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT 

Barry M. Goldwater National Scholarship (honorable mention)–Nathan Bialke, Julia Williams

Freeman–Asia Scholarship–Daniel Jaklich

UI Alumni Awards for Excellence–Bret Cocking, Kristin Dahlin, Bijan Houle, Daniel Hubbard, Jackie Johnson, Elizabeth Ledington, Scott McNeill, Rebecca Mowry, Bryn Parker, Chelan Pedrow, Megan Thompson, Jennifer Tucker, Julie Zohner

ASUI Student Achievement Awards in Leadership and Service
           
Frank W. Childs Award–Megan Thompson
Dean Vettrus Scholarship–Sophomore: Hannah Qualls, Carrie Phillips, Nina York, and Cheng Cheng Ma; Junior: Jonathan Gaffney, Erik Luvaas, Heather Siobhan Pearson
Grace Wicks Memorial Award–Kristin Dahlin, Derik Robinson
Bookstore Leadership Activities Scholarships–Jessica Helsley, Heather Pearson, Nina York, Jonathan Gaffney, Hartley Riedner, Cheng Cheng Ma, Carrie Phillips
Jeannie Eva Hughes Multicultural Student Leadership Award–Derik Robinson
Outstanding Freshman– Jared Zook
Outstanding Sophomore– Hannah Qualls, Carrie Phillips, Nina Kim York, Cheng Cheng Ma, Jacob Parker
Outstanding Junior–Jonathan Gaffney, Erik Luvaas, Heather Pearson, Jessica Helsley, Hartley Riedner
Outstanding Senior–Kristin Dahlin, Cami Johnson, Brenda  Eby, Derik Robinson, Melissa Curd, Rebecca Mowry, Kara Simon

Phi Eta Sigma Local Chapter Freshman Scholarship– Kate Arbon, Peter Degner, Sunil Maharjan

Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa for 2005-2006–(Juniors) Christi Banks, Kristin Boyd, Jennifer Elle, Jonathan Gaffney, Erin Jehn, Rose Keller, (Seniors) Julia Brumer

Many UHP students across campus have received other distinctions for their academic and extracurricular achievements and are noted in the following examples, which are representative rather than comprehensive of UHP students’ achievements and service.

Colleges and departments made awards to the following students.  The Department of English awarded the William C. Banks Best Student Writing in English courses for 2004-05 to undergraduate students Lindsay Benedict, Samantha Dominick, Ellen Feusahrens, Tara Karr Roberts, and graduate student Jared Miller (graduated in good standing in the Honors Program).  The John B. George Memorial Award to the outstanding graduating senior in the College of Science was presented to Julie Zohner; undergraduate and research awards to Melia Nafus and Jonas Wilson-Leedy; Dean’s Award to James Harding, Hillery Metz, and Julie A. Zohner; Department of Geological Sciences Outstanding Senior Award to Stacy Manson; Department of Mathematics Elna Grahn Polya Scholar Award to Melissa Curd.  The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Capital Press Outstanding Freshman was awarded to Jenni Crawford; Outstanding Sophomore was Kara Eby; the Department of Animal and Veterinary Science Outstanding Pre-Veterinary Student went to Lisa Otto; Chelan Pedrow received the  Biological & Agricultural Engineering Outstanding Senior Award and Elizabeth Myers received the outstanding junior award; Cami Johnson received the ASABE National Award.  The College of Engineering also gave Chelan Pedrow the Biological & Agricultural Engineering Outstanding Senior Award; Chemical Engineering Outstanding Senior Award went to Brenda Eby; the Electrical Engineering Outstanding Senior Award was presented to Viola Fucskó; Electrical and Computer Engineering department's award for Outstanding Junior in Computer Engineering went to Nathan Bialke.  The College of Natural Resources gave the Outstanding Senior Award to Bernardo Alvarez and Rebecca A. Mowry; Outstanding Student Awards also went to Alvarez (Conservation Social Science) and Mowry (Wildlife Resources). 

The seventh Martin Institute-sponsored delegation to the National Model United Nations in New York City represented Niger this year with Hanne Beener, Anna Brown, Caitlin Chenoweth, and Megan Thompson participating, along with 13 other UI students. 

Steven Clark was one of seven University of Idaho students in Italy for spring semester through the University Studies Abroad Consortium. The students took a break from classes to attend 2006 Winter Olympic events in Turin and volunteered to help the Olympic effort.  Clark spent the semester on a study abroad experience at the University of Turin, where he studied architecture and Italian.  The other UI students, to include program members Kimberly Lauffenburger and Andrea Ruby, were on hand to help wherever needed and to work as volunteer drivers for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

On March 2, 2006 ten Honors program students traveled with Drs. Flores and Warner to Denver, Colorado to participate in the Western Regional Honors Conference.  The students worked together for about a year conducting research on honors education that they presented in the form of three papers at the conference.  Further, these papers are abbreviated versions of the three articles they wrote and are preparing to submit for publication.  The work is an outgrowth of two sociology classes–Sociology 101 and Sociology 499–taught by honors faculty member Dr. Debbie Storrs, department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice Studies; honors faculty member John Mihelich also attended the conference to present a paper on this panel.

The following UHP students attended the conference and presented their research: Ketti Boyce, Casper Bendixsen, Heather Coddington, Jennifer Hasenoehrl, Lynsie Clott, Robert Harder, TJ Adams, Lauren Zeck, Diana Duncan, and Patrick Pellet.  The student trip was funded through the University Honors Program, and through contributions from the following units: the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction; the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences; the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Justice Studies; the Lionel Hampton School of Music; the McNair Scholars Program; the Department of Psychology; and the School of Journalism and Mass Media.

Undergraduate students from throughout Idaho are working on biomedical research projects this summer as paid research fellows through the statewide IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence.  The program is funded by a $16.1 million grant through the National Institutes of Health.  Of the 35 students selected in 2006, nine students are from the UI and include Sara Gilmore, Rebecca Memmott, and Dylan Sinclair, members of the Honors Program. 

Amrit Dahal (Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering) assisted in a research project under Dr. Dean Edwards on the development of an advanced lead-acid battery.  He is also mentoring ME223.  Eric Howell (Junior, Biology) worked last summer in a research lab in Boise at the Veteran's Hospital performing studies on the morphological effects of new strains of S. aureus on human neutrophils.  He performed a variety of bioassays including tissue factor, microscopic morphological experiments, and case studies, working under Dr. Dennis Stevens and Amy Bryant in the Infectious Disease Research department at the hospital.  Upon his return fall semester, Eric joined Holly Wichman's research lab working on LINE evolution in mammalian genomes.  He has also volunteered in the emergency room at Gritman Medical Center in Moscow.  Eric has been involved for three years with Moscow Mentors as well as a tutoring program for elementary students.  Nathan Bialke (Junior, Computer Engineering/Math) spent spring semester helping Dr. Jim Frenzel and the Center for Intelligent Systems Research on their Autonomous Underwater Vehicle project.  He will spend this summer working for Xilinx, Inc. in San Jose, California with their Advanced Products Research group on radiation-hardened field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).  Anne Mousseau (Freshman, Foreign Languages-Classical Studies Option/International Studies) who is completing her freshman year, received a summer internship with the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls.  She will be working in the Analytical Laboratory reading old Argonne procedures, the new BEA procedures, and talking with the staff of the Analytical Laboratory to develop the guide as well as any administrative procedures necessary to cover these topics. These kinds of internships usually are awarded only to upperclassmen.  Allan Ray (Sophomore, Ecology and Conservation Biology-Conservation Biology Option) will be working at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls doing a small mammal study to see how local ecology compares  to other places that haven't been around nuclear production and development for 50 years. 

Rachel Potratz (Senior, Journalism) served as  news director of KUOI for the academic year 2005-06.  Caroline Souza (Sophomore, Architecture/Art) ran for and won a seat on the ASUI senate.  Brooke Jardine (Junior, Biology/Athletic Training)  spent one month this past summer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on an internship with the American Board of Pediatrics doing background research for a web-based patient safety program.  James Fox (Sophomore, Political Science) a member of both the University Honor's Program, and the ASUI senate, says this has been an exciting and fun experience for him, and was honored to be elected President Pro-Tempore of the ASUI Senate.  Meagan Rose (Junior,  Soil & Land Resources) began first semester working in the soil pedology research lab through an undergraduate research assistantship and has done some lab procedures to determine whether or not some soils collected in Craters of the Moon National Park can be classified as organic soils.  She also volunteered at McDonald Elementary school tutoring kindergarteners in reading skills.  Melissa Curd (Senior, Mathematics) has served as a tutor at Polya. Megan Thompson (Senior, Public Communication) served fall semester as the ASUI Chief of Staff and led the campus hurricane relief efforts.  She became the Chair of the ASUI Civic Engagement Board spring semester.  Heather Coddington (Junior, Public Relations) has an internship at Northwest Media Productions in Clarkston, Washington this summer.  NMP is an advertising, public relations and marketing firm.  She will continue to work in the community education and community relations departments at Pullman Regional Hospital, primarily doing graphic design work.  Cassie Novak (Freshman, Pre-Vet) will spend a month this summer in Thailand with the International Student Volunteers (ISV) Program.  For two weeks she’ll do conservation work, such as rescuing injured or  abused animals and getting them ready to go back into the wild,  or preparing them for living in a sanctuary setting.  This program also helps to inform others of conservation problems.  Don Bloomquist (Senior, Biological Systems Engineering) has been given a summer internship with MWH, an environmental engineering firm in Boise.  Carrie Phillips (Sophomore, Management and Human Resources)  received an internship with Enterprise Rent-A-Car this summer in Boise. 

Daniel Jaklich (Junior, Business Management) is studying abroad at Rangsit University in Bangkok, Thailand.  He’s received multiple scholarships, among them the $3000 Freeman-ASIA scholarship.  Christine Schmid (Junior, Economics) will be a training assistant this summer at Air Force ROTC Field Training.  She’ll spend one week with the senior staff preparing and then will spend four weeks training the cadets who are between their second and third year in the program to evaluate their potential to enter the professional officer course and the USAF.  Christine received the ROTC Air Force Association award for academic and military excellence.  Jessica Yadao (Junior, Political Science/Spanish), while studying abroad in Spain, was invited to attend a conference in London, Bringing the World Home, sponsored by Americans for an Informed Democracy (AID).   In attendance were Americans who were studying in various parts of the world, as well as locals and others from many geographic locations.  Panel discussions were held on topics ranging from the transatlantic partnership, to Muslim relations, to globalization.  Upon her return Jessica would like to set up a panel/discussion through AID at UI next semester.  Rob Harder (Junior, Studio Art)  will be participating in Eastern Illinois University’s cooperative archeological project held this summer at the Universite Catholique de Louvain at the site of a 12th century castle in Walhain St-Paul, Belgium.  He also will serve as president of the UI’s Artists’ and Designers’ Club (AnD) for 2006-07.  Erik Luvaas (Junior, Recreation/Psychology), while serving as President of the Environmental Club, worked with PCEI (Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute), Friends of the Clearwater, and Moscow High School's E-club on various service events.  The group had great success in environmental education/awareness with the Earth Week Celebration on campus.  Informational/Educational booths with organizations from the community and campus were located by the Commons April 19-21, 2006.  The week culminated with a barbeque, live music, and Earth Ball activity on the Commons Lawn.  Erik benefited personally from his experience as an AmeriCorps volunteer this year through the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute.  Kari Porter (Senior, Secondary Education-Geography Teaching Major) completed a small research project for an education course and it was accepted for poster presentation at the Hawaii International Conference on Education in Honolulu, Hawaii attended by Kari January 5-9, 2006.  Hartley Riedner (Junior, Broadcast Journalism Option/History) will spend her fourth summer in Beaverton, Oregon working as a stock manager at Nordstrom, and plans to volunteer again at the Portland Children's Relief Nursery.  Her last few weeks of school were busy, planning the Finals Fest free concert as the ASUI Concerts Chair and starting to work on Homecoming 2006 as the Homecoming Chair.  This summer she has the privilege of representing UI Homecoming at the Association of Student Advancement Programs’ national convention in San Antonio with other members of the Student Alumni Relations Board.

Eight student teams finished a three-month competition for an outstanding business plan. The competition was organized by the university's Vandal Innovation and Enterprise Works (VIEW) program. The Idaho Research Foundation recognized students for the best-presented business plan.  Clearwater Idaho Aid, a biofilter project to address the drinking-water crisis in Africa, won first place. Team members, who will split a $1,500 prize, included Jennifer Miller and Jessica Malecha, both from Eagle River, Alaska, as well as three other University of Idaho students.

Twenty-three UI Honors Program students participated in the Moscow Schools tutoring program this year: Marriah Banghart, Eric Edwards, Lissa Firor, Jennifer Founds, Skye Gombert, John Hamilton, Jessica Helsley, Katie Hill, Eric Howell, Lauren Jacobson, Megan Jasper, Cameron Knigge, Kristen Konzek, Sadie Linford, Kathleen McGovern, Tyson Meeks, Amy Morgan, Sarah Ober, Meagan Rose, Becca Sliman, James Wagoner, Maryann Watkins, and Sylvia White.  Lynn Weaver, coordinator of the program had this to say.  “Your students have been a tremendous help!  We wouldn't have the program we do without them.”

It is also of value and interest to note some of the immediate plans of students who graduated from the program in December 2005 and May 2006.  Bernardo Alvarez begins a position in Sales and Marketing for Black & Decker in Gulfport, Mississippi.  Linnea Anderson has accepted a job as an engineer in Micron’s CMOS imager department.  Christi Banks is attending graduate school in Psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  Julia Brumer is employed by ASUI this summer, prior to entering law school at Northeastern University in Boston.  Melissa Curd arrived in Ghana this June to volunteer as an Information Technology teacher for 27 months in a rural high school with the Peace Corps.  Kristin Dahlin begins work as a staff accountant for Moss Adams LLP, in Eugene, Oregon.  Brian Dorgan is working toward a M.S. degree in chemical engineering at the University of Idaho.  Brenda Eby will being a Ph.D. program in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Washington State University—she has received a National Institute of Health assistantship in protein genetics.  Michael Fernald begins graduate studies at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, studying toward a degree in Medical Physics.  Viola Fucskó has accepted an offer to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan’s department of biomedical engineering.  Jillian Gulman starts a position as a credit analyst and loan assistant at a bank in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  James Huffman Scott will start working for Microsoft.  Cami Johnson will begin graduate studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, with a full assistantship in biological systems engineering to conduct land and water resources research. Cy Klein will work as a chef and possibly as an engineer prior to entering the Peace Corps. 

Megan Larrondo will enter law school at the University of Washington.  Jennifer Latimer begins a position with the Natural Resource Conservation Service organizing a national soils database.  Jessica Malecha will begin working as an electrical engineer for AMC Engineers in Anchorage, Alaska.  Simon McAllister will begin graduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Idaho, and is working over the summer in Dr. Cheng’s lab.  Colleen McGarry will teach in Kurdistan this fall.  Scott McNeill has a teaching assistantship position as he begins the Master’s in English Literature program at the University of Idaho.  Jenn Miller will begin a job working for British Petroleum in Alaska, and plans to return to the university next year to serve as a mentor for next year’s biotech water filter team as they travel back to Kenya.  Rebecca Mowry will work this summer in Colorado on a Bureau of Land Management project; she will conduct vegetation surveys on sage grouse habitat and assist with capture and telemetry on the birds.  Erica Nees plans to spend a year as a full-time volunteer at an inner city health clinic in Denver, Colorado, and apply for medical school in order to enroll in fall 2007.  Elisabet Nelson will begin a position with City Year Seattle tutoring middle school children in public schools.  Collin Petersen has accepted a graduate studies teaching assistantship in the University of Washington’s Aeronautics and Astronautics department. 

Jessica Poindexter will commission as a second lieutenant in the U. S. Air Force, and begins graduate study in space physics at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio.  Erik Schweller plans to attend graduate school in Michigan.  Mackenzie Shardlow is working as a wildlife technician on a sage grouse study in Colorado.  Rebecca Sliman is working as a counselor in an Alcohol Rehabilitation Center in Gooding, Idaho.  Jason Stevens is working on a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Idaho.  Megan Thompson plans to pursue a master’s degree in Social Change and Development at Wollongong University, Australia, and continue on to law school.  Prasanna Upadhyaya will enter the master’s program in Electrical Engineering at Washington State University.  Amy Withrow will work in an Americorps position before applying to graduate school. 

Student Achievement 2005

Student Achievement 2004