Three Cornell undergraduates have won 2000-2001 Morris K. Udall Scholarships, awarded annually to outstanding U.S. students with excellent academic records and interest in careers in the fields of environmental public policy, health care and tribal public policy.
This year's Udall scholars from Cornell are Beth A. Lawrence, a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Michael Schwaiger, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Peter K. Velez, a junior in the College of Engineering.
They are among 80 students from 34 states who also were honored. Over 400 eligible sophomores and juniors from across the country competed for the awards, which provide $5,000 in undergraduate support.
David Nicola, a Cornell sophomore and natural resources major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, won an honorable mention in the competition.
This is the third year Cornell students have competed for Udall Scholarships, each year with great success. In 1998, Cornellians garnered four scholarships, more than any other college or university in the United States. In 1999 only one institution surpassed Cornell in the number of Udall Scholarships won, and this year, only Cornell, Penn State University and the University of Kansas had three students who won the scholarships.
Established by the U.S. Congress in 1992 to honor Congressman Morris K. Udall, the scholarship program is administered by the Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation.
Beth A. Lawrence, a natural resources major, said the Udall Scholarship will help educate her for her long-term goal of teaching ecology at the college level. In the meantime, she is taking every opportunity to learn her science by conducting research (most recently in Costa Rica) and volunteering her services wherever ecology is practiced. Lawrence was an Earth Team volunteer and intern with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Service, where she worked on research projects and grant proposals and learned the applications of geographic information services (GIS). She has been a volunteer educator at Ithaca's Cayuga Nature Center, a member of the publicity committee of the local Habitat for Humanity and head of the education committee for Cornell's branch of Roots & Shoots, the youth-oriented outreach program, founded by primatologist Jane Goodall, that promotes care for the environment, animals and human communities. She also has worked as a research assistant in Cornell's biological control program.
Other honors Lawrence has received include being on the dean's list in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in each of her semesters as well as being elected to membership in the Ho-Nun-De-Ka, the honor society of the agriculture college; the Golden Key National Honor Society; and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. She also received the Bethlehem Steel Honorary Student Scholarship in 1997, 1998 and 1999, as well as the National Women's Club Scholarship.
When she's not studying ecology or volunteering, Lawrence joins other friends of reptiles and amphibians in the Cornell Herpetology Club, and she plays intramural lacrosse at the club level.
Lawrence's Cornell recommenders for the scholarship included Timothy Fahey, professor of natural resources; Timothy Healey, professor and associate dean of undergraduate programs in the College of Engineering; Bernd Blossey, assistant professor of natural resources; and Kelly Zamudio, assistant professor of ecology and systematics.
Michael Schwaiger is a double major in government and psychology who has spent the past two semesters studying at Oxford University.
"It is an honor to receive the Udall Scholarship, and I am indebted to a great many people for their help," said the native of Anchorage, Alaska. "Academically, my advisers, Rose McDermott and Dennis Regan, as well as Steve Jackson, have all been tremendous boons."
McDermott, assistant professor of government; Regan, director of undergraduate studies and associate professor in the Department of Psychology; and Jackson, associate director of the Cornell-in-Washington program, were Schwaiger's Cornell recommenders for the scholarship.
Last summer Schwaiger served as a Marshall's aide intern at the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he was a research intern at the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
In addition to crediting his Cornell mentors for crystallizing his interest in the environment, Schwaiger said, "I must give due thanks to the counselors and guides of the many camping, kayaking or excursion organizations that showed me so much of my home state and taught me so much about environmental responsibility."
Schwaiger has been on the College of Arts and Sciences dean's list in each of his semesters and has received several academic honors, including the National Honor Society's Golden Key and a National Society of Collegiate Scholars award.
Schwaiger is an avid speaker and debater, whose activities have included being tournament director and debater with the American Parliamentary Debate Association and an intervarsity debater and adjudicator with the Oxford Union Debating Society.
His career goal is to return to Alaska as an environmental lawyer to, he said, "work for the preservation of natural treasures and the conservation of natural resources. I hope to continue that work as an elected or appointed civil servant."
Peter Velez, an environmental engineering major, is receiving a Udall Scholarship for a second year, having also won an award for 1999-2000. After graduation, he plans to continue studying for a master's degree in either environmental or chemical engineering then obtain an MBA.
"I would like to work as a consultant to the petroleum industry, specializing in the protection of water resources from pollution and contamination," Velez said.
He has laid the groundwork for his career with closely related summer jobs, all with Texaco Corp. In the summer of 1997, he worked as an office engineering intern in Texaco's New Orleans office; in the summer of 1998, he worked on an offshore oil platform; in the summer of 1999, he worked in the Safety, Health and Environment Department of the company's New Orleans office, managing a water quality program; and this coming summer he will work on environmental remediation in onshore facilities. In a way, he's going into the family business: His father is a vice president for regulatory compliance at Shell Oil Corp.
Velez grew up in Kenner, La., near New Orleans, and attended Jesuit High School there. At Cornell he served this year as president of both Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society, and Chi Epsilon, the civil engineering honor society, and as treasurer of the Cornell chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is the Engineering Student Leadership Council representative to the Cornell Society of Engineers, a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. He also works as a physics co-op facilitator for Physics 112.
In addition to the Udall Scholarship, Velez has received a Procter and Gamble Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers scholarship, a Shell company scholarship, a Texaco Inroads to the Star Scholarship and the Cornell McMullen's Dean Book Award.
His Cornell recommenders for the scholarship included Richard Dick, the J.P. Ripley Professor of Engineering; and Leonard Lion, professor and associate director in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Cornell students applying for Udall Scholarships must be endorsed by a university committee to participate in the national competition. This year's endorsement committee consisted of William Crepet, professor and chair of the Department of Plant Biology and the L.H. Bailey Hortorium; James Lassoie, professor and chair of the Department of Natural Resources; Daniel Usner, professor of history and director of the American Indian Program; and William Rosen, senior lecturer in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management.
Students interested in applying for Udall Scholarships should view the web site http://www.career.cornell.edu/ccs/Graduate_School/Fellowships/udall.html and contact Beth Fiori, Cornell fellowship coordinator, at btf1@cornell.edu or 255-6931. Faculty members also are encouraged to suggest possible applicants to Fiori.
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