UAF ENGINEERING STUDENT RECEIVES NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2001
Fairbanks, Alaska – University of Alaska Fairbanks civil and environmental engineering senior Amy Tidwell is the recipient of a 2001 National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowship. The $85,500 fellowship includes a stipend of $18,000 a year for Tidwell and $31,500 to the college she chooses for graduate school. It is one of only 900 awarded across all of the sciences annually.
"Amy is in a very select group," said UAF Civil Engineering Department head Bob Carlson. "Amy is, without question, absolutely outstanding in every quality we hope for in a professional engineer."
The NSF award is one of the top graduate fellowships for beginning Ph.D. students and according to Carlson, the top schools that are making her offers will be delighted if she chooses to attend because they can supplement with a competitive scholarship package. Tidwell is considering graduate programs at Cornell, Georgia Tech and the University of Texas-Austin—all with top-ten civil engineering programs.
"She’s a very bright young woman who’s well organized and focused, and she does it all by being a pleasant person," Carlson said.
Tidwell is a non-traditional student by most standards. She earned her General Equivalency Diploma (GED) after her junior year of high school, got married and moved to Dutch Harbor, Alaska. She took a couple of classes over the phone through the UAF Interior-Aleutians campus thinking she might go into early childhood development, but went into engineering after moving to Fairbanks in 1997 due to an illness in her family.
In recognition of her circuitous route to a diploma UAF will present her with the Gray Tilly Memorial Award, given to the graduating senior whose education was interrupted because of family responsibilities.
"I built up my confidence by starting there [in Dutch Harbor] because I never would have dreamed of engineering prior to that," Amy said of her distance learning experience.
Since enrolling at UAF, Tidwell has been active in student organizations and activities and has also worked during her entire college career, but still finds time to reach out to other students.
Tidwell was also selected for the Marion Frances Boswell Memorial Award given to the outstanding senior woman each year at UAF. The nomination letter on her behalf reflects a selfless student who has attained academic excellence and a position of leadership among her peers.
"Amy is one of the special people who seems to do everything, help everyone, stay on top academically and still maintain a sense of humor and joy that makes her a pleasure to be around," said colleague Stephanie Gould in the nomination letter.
Tidwell is currently working with her colleagues on a research paper on placer-mined stream reclamation.
In addition to attending graduate school, Tidwell plans to work on civil infrastructure engineering for displaced populations such as refugees who have been moved because of war or famine. She’s the recipient of a National Rotary International award to go to East Africa where she’ll spend some time in Tanzania and learn Swahili.
"I basically am only required to do language study and cultural immersion, but it will be an opportunity to investigate the engineering challenges that you might find in refugee camps and other displaced populations," Tidwell said.
The manuscript will be submitted to a technical journal in May 2001. Tidwell also received the Outstanding Student Award from the UAF Civil and Environmental Engineering Department as well as this year’s Student Engineer of the Year for the National Society of Professional Engineers Fairbanks chapter.
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Note to Editors: photos of Amy Tidwell mentoring a young student at UAF’s recent engineering department open house is available upon request.
Contact: Bob Carlson, Professor UAF Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at 907-474-6120 or email: ffrfc1@uaf.edu or Carla Browning, UAF Public Information Officer at 907-474-7778 or email: carla.browning@uaf.edu.
CJB/03/30/01/01-061