Students win scholarships across the academic disciplines

In spring semester 2020, students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga earned many impressive national and international scholarships, including such well-known ones as the J. William Fulbright U.S. Scholar, Japanese Exchange and Teaching, Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program and the Knight-Hennessy Scholar. Several were the first UTC students to ever be awarded such prestigious scholarships or were the first in many years; 50 years in one case.

Hannah Horton, a political science major, was selected as a J. William Fulbright U.S. Student Scholar, marking the second year in a row that a UTC student from the UTC Honors College earned the award. In 2019, Honors College student Simone Edwards won the Fulbright scholarship, the first UTC graduate to win the honor in 50 years.

Finance majors Stephen Zurlo and Casey Szatkowski won the national Equity Research Report College Challenge, an award sponsored by the E.W. Scripps Co, NASDAQ, Tribune Publishing and several other organizations. The Challenge is a competition based on research of emerging-growth companies.

Caroline Donsbach was recently awarded a scholarship from the American Occupational Therapy Foundation, the first UTC student to receive a scholarship from the organization.

 Ashwyn Sam, a double major in mechanical engineering and mathematics and an Innovations in Honors student, is the first UTC student to be named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, which completely pays for three years of post-graduate study at Stanford University. The award received over 6,000 applicants, and Sam was one of 83 to be selected.

 Ximena Leon and Dell Zimmerman were named 2020 Goldwater Scholars by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program and are the first UTC students to be chosen for the scholarship since 2008, one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship for students studying the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics in the United States. Ximena, a biology major, and Dell, a chemical engineering major, are both Innovations in Honors students.  

 Mae Stuart, a Brock Scholar and Innovation in Honors alumnae, has been selected for a MITRA scholarship. The MITRA program is a master’s program that studies migratory phenomena on an international scale. A double major in political science and humanities with a French minor, Stuart was a Gilman Scholar to France while at UTC.

 Tiffany Harvey and Ximena Leon were offered positions in the 2020 Amgen Scholars Program. They are the first UTC students to be offered positions at their respective institutions: Harvey to the Stanford Summer Research Program (SSRP)-Amgen at Stanford University, Leon to Amgen Yale University BioMed Research Program. 

 Itzel Guzman Hernandez, an Innovations in Honors alumnus who received her degree in biology in December, has been accepted to an Assistant Language Teacher position in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, the only teaching exchange program managed by the Japanese government. Itzel is not UTC’s first JET recipient, but she is the first in about four years to receive an offer to the program.

 Audrey Lawson, a junior political science major, is the first UTC student to be offered to participate in the Gilman Scholar on the Semester-at-Sea program, a study abroad learning opportunity. After starting her studies, however, she was required to return to the U.S. early due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Two Electrical Engineering students received Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Power and Energy Society scholarships this year. Tim Mannon and Jonathan Boyd were among the 125 recipients selected from a list of 326 applicants given the award, which l0oks for “high achievers with strong GPAs with distinctive extracurricular commitments.”

Lakelyn Bouldin, a member of the Mocs women’s basketball team, was selected as the recipient of the 2020 William V. Moore Scholarship, an award from the Southern Conference to help with postgraduate education expenses.

 Kirsty Beckwith, a member of the Mocs women’s golf team, was selected as the recipient of the 2020 Insurance Office of America Scholarship from the Southern Conference to help with postgraduate education expenses.