March 9, 2022

Congratulations to Drexel's nominees for the 2022 Udall Scholarship! The Udall Foundation awards scholarships to outstanding sophomore and junior level college students committed to careers related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American health care. These four students have been nominated by Drexel University to compete in the national application process and have spent the past few months working hard on their applications, which they've recently submitted. We wish them the best of luck!

Grace Zaborski
BA Environmental Studies and Sustainability '23, Honors
Category: Environment

Grace is a fourth-year student pursuing a bachelor's degree in environmental studies and sustainability and minors in politics and sociology, focusing on urban environmental policy. She has completed co-ops with the City of Boston’s Zero Waste Team and Drexel’s Climate and Sustainability Working Group, and this spring will be working within SEPTA's Office of Innovation. Grace is currently studying abroad at The University of York in England, but when on campus, she peer-mentors within the First Year Exploratory Studies program, gives campus tours as a Student Ambassador, is a contributing writer for the Drexel Triangle's Arts and Entertainment section, is Vice President of Drexel Sierra Club, and is a founder and active member of Drexel's new EcoReps Program.

Grace has been involved in the Pennoni Honors College through the Honors Program.

Maddie Worth
BA Environmental Studies and Sustainability ’23 
Category: Environment

Maddie is a fourth-year environmental studies and sustainability major with a minor in ecology, focused on pursuing a career in entomology. She has worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences' Entomology Department since the spring of 2020, where she conducts research on new species of crane flies occurring in Costa Rica. She presented this work at the BEES research day seminar at Drexel in March 2022. She has also worked in the Watershed Ecology lab at the Academy since the spring of 2021, conducting field work and research on aquatic macroinvertebrates. Maddie has also been involved in a research project on Indigenous environmental justice and food systems/agroecology, with plans to travel to Native reservations in 2022. Maddie is a member of the Society of American Entomologists and Entomological Society of America where she presented her cranefly research at the eastern branch meeting in November 2021.

Maddie has been involved in the Pennoni Honors College through receiving a UREP Undergraduate Research Mini-Grant.

Alyssa Kemp
BS/MS Environmental Engineering ’25, Honors
Category: Environment

Alyssa is a second-year Honors student in Environmental Engineering pursuing an accelerated BS/MS degree and an Interdisciplinary Problem-Solving Minor. She is interested in the intersectionality between engineering, environmental justice, public health, and peace initiatives. Her future aspirations are to promote community resiliency against water issues related to climate change by forging partnerships between communities and climate change researchers. Alyssa was a STAR Scholar as well as a part of the 2021 Frances Velay Fellowship cohort and the 2021-22 Aspire Scholar cohort. Currently, Alyssa is wrapping up her first co-op as a Water Quality Production Engineer at Aqua PA and working as a community-based learning teaching assistant for the Lindy Center.

Alyssa has been involved in the Pennoni Honors College through the Honors Program, STAR Scholars, where she was a Velay Fellow, and Aspire Scholars.

Sky Harper 
BS Chemistry '24, Honors 
Category: Native Health Care

Sky is an undergraduate chemistry major with a biochemistry concentration who is pursuing an MD/PhD in the future. His research experience includes conducting research with the USDA, Drexel’s STAR program, and working in different labs at Drexel. The research has covered a range of topics from identifying amino acid sequences in proteins, working on a DNA sequencer for real-time analysis, plasma polymerization of acrylic acid, and cognitive neuroengineering, and other related topics. In addition to his passion for research, Sky is also a Johnson & Johnson mentee, Bristol Myers Squibb mentee, Boeing mentee, registered EMT, and the President of Drexel Indigenous Students of the Americas. Along with these programs, he is also an American Indian Science and Engineering member and a proud First-Generation Student from the Navajo Nation. He loves writing stories, cooking, and listening to music in his free time.

Sky has been involved in the Pennoni Honors College through the Honors Program, STAR Scholars, Aspire Scholars, and Supernova Undergraduate Research Fellows. 

Special thanks to the members of Drexel’s 2022 Udall Campus Committee, who worked with Undergraduate Research and Enrichment Programs to review, interview, and advise the nominees on their applications:

• Korin Tangtrakul, Sustainability Manager, Sustainable Water Resources Engineering Lab
  
• Dr. Alexis Schulman, Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science; Director of the Environmental Studies and Sustainability Program; Dolan Fellow for Innovation in Water Science, Patrick Center for Environmental Research, Academy of Natural Sciences
  
• Dr. Amanda McMillan Lequieu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Center for Science, Technology and Society

The Udall Scholarship awards approximately 50 scholarships of up to $7000 to sophomore and junior level college students committed to careers related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American health care. The Udall Foundation seeks future leaders across a wide spectrum of environmental fields, including policy, engineering, science, education, urban planning and renewal, business, health, justice, and economics. For more information about the Udall Scholarship, please contact UREP at fellowships@drexel.edu.