WTS CO 2020 Scholarship Award Winners
Hallie Groenewald – WTS CO Chapter Scholarship (Junior College/Trade School Scholarship)
Hallie Groenewald is pursuing an Associates of Applied Science and Commercial Pilot Certificate at Aims Community College, with an anticipated graduation of Summer 2021. Hallie started out her career in aviation as a Flight Attendant, with encouragement from several Captains and First Officers she pursued her dreams of being a pilot. Hallie already holds her Private Pilot Certificate with an Instrument Rating and is halfway through her Commercial Pilot Certificate. Her dream job is to fly for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. When Hallie isn’t flying airplanes she enjoys snowboarding in the winter and riding her Harley Davidson motorcycle in the summer along with spending time with her dogs. She would also like to snowboard in Japan and relax in the Maldives, perhaps in the future she could get to these locations by her preferred mode of transportation in a flux capacitor or personal jetpack. Hallie is inspired by Jessica Cox, the world’s first licensed armless pilot. She respects Jessica for her accomplishments and positive outlook on life. After graduation Hallie plans on looking for a flying position, possibly flying pipeline in Texas. She may also receive her CFI and stay local to teach. If Hallie is flying she will be happy!
Sara Bauermeister – WTS CO Chapter Scholarship (Junior College/Trade School Scholarship)
Sara Bauermeister is in the Aims Community College Professional Pilot Program and will receive an Associates of Applied Science, with an anticipated graduation of August 2021. Sara loves learning about different cultures and is excited she found a career where she can help others expand their horizons and provide connectivity to the world. Sara is amazed how people foster relationships around the globe through transportation and she is excited to be part of the process. She loves sharing her passion of flying with others and hopes to become a flight instructor to do so. Sara’s dream job is to become an air ambulance pilot. Her family is in the medical field and she would love to indirectly, be a part of it through transportation. Her mom inspires her, she was born in Colombia and moved to America in high school not knowing any English and has worked hard to provide her family with luxuries many take for granted. She won’t let anything stand in the way of her education and because of her mom’s example, neither will Sara. Growing up in Colorado she loves to do anything outside, especially if it’s in the mountains! Count her in for mountain biking, hiking, and snowboarding. Her dream destination would be to go back to Tanzania. She was lucky to visit a children’s home in Tanzania that her community helped support through fundraisers and awareness campaigns. After graduation, she would like to continue her education and receive a Master’s Degree in Safety Science and concurrently gain hours as a flight instructor to qualify for a professional pilot position.
Melissa Frey – Helen Overly Scholarship (Graduate Scholarship)
Melissa Frey is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, with an anticipated graduation of May 2022. She was inspired by her upbringing and childhood in Alaska- Transportation in remote Alaskan areas is often nonexistent. The arctic is an extremely harsh environment, which can make design and planning (i.e., equipment, materials) for transportation infrastructure rather difficult. Melissa chose transportation engineering for her education because she wanted to aid in providing remote areas with essential transportation services. Her favorite course she has taken is mechanics of materials, she loved learning about material failure and how/why it occurs. Her dream job is forensic engineering. Her advisor, Dr. Cristina Torres-Machi, inspires Melissa. Cristina has acted as one of her graduate advisors and mentors for the past 2.5 years and she is incredibly grateful for her involvement in her education. In a perfect world, her preferred mode of transportation would have a limited carbon footprint. Considering the transportation methods currently available, Melissa would want to migrate to primarily biking and taking the public bus. Her favorite activities and hobbies are painting, yoga, backpacking, hiking, and spending time with her two rescue cats. If she could vacation anywhere in the world, she would want to go to New Zealand to spend some time hiking and backpacking there. After graduating with her PhD, Melissa hopes to begin her career in forensic engineering. Additionally, she hopes to celebrate my graduation by taking herself on vacation, adopting a dog from the animal shelter, and beginning the process of buying a home.
Peyton Jane Gibson – Legacy Leadership Scholarship (Graduate Scholarship)
Peyton is pursuing a Master’s in Transportation Engineering at the University of Colorado, at Denver, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2021. She has found her niche community with WTS Colorado! She has been active within civil engineering organizations since I undergrad, but she shares a lot more in common and “speak the same language” (of transportation) as WTS members. It’s also great to be part of an organization that uplifts and respects her voice as a woman. Peyton fell into transportation accidentally but she is so lucky she did! Her favorite Master’s courses have been Sustainable Transportation and Economics and Public Finance. She’s also quite excited to work on her thesis this semester (tentatively titled Sidewalks vs. Roads: How American cities fund and maintain them differently and why it matters)! Her dream job would be US Secretary of Transportation. She would love to shift funding focuses towards transit/bike/ped projects and integrate land use into transportation planning and thinking. Peyton’s preferred mode of transportation is walking. She has been car-less for over a year now! She is most excited to travel between the destinations using ferries and high-speed trains, see the community-oriented urban planning in Helsinki, the medieval structures still standing in Tallinn, and the Moscow Metro! Peyton is already working full time, so she will likely stay at the National Academies working on federal infrastructure policy for a bit until she figures out where she wants to go with her career. She’s currently exploring opportunities working on transportation and community economic development policy on a local or regional level. She’s also interested in pursuing another Master’s or PhD in Regional, Urban, or Transportation Economics.
Ayanna Reed – WTS CO 2020 Scholarship (Graduate Scholarship)
Ayanna Reed is pursuing a Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Colorado, at Denver, with an anticipated graduation date of December 2021. Ayanna believes the best part about WTS Colorado is the extensive support that is provided to advance women professionally. She appreciates the mentoring program because she is inspired by women that can assist in developing her leadership and professional skills through sharing their knowledge. She hopes she will have the opportunity to be a mentor to other women in transportation as she advances in her career. Growing up New York, Ayanna relied heavily on public transportation to travel to school and work. This helped her see the positive impact transit can have on accessibility and mobility in communities. Therefore, knowing that the work she does in transportation has a real impact on a community to access goods, services, and opportunities is what inspired her to choose this profession for her education. “Planning Profession” taught by Professor Ken Schroeppel was fascinating for her because that course gave her the opportunity to speak with practicing transportation planners about their professions. Her dream job is to practice Gender-Inclusive Urban Planning and Design in the United States and internationally. Ayanna is inspired by Jane Jacobs because of her community-focused approach to building neighborhoods. Her preferred mode of transportation would be the light rail. She enjoys fishing, traveling internationally, backcountry hiking, and trying new foods. If Ayanna could travel anywhere in the world she would like to travel to Lisbon, Portugal. After graduation, she looks forward to continuing her career with the Federal Transit Administration.
Maryam Alahmar – WTS CO Chapter Scholarship (Graduate Scholarship)
Maryam Alahmar is pursuing a PHD in Civil Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, with an anticipated graduation date of August 2022. She is looking forward to expanding her network in the transportation industry and meet awesome people through WTS. Her love for trains started from a young age, she would see television shows with metros, subways, and light rails and always wished to have such system in Iraq (the country she is originally from). The University Transportation center for underground Transportation infrastructure (UTC-UTI) was among other reasons that motivated her to apply to School of Mines and start the journey in geotechnical engineering with underground and tunneling focus. She wants to be a successful Civil Engineer, get involved in big and effective projects that serve the humanity, and work with engineering industry leaders and learn from them. She would like to go back to academia and pass all the knowledge she has gained from real world project to students. Maryam’s role model is her mom who inspires her every day. Her mom raised five children during very hard times of war and economic recessions. Maryam’s prefect world is the world where the civilization is in harmony with nature. She believes we still have the chance to some extent to keep building and developing the civilization while we are preserving nature. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and cooking. She would love to visit Spain to visit the Madrid subway, the second largest underground system in Europe and the sixth largest system in the world. She’s planning to start an industrial career as a tunneling engineer in one of the companies that is specialized in underground construction and tunneling. Maryam would like to be part of this industry and work with other leader women engineers to encourage the younger generation of women and girls to enter this field.
Kyra Frank - WTS CO Chapter Scholarship (High School Scholarship)
Kyra Frank is a senior at Denver East High School, with a graduation date of May 2021. She has been accepted to Colorado School of Mines and plans to attend in Fall of 2021. She believes WTS’s investment in helping young girls get involved in fields that women have historically been rare in is great. Kyra’s ability to make a positive impact on the environment by pursuing a career in transportation is why she chose this career path. Her favorite course has been physics because it’s a combination of math and science, both of which she loves, and she finds it super interesting to apply physics to the real world. Kyra’s dream job is to be an engineer at a bike company. Female enduro mountain bike racers inspire Kyra. These women tend to not only be amazing athletes in a sport that women are rare in, but also super smart and dedicated. Kyra’s preferred mode of transportation is bicycles, not only are they a super green form of transportation, but are also super fun and can provide a great workout. Kyra is passionate about mountain biking, she finds it to be fun, has a great community, and helps her get outside. Aside from mountain biking, she also enjoys rock climbing, hiking, anything involving animals, and working out. If she could vacation anywhere in the world she would visit British Columbia. BC has some of the best mountain biking in the world, and is absolutely beautiful. Kyra will be attending Colorado School of Mines to pursue a degree in Engineering, and after that she hopes to work as an engineer for a bike company or another company that’s creating green modes of transportation. She hopes to continue racing bikes while doing so.
Paige Dimodica - WTS CO Chapter Scholarship (High School Scholarship)
Paige Dimodica is a senior at DSST Montview High School, with a graduation date of August 2021. The best part about WTS Colorado is that it gives women in the field of transportation the ability to connect and make relationships with like-minded women. Paige wants to be involved in the transportation industry because it is such an integral part of our society. She wants to help build infrastructure for future generations. She’s really enjoyed her AP Physics class this year because of how all the concepts can be applied in real life, also how the answers to problems are so straightforward and logical. Ideally, she would like to be a roadway engineer, but would be happy with any job involving civil engineering and infrastructure. Her mom and dad are my biggest inspiration. They are so successful and they work so hard for her family every day. Her preferred mode of transportation would be a car, the idea of the open road has always appealed to Paige. She enjoys riding her leased horse Zip, reading, drawing, and playing Dungeons and Dragons with her friends. Her favorite vacation is going to Disneyland, she has always been so fascinated seeing the history and details put into the park. She and her family visit Disneyland annually and she enjoys the atmosphere and finds it to be joyful. After graduating high school, Paige will be attending the Colorado School of Mines where she plans to major in civil engineering. She hopes to eventually receive a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering and go on to become a roadway engineer.
Sophie Russ – Transportation You Scholarship (High School Scholarship)
Sophie Russ is a senior at Centaurus High School, with a graduation date of May 2021. She believes the best part about WTS Colorado is the wonderful and inspiring leaders who are a part of it. Initially, her dad inspired her to choose transportation because he is heavily involved in the field, however, she is currently inspired because she is passionate about the environment and sustainable transportation options is an extension of this passion. Sophie greatly enjoyed the civil engineering course she took sophomore year because she learned so much about the process of designing systems and structures used in everyday life. Her dream job is one that makes a positive impact on other people's lives. She is inspired by all sorts of people; one person is her mom. Her current paradigm has been shaped by her admiration for her enthusiasm for life and ability to persevere and adapt in the face of adversity. Sophie’s favorite mode of transportation is biking! She loves to ski, run, paddle-board, hammock, cook, and try new things. She would love to travel to Spain one day because of the ambrosial foods and beautiful beaches. After high school, she plans to attend a 4-year college to pursue an engineering degree.
Kellisha Ostler – Sharon Banks Scholarship (Undergraduate Scholarship)
Kellisha Ostler is pursuing a Bacherlor’s of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado, at Boulder, with an anticipated graduation date of Spring 2022. She believes the mission of encouraging and supporting women interested in the transportation field to be the best part about WTS Colorado. As a woman, pursuing a career in a male-dominated industry allows her to be a role model for other women who may not see themselves in such a career. She has also volunteered in multiple events to promote STEM careers to a younger generation and inspire young women by setting an example and hopes to continue. Kellisha chose Civil Engineering as her major because it aligned with her interests: artistic creativity and advanced mathematics. She enjoyed Engineering Drawing class the most. The subject came easily to her and allowed her to help classmates work through any issues they encountered. She would like to become a Project Engineer handling transportation projects. Her biggest inspiration is her professor, Ulises Techera, who has always encouraged her to work hard. She believes the future holds the potential for technological advancements in transportation, so maybe one day flying cars or transportation tubes would allow us a more direct and more efficient mode of transportation. Living in Colorado has given her the perfect place to go hiking, camping, and rafting. Above all else, she loves spending time with her family and friends. Kellisha would love to vacation in Greece, for the history of the country, the architecture of the monuments, and the beautiful waters bordering the sandy beaches. She hopes to secure a job position with Kiewit Corporation because it is a large company that allows her the opportunity to work in many large transportation projects
Mikayla Oligney - WTS CO Chapter Scholarship (Undergraduate Scholarship)
Mikayla Oligney is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, with an anticipated graduation date of December 2021. She believes the best part about WTS Colorado is that it promotes leadership and recognition for women, but also doesn’t exclude men. She is interested in the transportation industry because it connects our world, by allowing us to get from place to place and connect with other people, and it will always be evolving and growing. Her favorite course has been Soil Mechanics because she learned how important foundations are to any infrastructure, including transportation. Mikayla’s dream job would be to work in a lab, she is interested in the geotechnical side of civil engineering. Her grandpa really inspires her, he went through The Great Depression and took care of his little brother. He worked very hard and went through school and became a successful accountant. Her preferred mode of transportation would be a car, she prefers there to be no traffic, though! She loves being outside in Colorado where she enjoys skiing, hiking, and camping. She would like to go to Switzerland to ski in the Alps! Upon completion of her undergraduate degree, she will be starting her Master’s at Mines in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in Geotechnical Engineering. Then, she hopes to start my career!
Grace Tandus - WTS CO Chapter Scholarship (Undergraduate Scholarship)
Grace Tandus is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering with Colorado Mesa University in Partnership with the University of Colorado, at Boulder, with an anticipated graduation date of Spring 2022. The idea of community, inclusiveness, and mutual support is what she loves most about WTS. She believes there are hundreds of industries that shape the world we live in, but there are very few that do it as tangibly as transportation engineering. Her favorite class taken so far has been environmental engineering. She enjoyed this class because it looked at real world problems and gave her the theory and tools to solve them. Grace hopes to eventually work as a project manager for community and urban planning. Historical figures like Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson inspire her. These women were the first in their fields and did incredible things like send the first astronauts into outer space. She has always loved trains since she was a little kid, anytime she got to ride the light-rail it was always such a fun adventure. Her preferred mode of transportation would be a bullet train. These trains are so interesting and have so much potential to be the future mode of transport. She loves to hike, bike, ski and explore the incredible state of Colorado. Grace would like to visit Italy and Greece for their architecture. She would love to see the coliseums in Greece and museums in Italy. She would also like to hike to Machu Picchu in Peru. Grace hopes to join the peace corps and do some humanitarian work for a couple of years before settling down and taking an engineering job.
Luca Mueller – Molitoris Leadership Scholarship (Undergraduate Scholarship)
Luca Mueller is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Aviation and Aerospace at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She believes the best part of WTS Colorado is the support that it offers to women in the transportation field. Since she was in middle school, she wanted to be a pilot, and it never occurred to her that it was such a male dominated field till late in high school. There are only 15% of females enrolled in our university’s aviation department, so they all stick together and help one another succeed. Her favorite course was FAA Instructor Cert-Ground School. Luca’s dream job is to fly corporate jets all around the world. When she eventually earns enough money, she would like to volunteer her time flying medical supplies or environmentalists around the world. In middle school, she read a lot of Amelia Earhart autobiographies, and fell in love with the way she persevered through life even though people told her she could never be a pilot. Her university has some very inspiring female teachers that I call my role models, including Erika Armstrong author of ‘Chick in the Cockpit’, Laura Braunschmidt and Dagmar Kress. When Luca flies, she can’t stop smiling when she sees the clouds reflected in the lakes and the people and cows that look like ants. Her favorite activity is flying (although it’s quite expensive), she also loves to ski and hike. She would love to visit Portugal. Luca plans to become a flight instructor for a few years and volunteer her time when she can. Then she plans to fly at a regional airline for a few years after that.