WTS International announced the selection of the winners of its seven scholarships for 2014.
Each of the winners will be recognized at an awards banquet on May 15 during the 2014 WTS Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon. The scholarship winners are:
- Janille Smith-Colin, P.E., Georgia – CH2M HILL Partnership Scholarship
- Stacey Heaton, Ohio – Dana Hook Leadership Legacy Scholarship
- Brittany Montgomery, Massachusetts – Helene Overly Graduate Scholarship
- Angelene Dascanio, Illinois – Sharon D. Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship
- Sarah Cote, Massachusetts – Molitoris Leadership Scholarship for Undergraduates
- Annie Rosen, California – WTS Junior College Scholarship
- Katy Schmidt, Oregon – WTS Transportation YOU High School Scholarship
“WTS is very proud of each our seven national scholarship winners. These women—as well as the hundreds who have won scholarships awarded by their local WTS chapters and the hundreds more who applied—have exhibited incredible dedication to preparing themselves to enter the transportation industry. With students like these focused on the disciplines required to bring the world’s infrastructure to the next level of efficiency and reliability in a sustainable and accessible way, we are all in good hands. WTS Foundation was established to foster the development of the world’s workforce, and, as evidenced by the paths of our past scholarship winners, our scholarship program has been extremely successful, as evidenced by the paths of our past scholarship winners,” said Marcia Ferranto, WTS President and CEO.
Janille Smith-Colin, P.E., recipient of the WTS CH2M HILL Partnership Scholarship, is a second year PhD student in Transportation Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her professional goal is to become an educator and researcher. With several years of full-time employment on her resume, Janille has gained practical consulting and public sector experience and was able to earn professional licensure. Janille’s academic research focuses on performance measurement, infrastructure and asset management, and on sustainable practices in transportation. She’s working on developing a framework for incorporating evidence-based decision making principles into the transportation planning and management process. Janille earned a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, her Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and will complete her PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Stacey Heaton, winner of the WTS Dana Hook Leadership Legacy Scholarship, has traveled a career path in the aviation field that included an internship with the Federal Aviation Administration in college, a job as an airport management intern at the Reno/Tahoe International Airport in Nevada, and an aviation/airport planner with a consulting firm on the east coast. From there she returned to the public sector as an assistant airport manager at a general aviation airport and ultimately worked for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority for eight years. Stacey will earn a Masters of Arts in Public Policy and Management, as she seeks a broader perspective of public policy workings. Learning to work within policy making networks locally and abroad are skills she hopes to strengthen with her pending degree from the Ohio State University, and she hopes to contribute to solutions for sustainable transportation.
Brittany Montgomery, recipient of the WTS Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship, aspires to become a leader in teaching and mentoring future generations of transportation and planning professionals by becoming a professor of international development planning and transportation. Brittany’s resume spans the globe; she recently lead a 35-member team spread over four countries in the master plan of a BRT system for the metropolitan area of Asuncion, Paraguay. As a PhD student in international development at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Brittany will focus on research questions related to the implementation of poverty-reducing critical infrastructure projects. She aims to lead in developing practical solutions that reduce poverty and improve life for the poor, as well as under-represented groups like women.
Angelene Dascanio, winner of the WTS Sharon D. Banks Memorial Scholarship, is a civil engineering student at the University of Notre Dame. As part of the Notre Dame Students Empowering through Engineering Development (NDSEED), a team of seven undergraduate engineering students who will design and build a footbridge in a rural town in Nicaragua, Angelene will design the bridge and serve as liaison between the blue prints and construction. Angelene is also the lead design engineer for a research team inventing novel deployable relief structures for the U.S. Army (a project for which she currently has a patent pending), and she leads the construction team for Engineering to Empower, designing and building permanent housing for Haitians. After she graduates Angelene would like to attend graduate school for structural engineering and eventually pursue a career as a transportation engineer.
Sarah Cote, recipient of the WTS Molitoris Leadership Scholarship for Undergraduates, will soon graduate from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) with an engineering degree. She’s received several awards at WPI for involvement and academic achievement, and she is an active member of ASCE WPI, the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, the Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society, the Order of Omega Greek Honor Society, the Alpha Phi Women’s Fraternity, as well as the Society of Women Engineers. Sarah is working toward achieving her goals of attending graduate school, pursuing a career in transportation, and becoming a professional engineer.
Annie Rosen, recipient of the WTS Junior College Scholarship, is currently a physics student at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA, but will soon transfer to University of California, Berkeley, to complete a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Upon completion of that degree, she plans to test for her EIT and begin working with experienced transportation engineers. She would also like to pursue a post-graduate degree in transportation engineering through Berkeley, then with hopes to gain enough experience to obtain a PE license.
Katy Schmidt, winner of the WTS Transportation YOU High School Scholarship, will attend Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, while playing Division-1 soccer. After she receives her bachelor's degree in civil engineering, she plans to stay for an extra year to earn a master’s degree. After graduation, she intends to find a job in civil engineering to design bridges.
The Awards Banquet will be held during the 2014 WTS Annual Conference, being held May 14-16 in Portland, Ore.
