WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — Brown and Caldwell (BC) today proudly announces a collective $29,000 in scholarships has been awarded to six exceptional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. Each year, BC recognizes promising full-time students pursuing careers in the environmental engineering industry to advance our commitment to building a more diverse industry. These scholarships provide access and opportunity to the environmental and engineering industry to individuals who represent the firm’s values of technical and academic excellence, environmental stewardship, and supporting diversity in the industry. Join us in congratulating this year’s scholarship recipients.
The Women in Leadership Scholarship supports students interested in pursuing a career in the environmental profession. This year’s honoree is Riley Felts, a master’s degree student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. With a bachelors in civil engineering, she is pursuing a master’s in environmental and water resources engineering. Riley is passionate about the environment and making our community and world a cleaner and safer place to live.
The LGBTQIA+ Scholarship honors students who identify as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and are interested in pursuing a career in the environmental industry. This year’s recipient, Mika Nava Muñoz, is a student of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara pursuing a master’s degree specializing in Pollution Prevention and Remediation. With an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in gender and women’s studies, with minors in Latin American and Latino Studies and African American Studies, she is passionate about social justice. After college, Mika enrolled in a program that helps women enter labor unions, and led her to working in steel mills, oil refineries, and water reclamation centers. Once graduating, Mika plans to use her technical skills to combat the climate crisis in communities impacted by environmental racism.
Through its Minority Scholarship Program, BC provides time and monetary commitment to invest in scholarships, internships, and mentoring for full-time minority college students at the junior, senior, or graduate level majoring in environmental engineering or one of the environmental sciences. This year’s recipient is Camryn Flores, a first-year environmental engineering student in the master’s program at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). She recently received her bachelors in environmental engineering from Georgia Tech where she assisted in wastewater epidemiology research. After graduation, she plans to work in the water industry and pursue a Professional Engineering license.
To encourage and support students who are enrolled members of the Navajo Nation, BC provides an annual Navajo Nation Scholarship with recipients eligible to receive up to $4,000 over the course of four years as well as a laptop the first year. Emme Todea is this year’s recipient, majoring in Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University.
BC continues to honor the legacy of a 50+ year environmental pioneer by offering the Dr. W. Wesley Eckenfelder, Jr. Scholarship to students pursuing education and a career within the environmental industry. This year’s recipient is Tianna Chemello, an accelerated master’s program student at Arizona State University specializing in hydrosystems. She has worked in the water industry researching algal biofuel production and completed a summer internship abroad developing an application to enable the efficient use of 25 years’ worth of data encompassing more than 20 environmental-related variables. She plans to continue a career in the water industry designing water treatment plants and delivery systems to provide clean water for our communities and future generations.
In partnership with AWWA and in recognition of BC co-founder Dave Caldwell’s contribution to engineering and technology in the drinking water field, the annual AWWA Dave Caldwell Scholarship awards $5,000 to a female and/or minority graduate student with demonstrated leadership ability in drinking water applied research and consulting. This year’s scholarship honors Olubayo Oginni, a doctorate candidate at the Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Olubayo’s research focuses on the treatment of wastewater using the novel membrane distillation process using a fabricated dry-wet phase inversion pathway of graphene oxide-based mixed-matrix membrane method funded by the National Science Foundation to Dr. Lucy Mar Camacho, Olubayo’s supervisor. The scholarship was presented during the AWWA ACE Conference in Toronto, Canada on June 13, 2023.
Scholarship recipients are selected by a committee of BC professionals on the basis of their academic accomplishments. Scholarships are open to full-time college students enrolled in their junior or senior years or graduate programs.
Applications open in mid-February of each year and close in early April. For more information and details on eligibility, visit: https://brownandcaldwell.com/careers/scholarships/.