Four Western Students Awarded Prestigious NOAA Hollings Fellowships

Four Western Washington University students have received prestigious National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hollings Fellowships, more than any other university on the West Coast.

"The Hollings/NOAA Fellowship is a highly prestigious award that draws applications from students in the best colleges and universities in the country. The fact that so many Western students have won the fellowship proves that Western students really can go anywhere and do anything,” said Steven VanderStaay, Western’s vice provost of Undergraduate Education.

The Hollings Fellowship gives winners up to $8,000 per year in academic assistance during the nine-month academic year and a 10-week full-time paid internship position during the summer at a NOAA facility. Additionally, if the student is reappointed, another scholarship of up to $8,000 will be rewarded for the following academic year.

Western will be represented by Hollings scholars from coast to coast this summer: three students will be working in Massachusetts and the other will be in Washington.

The recipients of the fellowship are Courtney Knox (Olympia), Timothy Anderson (McMinnville, Oregon), Maia Hanson (Granite Falls), and Daniel Woodrich (Hood River, Oregon).

Knox was awarded her Hollings to work at the National Marine Sanctuary in Port Angeles. She will organize and plan youth camps to introduce middle school and high school students to the world of marine science.

Knox is a Mathematics major who is scheduled to graduate with a Computer Science minor in the spring of 2016. After graduating from Western, Knox plans to earn her master’s degree in the teaching program at Western’s Woodring College of Education and teach high school math or computer science.

Anderson was awarded his Hollings to work at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass. While at the center, Anderson will be building and deploying satellite-tracked drifters for recording surface currents as well as working on ways to visualize drifter tracks.

Anderson is an Environmental Science major at Western’s Huxley College of the Environment who is scheduled to graduate next spring with a minor in Mathematics.

Hanson will also work in Woods Hole at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Hanson will spend her internship studying micro-invertebrate samples collected from underwater vents. The goal of the project is to identify and categorize the types of organisms that have been collected at sea.

Hanson is studying Mathematics and Biology and is scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2016.

Woodrich will also work in Woods Hole at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Woodrich will monitor and track the vocalizations of the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Woodrich is a Biology major with an emphasis in marine who is enrolled in the honors program at Western. After graduation, he plans to earn his master’s degree and continue to work with NOAA to monitor and track endangered marine animals.

Western's Fellowships Office advises students who are interested in applying for nationally competitive scholarships.  It provides information about available scholarships, helps students identify opportunities that match their backgrounds and career goals, and assists students in the preparation of their applications.  The office also has information about internships and research opportunities for high achieving students.

For more information, contact Tom Moore at Western’s Fellowships Office at (360) 650-4074 or go to http://www.wwu.edu/fellowships/about.shtml.