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Lafayette juniors Hart Feuer and Gabriella Engelhart are among 80 students nationally who have been honored as recipients of Morris K. Udall Scholarships.
Feuer (Portland, Ore.), a double major in economics & business and German, and Engelhart (York, Pa.), a chemical engineering major with a minor in environmental science, will each receive a $5,000 scholarship for the 2004-05 academic year.
It’s the second straight year Feuer has been awarded a Udall Scholarship. In addition, this year he was one of just five students in the nation named a Junior Fellow of the Center for Khmer Studies. He will spend three months conducting research in Siem Reap-Angkor, Cambodia, this summer, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. He also was one of two Lafayette finalists in the 2004 Harry S. Truman Scholarship competition.
Engelhart, a Lafayette Marquis Scholar, was awarded a Goldwater Scholarship last spring, covering the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 during her junior and senior years. Given for academic merit, the Goldwater is the premier undergraduate award of its type in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering.
Engelhart also was one of 30 students receiving a $350 honorable mention Udall Scholarship last spring.
The Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation, Tucson, Ariz., was authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1992 to honor Congressman Morris Udall and his legacy of public service. Each year it awards 80 scholarships of up to $5,000 to juniors and seniors in fields related to the environment, and to Native American and Alaska Natives in fields related to health care or tribal policy. The foundation also awards 30 scholarships of $350 to honorable mention recipients.
Feuer’s career goal is to obtain a doctorate in development economics and become an economic adviser to developing nations, in order to bring about environmentally sustainable economic growth.
“For many countries rising out of poverty, environmental concerns are disregarded in favor of speedier economic recovery. So often are the financial consequences of an environmentally friendly course of action perceived to be negative that we almost acknowledge it as a rule. I believe this rule is entirely false and intend to make it my life’s goal to prove it so,” he says.
“I would eventually like to establish a humanitarian economic consulting agency that works intimately with developing countries to bring about sustainable and environmentally friendly economic growth,” Feuer continues. “By setting up government and economic infrastructure that fundamentally encourages stewardship, the environmental future of a country will be more assured. Research produced by the agency would be freely distributed to anyone, including those in industrialized countries, in order to promote the cause worldwide.”
Feuer is a participant in Lafayette’s McKelvy House Scholars Program, in which 16-19 students of exceptional academic achievement and promise reside together in a historic off-campus house and share in intellectual and social activities. He is treasurer of Hillel Society and a member of German Club and Investment Club.
“What personally inspires me about the academic environment at Lafayette is the availability of potential,” Feuer says. “Incredible research facilities, faculty support, student organizations, and everything else come together to create a campus where you, as a student, can succeed whatever way you want.”
He is president of Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection, or LEAP, a student organization that promotes environmental responsibility on campus and abroad.
Owen McLeod, assistant professor of philosophy and resident faculty adviser of McKelvy House, says, “Hart has distinguished himself academically, politically, and socially. Under his leadership LEAP has become one of the most visible and effective student groups on campus. He’s destined, I’m sure, to be a powerful force for moral, political, and environmental good in the world.”
“Through Hart’s dedication he has helped to make our community a more environmentally conscious one,” says Arthur Kney, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.
The 2003 recipient of Lafayette’s Rexroth Prize for meritorious achievement in the study of the German language, Feuer studied last spring in Bonn, Germany, at the Academy for International Education.
“The outstanding actions of individual members within the faculty is what sets Lafayette apart,” Feuer says. “Faculty who can recognize students who want to do more in and out of the class, allow a trusting and personal relationship to develop between them, and encourage the student through personal involvement and sacrifice boost the success of the school and reap more personal satisfaction from their work.”
In Germany Feuer became involved with the international environmental movement Attac, attending bi-weekly discussions, assisting with translation of numerous texts, and helping consult for many programs designated for English-speaking countries.
“The group and I learned much about the environmental policies, tactics, and cultural considerations respective to each of our countries,” he says.
Two summers ago Feuer battled wildfires in the forests of his native Oregon, working upwards of 100 hours per week. The experience helped strengthen his commitment to the environment.
“Thanks to a generation of artificially strict wildfire control, our forest floors are filled with thick layers of dead debris that increase the risk of fire ignition and intensify it once a fire has begun,” he says. “Seeing acres of breathtaking forest blackened by an unnaturally strong fire prompted me to consider how interfering with nature ultimately affects us.”
Engelhart’s professional aspiration is to seek new solutions to environmental problems.
“I plan to pursue my Ph.D. in chemical engineering in order to have a full array of tools with which to solve problems and to teach others to solve problems in the future,” she says.
She is a member of LEAP, a host and tour guide for the admissions office, and a member of the campus chapters of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and Society of Women Engineers. She plans Residence Hall Council events and plays club field hockey.
Last summer she researched ways of removing color from the wastewater discharge of pulp from paper mills as an EXCEL research assistant to Javad Tavakoli, associate professor and head of chemical engineering. Lafayette is a national leader in undergraduate research. More than 160 students participate each year in EXCEL, collaborating on research with faculty while earning a stipend. Many present their research in journal articles and/or at conferences, as Engelhart did at the national meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in San Francisco in November.
“The current process of making pulp for paper produces water that is brown in color,” she explains. “That is dumped into our streams and our rivers. We don’t know if it affects microorganisms and in turn may affect the food chain.
“It isn’t often someone at the undergraduate level gets to do such hands-on research with a professor,” she adds. “Prof. Tavakoli was always busy, but he always had time for me. He’s a role model. I watch the amount of work he puts into teaching and research.”
Tavakoli says, “Gabi’s efforts have been equal to any graduate student’s work. You don’t come across someone as good as she is at so young an age very often.”
As a sophomore Engelhart studied under top environmental scientists in the Semester in Environmental Science program at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. There she conducted her first research project with a chemical engineer.
Engelhart says the experience at Woods Hole helped her better understand how to “intertwine my environmental beliefs and passions with my educational and career goal of chemical engineering.”
“I realized that not only was I trying to mold chemical engineering and environmental science together because they are my strengths and passions, but that environmental science needs people who have the training and thinking that I will obtain with my chemical engineering education,” she says.
“I couldn’t have participated in that program if not for Prof. Tavakoli and the personal interest he took in me. My rigorous courses at Lafayette definitely prepared me for the challenging curriculum and independent research project at MBL,” Engelhart says. “Lafayette has so many opportunities available to its students. I’m now assisting senior Garret Nicodemus in his research on encapsulating cells with polymers. Dr. James Ferri is the adviser. This is yet another example of a close working relationship with a Lafayette professor.”