EVEN Student Katie McQuie won the Leonard Rice Memorial Scholarship
Earlier this month, our very own Katie McQuie, was awarded $6000 when she won the Leonard Rice Memorial Scholarship which is the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Colorado Scholarship & Education Foundation top prize. Katie will be recognized at an award ceremony on March 29th in Littleton, Colorado as well as being entered into the ACEC National Scholarship Program for a chance to earn an additional scholarship of up to $10,000. Katie first found out about the scholarship through Gretchen Lee鈥檚 scholarship emails and decided to apply. In her application Katie describe her college activities, wrote an essay on how consulting engineers make their community a better place, and supplied a letter of recommendation from Dr. Anja Lange who is a professor in the Herbst Program of Humanities in Engineering. Katie knew that the scholarship pool was extremely competitive and was very surprised and honored when she found out that she was the winner.
Katie is expected to graduate in December 2018 with a double major in environmental engineering and chemical engineering, after which she plans to study abroad in spring of 2019. When she started her studies Katie was originally an environmental engineer due to her passion for preserving the environment and gaining an understanding how it works. Not soon after, she realized how much she enjoyed the chemistry aspect and that there was a lot of course overlap in the chemical engineering department. Katie admits that double majoring is very challenging, especially the time management aspect, but she loves that she made the decision and would not have change it. She takes great appreciation for all of her courses and what each of her degrees have taught her.
In the midst of all this Katie somehow finds time to TA, be the president of CU Boulder鈥檚 Society of Women Engineers (SWE), go hiking in the mountains, and enjoy hobbies like reading books, listening to music, and cooking. Katie accredits much of her success and support during her college experience to CU SWE. Through SWE, she has gained invaluable mentorship, opportunities, inspiration, and a sense community at CU. For her, the most fulfilling and honored experience in her college career was the day she became president of CU SWE.
After completing her undergraduate studies she hope to work in industry for a few years, ideally in water treatment or environmental remediation, to gain experience before returning to her studies and obtaining a Master鈥檚 degree.