Top Scholarships

Recent Awards

Congratulations to our recent scholars and finalists!

2011/2012 Undergraduate Scholarships and Honorable Mentions:

Sri and Sai Radha, Goldwater Scholars

Sai and Sri are twins each majoring in Chemical Engineering.  Sai plans to pursue an MD/PhD in neurology and tissue engineering.  She’s worked in Dr. Stephanie Bryant’s tissue engineering lab on a project that will provide more information about fundamental properties of cartilage cells.  She also works in Dr. Richard Regueiro’s lab on a computational model of the structure of the lens capsule in the eye.

Sri also plans to pursue an MD/PhD in tissue engineering to foster her interest in creating restorative biomaterials that can replenish scarred heart tissue. She has conducted research in Dr. Kristi Anseth’s lab on nanogels. She, too has worked with Dr. Richard Regueiro through the Discover Learning Apprenticeship program to generate a model of the lens structure using scanning microscopy.

The sisters share a love of Carnatic music, traditional South Indian classical singing, which they perform together.  They work on the Colorado Engineers Magazine, and are members of the Presidents Leadership Class.

Ben Hobson and Stephen Kissler, Goldwater Honorable Mentions

Sri Radha, Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Scholar

Sri is a multiple award winner this year, earning the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation award in the spring of 2012.  Because she was selected as a sophomore, Sri will be eligible to keep this $10,000/year award for two years.

2011/2012 Graduate Scholarships:
Boroka Bo, Soros fellow

Boróka Bó, has been awarded the nationally prestigious, highly selective Soros Fellowship—the first student from CU to be named. She was selected on the basis of her many achievements, her creativity, her intellectual curiosity, and her civic-mindedness. The Soros Fellowship seeks to support “New Americans,” students who themselves are naturalized citizens or whose parents are naturalized citizens.

As a Soros Fellow, Boróka will be eligible for up to $90,000 in funding for up to two years of graduate study.

The purpose of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans is to provide opportunities for continuing generations of able and accomplished New Americans to achieve leadership in their chosen fields. The Program is established in recognition of the contributions New Americans have made to American life and in gratitude for the opportunities the United States has afforded the donors and their family.

Boróka plans to pursue an advanced degree in public health at the University of California, San Francisco.  She came to this country from Transylvania as a political refugee when she was 14 years old. She began working to support herself at age 15, and has worked since, putting herself and her younger sister through college.  Boróka is an artist and a poet as well as a researcher.  She has practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine.  With her sister, she started a non-profit organization, The Transylvania Community Foundation, to “protect human rights against self-invested government and minority rights against majority.” The foundation has a range of initiatives: health, employment, education, cultural identity, intercultural dialogue. She completed an honors thesis based on interviews with Roma (Gypsy) people in different European countries which earned her Summa cum laude. She examines how the Romas’ stigmatized status affects their access to and utilization of health care. As an undergraduate Boróka actively engaged her campus community as well, serving on several committees and boards, among them the CU Health and Wellness Committee; the Chancellors Advisory Committee for Minority Affairs, and the Wardenburg Student Governing Board.

2011/2012 finalists:

Stephen Kissler, Truman finalist

Stephen , one of CU’s Boettcher Scholars (Colorado’s most prestigious scholarship), majors in Applied Math.  He’s been working on a math modeling project with Professors James Curry and Anne Dougherty in Applied Math. He hopes to create a sound epidemiological model that can help to predict and prevent disease. He’s an active member of the Engineering Honors Program, where he is lauded for his many contributions to the residential community. He’s also an avid musician.

Elena Pellicer, Rhodes finalist

We’re proud that Elena was selected as a Rhodes finalist, and that she represented CU in a daylong interview process in Colorado Springs.  She plans to pursue an MD so that she can practice socially just medicine both in the U.S. and internationally.  She graduated summa cum laude with degrees in integrative physiology and Spanish.  Her honors thesis, written in Spanish, took up a nutrition-related topic. Elena worked in the lab of Dr. Douglas Seals on cardiovascular aging. Elena worked for most of her undergraduate years in the Women’s Resource Center, where she was a valued team member.  She’s traveled widely with her family and also as a study abroad student. Most recently, after graduation she spent several months in Uganda as a program coordinator for the Initiative to End Childhood Malnutrition at the Nyakibale Hospital.