Renee Hale wins 2008 Goldwater Scholarship

Congratulations to Renee Hale, chemical engineering sophomore who will be a Goldwater Scholar for the 2008-2009 school year.  The scholarships are awarded by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. This year $7,500 scholarships were awarded to 321 of the 1,035 applicants.   Each 4-year college or university is permitted to nominate up to four students, making those who were selected as a Goldwater Scholar part of a prestigious community. 

Selection criteria primarily include academic plans and career goals, as well as the extent to which the student has committed to, and pursued, making a significant contribution to his or her field. Three letters of recommendation from faculty members are also required.

Renee is pursuing a biomedical emphasis in her ChE degree, and to enhance her education she participates in undergraduate research with Dr. Heather Fahlenkamp. She recently took first place in the OSU Research Symposium undergraduate biomedical sciences paper contest with her paper entitled, “Optimizing a Three-Dimensional Tissue Model for the Production of Dendritic Cells”.  For that project, she advanced the development of a biological model that can provide a realistic simulation of the human immune system. 

Renee plans to attend graduate school in a bio-engineering field.  This summer, she has an internship with IBM as an environmental engineer. She enjoys studying both violin and piano, and is active in a number of student organizations.

Renee was born and raised in Fishkill, New York.  She attended community college for almost three years before deciding on a major. Both she and her older sister, Melinda, chose Oklahoma State University to provide them with an excellent education in engineering. Her siblings are also strong academic performers.  Melinda graduated from OSU Suma Cum Laude in May 2007 with her BS degree in Mechanical Engineering.  She was also a Goldwater Scholar. One of Renee’s two younger brothers, Keith, also plans to attend OSU as a mechanical engineer.

OSU nominated three students for the Goldwater Scholarship this year, and all three were selected: ChE major Renee Hale, Chem/Biochem major Eli Slauch, and Aerospace Engineering and Applied Physics major Paul Egan. 

Of note, for the 2004-5 school year, two ChE majors received Goldwater Scholarships, Cassie Mitchell and Ashleigh Hildebrand.

In the 2008-9 batch of Goldwater Scholars, one hundred eighty-nine of the Scholars are men, 132 are women, and virtually all intend to obtain a Ph.D. as their degree objective. Thirty-three Scholars are mathematics majors, 227 are science and related majors, 52 are majoring in engineering, and 9 are computer science majors. Many of the Scholars have dual majors in a variety of mathematics, science, engineering, and computer disciplines.