KU News Release

Six KU students nominated to compete for national Udall scholarships

LAWRENCE — Six University of Kansas students are among more than 500 students nationally competing for 80 Morris K. Udall Scholarships.

Winners of the $5,000 scholarships will be announced online April 5 by the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation.

The KU nominees are Kyle M. Adams, St. Charles, Mo., sophomore; Sara E. Edwards, Leawood junior; John Deacon Jones, Olathe and Overland Park junior; Bridget Livers, Overland Park junior; Raymond M. Red Corn, Shawnee and Pawhuska, Okla., junior; and Ruth L. Seeliger, Burden junior.

Livers also competed in 2006. Red Corn is a member of the Osage Nation.

Nominees must be college sophomores or juniors who demonstrate outstanding potential and study the environment and related fields or must be Native American or Alaska Native college sophomores or juniors who demonstrate outstanding potential and study fields related to health care or tribal public policy. Two-year and four-year institutions may nominate a total of six students from either or both categories. Scholars selected during their sophomore year may be renominated for the next year’s competition.

Since the first Udall scholarships were awarded in 1996, 16 have been awarded to 15 KU students (one student received the scholarship twice).

Established by Congress in 1992, the scholarship program honors Congressman Udall and his legacy of public service. The Udall foundation in Tucson, Ariz., administers the program.

The career goals, hometown information and academic and service activities for the KU nominees are below.

COWLEY COUNTY
From Burden 67019
Ruth L. Seeliger is majoring in environmental studies and in ecology and evolutionary biology. Her professional goals include working in conservation biology to preserve endangered species and habitats or to work in a university program to protect biodiversity in the ecosystem. During the winter break in 2007, Seeliger conducted field research in Costa Rica through KU’s study abroad course on neotropical bat ecology. She plans additional research on the effect of forest disturbance on populations of tropical bat species that are important in seed dispersal to regenerate forests. This academic year, Seeliger has worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant in biology. She also volunteers with Operation Wildlife, a rehabilitation veterinary center near Lawrence. Her summer jobs have included working on the family farm. She is the daughter of Michael and Carolyn Seeliger and is a Winfield High School graduate.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Leawood 66209
Sarah E. Edwards is majoring in environmental studies and in English, with a career goal of working in environmental law and in the political arena. She is a National Merit Scholar. She is one of 20 students selected from among 5,000 sophomores for KU’s University Scholars academic mentorship program. She is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society. She is president and co-founder of From the Inside Out, a body image peer education group, and vice president of Chi Omega sorority. Edwards also is a member of the advisory board for Rock Chalk Revue, a philanthropic stage show, and has been a member of the KU Marching Jayhawks band. For the past year, she has been a math instructor with the Kansas Algebra Program at KU. She is the daughter of Rob and Elizabeth Edwards and a graduate of Blue Valley North High School.

From Overland Park 66213
John Deacon Jones is majoring in ecology and environmental science and plans eventually to teach at the university level. His research interests focus on control of invasive species and recovery of disturbed ecosystems. For the past year, Jones has worked in the laboratory of A. Townsend Petersen, KU professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, assisting with a project to forecast the regional risk of dengue, a flu-like disease spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. Petersen notes that Jones’ work in the data preparation was key in KU researchers being invited to work as senior personnel on a grant proposal by a University of Texas-Brownsville scientist. Jones has also served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for introductory biology. He is an Eagle Scout and has served as a chief of the Tamegonit Lodge, a council-level division of the Order of the Arrow, a national honor society within Boy Scouts of America. He is the son of John and Jane Jones and is a graduate of Olathe East High School.

From Overland Park (66210)
Bridget K. Livers is majoring in environmental studies with an emphasis in botany. Her long-range goals include working as a teaching scientist focused on environmental problems. This summer she will conduct biogeographical field research in Australia through a Duke University study abroad program. She works in the lab of Daphne G. Fautin, professor and curator of invertebrate zoology at KU’s Natural History Museum. She is in KU’s University Honors Program and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society. She volunteers with Operation Wildlife, a rehabilitation veterinary center. As a freshman, Livers organized recycling projects in her residence hall and continues to encourage community recycling efforts among her friends. She is the daughter of Richard and Lenda Livers and is a graduate of Blue Valley Northwest High School.

From Shawnee 66216 and Pawhuska, Okla.
Raymond M. “Studie” Red Corn. SEE OKLAHOMA

MISSOURI
From St. Charles
Kyle M. Adams is majoring in architectural engineering with an emphasis in sustainable design. His career plans include integrating sustainability into building designs, specifically through the use of more energy efficient systems and of renewable forms of energy. He has had two internships with Jacobs Engineering in St. Louis. In one of those internships, Adams worked on researching renewable energy for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Adams is secretary of KU Constructors, a construction management club, and participates in Emerging Green Builders, a campus group advocating sustainable design and green building practices. Describing himself as coming from a family of carpenters, Adams noted in his application that he worked as a laborer on residential construction sites for three summers before volunteering with Habitat for Humanity last fall. He also has served as a pancake chef with Jubilee Café, a local food service for needy Lawrence residents. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi honor societies. He is the son of Stephen Adams and of Melinda Adams and is a graduate of Duchesne High School.

OKLAHOMA
From Pawhuska and Shawnee, Kan.
Raymond M. “Studie” Red Corn, majoring in civil engineering with an environmental emphasis, is planning a career that will allow him to work with the environment and tribal public policy. In his scholarship essay, Red Corn notes, “The No. 1 thing I want to do as an engineer and public servant is make the environmentally sound solution the most economical one.” At KU, he has researched the benefits of hybrid vehicles for campus police fleets. At the request of his father, an Osage congressman, Red Corn is researching the potential for wind as renewable energy source, as well as the most sustainable use of water resources on the reservation. Red Corn serves as regional director for 2020 Vision, a program that promotes implementing renewable energy, and is president of the KU chapter. Active in student government, Red Corn chairs the Multicultural Affairs Committee and the Student Environmental Advisory Board, which manages KU’s recycling program. He has worked as an intern for Camp Dresser McKee engineering firm in Wichita and the U.S. National Park Service. He is the son of Raymond Red Corn and of the late Elizabeth Red Corn. He is a graduate of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School.

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.