KU News Release

KU junior earns honorable mention award in national Udall competition

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas junior received a $350 honorable mention award in the 2008 national competition for Morris K. Udall Scholarships.

Aaron M. Reinke, a civil and environmental engineering major from Stilwell, was one of 51 nominees earning honorable mentions. He hopes to combine his engineering and medical interests to improve public health, particularly in developing countries.

The Morris K. Udall Foundation in Tucson, Ariz., announced 80 scholarships and 51 honorable mentions on April 8. They were selected from among 510 candidates nominated by 239 colleges and universities.

The Udall competition is open to college sophomores or juniors who demonstrate outstanding commitment to environmentally related fields or those who are Native American or Alaska Native who demonstrate outstanding potential or are actively involved in fields related to health care or tribal public policy. Two-year and four-year institutions may nominate six students from either or both categories. Scholars selected during their sophomore years may be re-nominated for the next year’s competition.

Since the first Udall scholarships were awarded in 1996, 17 have been awarded to 16 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.

Reinke plans to earn a medical degree and would like to work as a physician in developing countries. He is the son of Steve and Barb Reinke and a Blue Valley High School graduate. Reinke has volunteered with church-affiliated missions in Mwanza, Tanzania; Juarez, Mexico; and New Orleans. In Juarez, as the youth intern for the Stilwell United Methodist Church, Reinke led a group of teens in the construction of a new home. Without power tools and with only wheelbarrows to haul concrete for the foundation, the group completed the house in less than a week. Reinke was vice president and co-founded Engineers Without Borders at KU. He is a member of two national honor societies: Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi. He is an emergency room volunteer at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and volunteers with Jubilee Café, which provides a restaurant-style breakfast for community members in need. He has worked since 2002 as a pharmacy technician and has also worked for deck building and landscaping firms.

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