This year’s awardee is Laura Zelenka. Laura is an undergrad Environmental Engineering Major at the College of Engineering at NAU. She participates in a number of clubs and civic activities including the Society of Women Engineers, NAU Student Chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers where she serves as President, and the NAU Chapter of the National Honors Society serving also as president. Her community service includes fundraising for the Navajo Nation book drive and for breast cancer patients at Northern Arizona Healthcare. Laura has also volunteered filling sandbags for flood mitigation at the pipeline west and Museum flood zones and as a Ponderosa H.S. STEM advisor.
Even as an undergraduate beginning her academic career her technical and research skills are already well developed as illustrated by her participation in the design, assembly, and testing of a robotic telescope data collection system (PANOPTES) and having authored the technical manual for that system.
Laura’s academic path in Civil and Environment Engineering include interests in water pipeline design and green stormwater infrastructure. In support of these academic goals she is interested in using the Charles Avery Intern Scholarship to help her begin to develop an understanding of the water resources data collection and evaluation that support infrastructure design, development, operation, and maintenance.
Laura will be interning with the City of Flagstaff Water services and stormwater Departments, the USGS Arizona Water Science Center and Natural Channel Design. We look forward to to hearing from Laura about her experiences at the AHS Annual Symposium here in Flagstaff and in the newsletter and on the Web site later in the year.