Featured Scholarship Recipients 2009-2011

Aislinn HeavyRunner-Rioux is a student in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program.  Her funding helped her complete a research project on the impact the All Nations Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program has on Native American college students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

2011 Recipient Chelsea McIver conducted research on building the restoration economy in western Montana.  “I am very grateful for the support of the Pat Williams Scholarship fund.  This funding has opened up new doors. This would not have been possible without the support to conduct the preliminary data collection and analysis.”

2011 Recipient Caitlin Ajax used her funding to support her internship with a non-profit organization in Jordan.  “I taught women-only English language workshops in Amman’s lower-income neighborhoods, building lasting relationships and helping to create capacity for inter-cultural, inter-community communication and understanding.”

2011 Recipient John Semmens:  "This funding enabled me to work as a legal intern at the Montana American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) here in Missoula. It was truly an honor to receive an award named after of the great public servants from our state."

2011 Recipient Bradley Jones:  “Thanks to the financial assistance of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, I was able to participate in a study abroad course in Chile in 2011.  I came to law school at UM primarily to work in natural resources law with a heavy emphasis on mining, oil and gas, and water law.  The wintersession course in Chile was a perfect opportunity to explore these issues from an international perspective and then bring that perspective home to Montana.”  (Jones in photo at right with Chilean guide, downstream from the proposed site of one of the Baker River dams for the Hidroaysen project.)

2011 Recipient Nora Gartner’s funding supported her work as an Interpretation Intern at Traveler’s Rest State Park and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.  “This entire internship supported the public good by the nature of my interaction with the public on many different levels and at several venues.  I was influential in helping the public learn historical, natural and creative ideas that could potentially leave them with new and valuable information they may pass on to others.”

2011 Recipient Brianna Ewert:  “If the United States is to have an agricultural future, it needs a new generation of farmers, but beginning farmers face steep barriers to entry.  My proposed research looks into beginning farmer support programs and studying one approach, incubator farms, with the purpose of making recommendations about how to establish an incubator farm in Missoula, Montana.”

2011 Scholarship Recipient Jennifer White:  “I am examining the effects, both human and environmental, of extractive mining at various sites in the Rocky Mountain West. As a creative writer, I am writing stories about the confluence of human and environmental issues, and I am using this research to write stories about these themes.”

2011 Scholarship Recipient Yvonne Sorovacu is conducting research into public knowledge needs of Opportunity, Montana citizens concerning groundwater contamination and remediation efforts in a federal hazardous material cleanup site.

"The Pat Williams Scholarship was a tremendous help with my DC internship. A million little costs add up fast, and the Pat Williams Scholarship allowed me to focus on my internship experience and not worry about how I was going to pay for it.”  Logan Timmerhoff, 2011 Recipient