2023 - Tia Zaremski

Tia is from Great Falls Montana and is on track to graduate from UM in May of 2025 with two majors; Sociology and Criminology. The Hollist Scholarship allowed her to pursue a yearlong unpaid internship with Federal Probation and Pretrial Services. This opportunity was incredibly valuable to Tia, allowing her to apply what she was learning in the classroom to the real-world. Through her internship, she has gained insight into both how the Federal Court system operates, and the resources available to help individuals successfully re-enter the community after incarceration. Tia’s internship has solidified her passion to work with people in the community after graduation, either in advocacy or in the court system. Tia plans to eventually attend law school. 

2022 - Reagan McDermott

Reagan grew up in Polson, Montana, and expects to graduate from UM in May 2024 with double majors in Psychology and Sociology. She is extremely grateful for the Hollist Scholarship, because it allowed her to do an unpaid internship over the summer at the YWCA Pathways Domestic Violence Shelter. From there she continued to volunteer at Pathways, and was recently hired as an advocate! Reagan would not be able to have this internship experience, which truly transformed the trajectory of her college education, if not for the generosity of the Hollist Scholarship. Reagan is interested in working in institutional settings after college, possibly in the prison system. She’d like to eventually go back to school to pursue a master's degree in counseling.

2021 - Callie Cavill

Callie Cavill dreamed of a career in Federal Law Enforcement with her gaze set specifically on the FBI Honors internship. On her campus tour before enrollment, she met with then-department chair Dusten Hollist, whose encouragement garnered greater excitement in Callie as he promised to help Callie achieve her dream. Now, in her senior year, Callie was the 2021 recipient of the Dusten Hollist Scholarship. The Dusten Hollist Scholarship is a $1,000 scholarship awarded to one criminology/sociology student each year to help subsidize students’ abilities to undertake research or internships of their choice. Callie was awarded the scholarship for her year-long internship with the US Probation & Parole Office here in Missoula, MT. Callie, a first-generation student from Stevensville, MT was able to extend her unpaid internship through the summer while taking on extra responsibility so that she could better understand the field and gain more experience. During her internship with the US Probation & Parole Office, Callie spent much of her time requesting documentation for defendants’ records from various agencies, updating databases with the received information, and filing away for safekeeping. She was also able to help in the production of pre-trial and pre-sentencing reports. Of all her experiences, Callie marked that the most eye-opening were the occasions on which she was able to go down to the county jail to meet defendants in the interview rooms and hear their statements. Callie noted that her expectations of these defendants were constantly subverted; that hearing their stories gave her unexpected compassion and unique insight into the heart of criminology and law enforcement. She hopes this experience will be enough to get her an FBI Honors internship in the future.

2020 - Meghan St. Germain and Nash O'Hara

 Meghan, who grew up in Florence MT, was always interested in culture and human behavior, so when she discovered Sociology she was immediately “hooked.” One of her favorite aspects of her Sociology education at UM is how it helped her process current events. “My time in the sociology department has been really valuable in general,” she explained, “but I really appreciate when we have discussions about things that are happening outside of our classrooms right now…I think that it is important that we are able to slow down and really dissect what is going on and how we can see sociological principles unfolding in front of us.” When asked about the highlights of her internship, St. Germain said that she “loved working with the detectives on cases and seeing all of the work that goes into getting a case to go to trial.”

Nash grew up in Medford, Oregon, and plans to pursue a career in law enforcement after graduation. Reflecting on his internship, O’Hara said that he appreciated learning what law enforcement officers do on a day-to-day basis. He “found being involved with active cases the most educational” as well as “the most exciting” part of his internship. The Department of Sociology congratulates Meghan and Nash on this well-deserved accomplishment and is grateful to donors for establishing the scholarship.