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Twelve juniors at the University of Colorado at Boulder and 24 incoming freshmen students have been selected as the first class of Norlin Scholars, according to Michael Grant, program director.
Norlin Scholars is a new undergraduate education program aimed at highly motivated students with strong academic or creative abilities. The program offers a range of educational benefits plus financial incentives for outstanding students. Several of the new Norlin scholars are recipients of full scholarships provided by the Boettcher Foundation.
"The Norlin Program has been conceived as a way to really challenge the student who has multiple talents and abilities," Grant said. "The students who comprise this first-year Norlin class reflect that pattern very strongly.
"Student after student shows broad achievements in music and math, art and engineering, science and history, language and chemistry, biology and business," he said. "Academically, they are exceedingly well prepared for the rigors of college academics and the extra challenges of the Norlin Program."
Each Norlin scholar not receiving significant other scholarship monies will receive a merit-based award of $2,000 per year.
Twelve of the new scholars have perfect 4.0 grade point averages. The overall class grade-point average is 3.8. Six were high school valedictorians. Most students have taken college level work and all have taken advanced placement classes. Several are published poets, essayists and scientists.
"This class of young scholars represents many diverse aspects of the modern world," Grant said. "We have students from very rural environments, from big cities, from the U.S. and other countries. Some have highly educated parents and some are first generation college students.
"We have sons and daughters of recent immigrants and descendants of long-time U.S. lineages. One-third of these students have identified themselves as members of ethnic minorities, including African-American, Hispanic and students of Asian descent," he said.
As a group, the students have special talents and accomplishments in many languages, including Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Gaelic, Polish, German, French and Czech. They are global in intellectual outlook and many have lived or traveled in Pakistan, England, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, India, Colombia, Austria, Italy, France, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, Israel and Egypt.
In addition to their academic achievements, the students have engaged in many other life experiences in their schools and communities, including national youth leadership conferences, state and national athletic and music competitions, debate teams, school newspaper and yearbook writing and editing, hospital and elementary school volunteering, web page creation and NASA payload construction.
"We are proud to have these outstanding students in the first class of Norlin Scholars," said Phil DiStefano, vice chancellor for academic affairs. "I am excited about the many learning opportunities that they will experience on our campus."
The Norlin class reflects many of the broad interests represented at 抖阴旅行射-Boulder. Ten students have chosen majors within the College of Arts and Sciences, 10 have chosen social sciences and humanities, 10 have chosen business, architecture, pre-journalism and open options and six have chosen engineering.
"The University of Colorado at Boulder is privileged to have these students choose us and it is our aim, and responsibility, to make their decision to come here and to participate in the Norlin Scholars program one of the best they have ever made," Grant said.
The Norlin Scholars Program is one of 抖阴旅行射-Boulder's initiatives that recognizes and encourages outstanding academic performance by students and is another example of the university's commitment to being a premier public research university of the 21st century, preparing the future leaders of Colorado, the nation, and the world and improving human life through learning.
FIRST NORLIN SCHOLARS CLASS
Following are the names of the students in the Norlin Scholars class of 1999, their hometown, high school (if applicable) and major:
Alamosa聴Melinda Gonzales, Alamosa High School, architecture and planning
Alpharetta, GA聴Mary Little, Milton High School (Ga.), information systems
Arvada聴James Barron, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, math
Arvada聴James Smagala, Arvada West High School, biochemistry
Arvada聴Kou Xiong, Pomona High School, computer science engineering
Boulder聴Matthew Colgan, Boulder High School, open option
Boulder聴Alison Flynn, Boulder High School, anthropology
Boulder聴Azucena Reyes, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, environmental studies
Boulder聴Laurie Rust, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, international affairs
Castle Rock聴Ian Bratt, Douglas County High School, open option
Colorado Springs聴Jillian Redfern, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, open option
Colorado Springs聴Grant Young, Air Academy High School, biochemistry
Colorado Springs聴Jeremiah Zartman, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, chemical engineering
Dillingham, AK聴Teresa Dean, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, MCD biology
Englewood聴Ashok Basawapatna, Cherry Creek High School, electrical engineering
Englewood聴Amy Hawes, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, open option
Englewood聴Christopher Miller, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, MCD biology
Flower Mound, TX聴Jenny Stage, Edward Marcus High School, open option
Fort Collins聴Alicia Berger, Ft. Collins High School, MCD biology
Fort Collins聴Sara Blakely, Ft. Collins High School, English
Fort Collins聴Leslie Trujillo, Rocky Mountain High School, pre-journalism
Golden聴Melissa Surratt, Arvada West High School, architecture and planning
Golden聴Wei-Shin Wang, Rampart High School, chemical engineering
Lafayette聴Zoya Voronovich, Fairview High School, chemistry
Lakewood聴Ashima Gupta, Green Mountain High School, MCD biology
Littleton聴Laura Grange, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, open option
Littleton聴Eric Lee, Chatfield High School, aerospace engineering
Louisville聴Brian Gleeson, Centaurus High School, aerospace engineering
Nederland聴Hoyt Koepke, Cambridge Academy (Fla.), physics
New Brighton, MN聴Kathryn Chell, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, EPO biology
Paonia, CO聴Kristin Ridgway, Paonia High School, management
Piaseczno, Poland---Izabella Bien, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, English
Prague, Czech Republic聴Alanna Van Antwerp, International School of Prague, speech, language and hearing sciences
Richmond, VA聴Deryn Goodwin, Mills E. Goodwin High School, history
Rochester, NY聴Katherine Francis, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder, psychology
Springfield, CO聴Waltraud Gollogly, Springfield High School, architecture and planning