Each year, 85 brilliant young women in the United States and Canada are selected as P.E.O. Scholars and are awarded $15,000 to support their doctoral or postdoctoral work. Have you ever wondered how they use this money?
Many Scholars use their award money to pay their tuition, to support themselves or to pay for child care so they have the freedom to work on their dissertation. Others use it to enhance the experiences they are having in their program, providing them opportunities they would otherwise have to forego.
The following excerpts from the midyear progress reports filed by our 2009-2010 Scholars reveal the interesting and diverse use of the P.E.O. dollars.
Geosciences
“I collected approximately 400 samples of fire-scarred trees and standing tree ages in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado in order to create a chronology of fire events for the past 300-400 years. Using part of my P.E.O. scholar award, I was able to hire two student assistants. They hiked with me up steep hill slopes, and helped with carrying the field equipment, cutting and coring samples from the trees, and carrying out samples from the study sites.”
Law
“The financial resources that P.E.O. provided allowed me to pursue experiences I might not have otherwise been able to do. I was selected as one of three Yale law students to participate in a Chinese cultural program that included a two-week trip to Beijing and Shanghai. My favorite part of the trip was meeting with Chinese citizens, whose intellectual drive is extraordinary.”
Biomedical Engineering
“I am developing smart sensors to enhance the accuracy of joint replacement surgery. My work in knee and hip replacements is a captivating topic for the many P.E.O.s I’ve met, since I work with many of their surgeons to bring the next generation of technology to a field these ladies have often experienced personally. I have conducted one lab tour for them to see my work first hand and we are planning another in the coming semester.”
Anthropology
“I was invited to participate in two programs affiliated with the United Nations. Without P.E.O. support, I would not have been able to afford the cost of travel from India to Germany and Japan where the events took place. Within India, P.E.O. funds also supported my involvement in a training program on water harvesting in New Delhi.”
Optical Sciences
“Thanks to scholarship funding provided by P.E.O., I was able to finance my visit to Oregon Health and Science University to study the effects of polarized light in tissue with a highly regarded expert in the field of tissue optics.”
History of Art
“After receiving the P.E.O. Scholar Award I traveled to the Tibetan communities in Switzerland—the largest Tibetan exile population in Europe. I attended the Tibetan Institute and spoke with several scholars there, obtained access to the rich collection of Tibetan thangka paintings at the Museum der Kulturen in Basel and photographed the many instances of the Dalai Lama image in the various exile communities.”
Wildlife Ecology
“I have completed all the field and lab work for my project, including the deployment and re-collection of 30 global-positioning-system collars on bighorn sheep using net-gun helicopter captures.
“The P.E.O. award is funding data analysis focusing on the demographic consequences of habitat selection in Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, a federally endangered subspecies and one of the rarest large mammals in North America.”
Medical Doctor
“Appropriately, my multi-city residency interview tour ended in my hometown of Atlanta, where I was able to attend a luncheon by my sponsoring P.E.O. chapter and express my gratitude in person for this extraordinary experience that they made possible. This scholarship is not about the tuition it paid or the M.D. soon to be appended to my name, but a future and an investment in the promise it holds. In honor of P.E.O. and all my teachers and supporters over the many years, I know I will make the most of the opportunities given me to build a legacy truly outstanding.”
