Past Scholarship Winners
2023 Scholarship Winners
Check out our 2023 scholarship winners, announced at our annual gala in March, in the WTS Northwest Region’s Spotlight, and listed below. We are grateful to those who have helped sponsor our chapter’s WTS Foundation fund to allow us to support these phenomenal students in their studies and transportation career endeavors.
- Transportation You High School Scholarship: Jenna Yuan
- Shawna Mulhall Memorial Scholarship: Solana Gradanos
- Sharon D. Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship: Michelle Rosales
- Cathy Strombom Memorial Scholarship: Melissa Hom
- Professor Scott Rutherford Memorial Scholarship: Jamie Tran
- Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship: Elyse Lewis
- Jannet Walker-Ford Leadership Legacy Scholarship: Katie Guthrie
- Jannet Walker-Ford Leadership Legacy Scholarship: Anna Martinez
2022 Scholarship Winners
WTS fosters the development of women in the transportation field by encouraging bright new professionals and students to undertake careers in the area of transportation. One way our chapter does this is by awarding scholarships at high school, technical school, undergraduate, and graduate levels of studies to women pursuing their education or career in a transportation-related field. Awards were presented on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at our annual WTS Puget Sound/Seattle Awards & Scholarships Gala.
Paula Hammond Leadership Legacy Scholarship
Ayuma Manawadu, Washington State University
Shawna Mulhall Memorial Scholarship
Maimoona Rahim, University of Washington
Professor Scott Rutherford Memorial Scholarship
Lorena Ware, University of Washington
Cathy Strombom Memorial Scholarship
Rachel Brown, University of Washington
Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship
Gwyn Howard, University of Washington
Sharon D Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship
Beatriz Muniz Silva, University of Washington
Junior College Trade School Scholarship
Willow Watts, Bellingham Technical College
Junior College Trade School Scholarship
Raan Alkhalissi, Green River College
Transportation YOU High School Scholarship
Afifah Kashif
2021 Scholarship Winners
Maggie Walsh Leadership Legacy Scholarship
Veronica Bean
Veronica Bean is a concurrent Master of Urban Planning (MUP) and Master of Civil Engineering in Transportation (CET) student at the University of Washington. Her areas of interest include transit and active transportation and their intersection with equity. As such, she is conducting an equity study of the Pierce Transit system for her MUP thesis. Upon completion of her degrees, Veronica intends to work at a public transportation agency with the goal of improving people’s transportation options within modern cities in the U.S. Drawing upon her international and domestic experiences of utilizing transit, she hopes to make effective changes in transit in the U.S. to allow for better options for people living and visiting here.
Shawna Mulhall Memorial Scholarship
Haoua Sereme
Haoua Sereme is a motivated transportation engineer with over seven years of experience in the transportation industry. She is currently a lead designer at the Washington State Department of Transportation. Haoua grew up in Burkina Faso, a landlocked country located in the middle of West Africa. After coming to the United States, she began fulfilling her dream by earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Washington. Her passion for the field of transportation and logistics is the main reason for going back to school for a second master’s degree in supply chain transportation and logistics at the University of Washington. Her goal is to earn a PhD and be a change maker by becoming an innovative and inspiring leader who enables transportation logistics growth around the world. During her free time, Haoua enjoys spending time with her two young boys, Aaron and Asher.
Professor Scott Rutherford Memorial Scholarship
Geethapriya Kumaraguru
Geethapriya Kumaraguru is an electronics and communications engineer with two years of experience in the supply chain and logistics field. She has grown fond of this field and set a noble career goal of establishing a new standard of trust in supply chain and logistics using IoT and blockchain. To accomplish this goal and to further her knowledge, she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in supply chain management at the University of Washington. Geethapriya spends her free time volunteering and doing social service. She has volunteered at Washington Talking Book and Braille Library helping the visually challenged and at the Borgen project lobbying congress to redirect funds towards addressing world poverty. Geethapriya is a top Google local guide, trailblazing new places in and around King County.
Cathy Strombom Memorial Scholarship
Sylvia Crum
Sylvia Crum’s transportation work began in a community bicycle shop, where she taught women and families to use bicycles for active transportation. Now, as the Commute Options Program Manager at Innovate Memphis, she helps businesses, employees and students to shift away from their drive-alone commutes. Her experiences promoting behavior change inform her study of land use, mobility and transportation decisions in the Master of Sustainable Transportation program at the University of Washington. Sylvia serves as Board Secretary for the southeast chapter of the Association for Commuter Transportation. She received a B.A. in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College. She is married to a teacher and has two children who ride their bicycles to public school in Memphis.
Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship
Seyma Gunes
Seyma Gunes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering with a minor in industrial engineering from Bogazici University in Turkey. She is currently pursuing a Master of Science in civil and environmental engineering with a focus in transportation at the University of Washington. She serves as a research assistant for the Urban Freight Lab at the Supply Chain and Logistics Center. Her research focuses on addressing challenges and evaluating strategies to improve efficiencies and reduce emissions in urban freight systems. Upon graduation, Seyma would like to start her career as a transportation engineer and guide the development of innovative solutions in the industry.
Sharon D Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship
Iman Haji
Iman Haji is a graduating senior studying civil engineering with a focus on transportation engineering at the University of Washington. She began university at the age of 16 through the UW Robinson Center for Young Scholars. Iman currently interns with the Seattle Department of Transportation's Transit and Mobility Division and holds leadership roles in the UW chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, and Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers. After graduating, she aspires to pursue a master's degree in transportation engineering at the University of Washington to contribute to research within the transportation field and then plans to pursue a career where she can advocate for equity in transportation and contribute to public sector infrastructure projects in Seattle's community.
Transportation YOU High School Scholarship
Abby Zhou
Abby Zhou is a senior at Franklin High School and full-time Running Start student at Seattle Central College. Next year, she plans on transferring to a four-year university to major in information systems and supply chain management. She wants to learn more about the intersection between business and technology to innovate efficiency in business operations, leading to benefits such as enhancing customer satisfaction and minimizing carbon emissions in the environment. While extremely passionate about business and technology, she is also interested in learning more about the unequal access to technology among underrepresented communities. Ultimately, she wants to use her information systems degree to help underrepresented community business owners remain competitive by incorporating technology into their daily operations.
2020 Scholarship Winners
- Maggie Walsh Leadership Legacy: Greta Lybbert
- Molitoris Leadership: Sierra Goss
- Shawna Mulhall Memorial: Sara Lucero
- Senator Scott White Memorial: Mayuree Binjolkar
- Professor Scott Rutherford Memorial: Youngchae Kim
- Cathy Strombom Memorial: Veronica Bean
- Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate: Parastoo Jabari
- Junior College Trade School: Vivianna Hernandez
- Transportation YOU: Brielle Chenier
- Transportation YOU: Marian Picard