Tag Archives: Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein Scholarship

The Heinlein Society 2018 Scholarship Winners

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The Heinlein Society celebrated Robert A. Heinlein’s 111th birthday today by announcing the three winners of its 2018 Scholarship competition.

This year the “Virginia Heinlein Memorial Scholarship” is joined by the “Jerry Pournelle Memorial Scholarship” and “Yoji Kondo Memorial Scholarship,” named in honor of two sff figures and friends of Heinlein who died within the past 12 months.

Virginia Heinlein Memorial Scholarship

Carson Butler

She is attending the University of Virgina entering her junior year. She is majoring in Cognitive Science. While in high school she was selected to attend the Frances Hesselbein Student Leadership Program at the U.S. Air Force Academy. In addition to a potential career in neuroscience, she is interested in aerospace and would “… love to work for NASA one day.” Butler was also the winner of the first “Ginny” in 2016.

Jerry Pournelle Memorial Scholarship

Reese Caldwell

This fall he will be attending Harvard University as a freshman, majoring in Chemical and Physical Biology. For his research into external control activity in synthetic cells with light, he was named one of the top 40 high school scientists in the country by the Regeneron Science Talent Search and has presented at two international conferences. After completing his Bachelor’s, he plans to continue on to obtain his PhD in bioengineering, and eventually to work for a university.

Yoji Kondo Scholarship

Emma Sebesta

She begins her university experience as a freshman at Indiana University Bloomington. She is working toward dual majors in Biochemistry and Spanish, with a minor in Psychology. She will be part of IU’s ASURE program (Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Experience). She was Salutatorian of her high school graduating class and received a gold medal on the National Spanish Exam. After obtaining her Bachelor’s, she plans to continue on to attend medical school and obtain her residency. Her dream is to become a fellow at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City.

The Heinlein Society received 301 scholarship applications, almost double last year’s number. In addition to the winners, the other top 10 finalists are:

  • Kayla Keith
  • Neetij Krishnan
  • Kyra Moosmueller
  • Natalie Murren
  • Spencer Pote
  • Stephen Rosene
  • Edith Steffenhagen

[Thanks to Keith G. Kato for the story. The website text was written by Mike Sheffield, Emeritus President of THS and Chairman of the Scholarship Committee.]

Heinlein Society Awards Scholarships

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Heinlein Society logoThe Heinlein Society announced on Robert Heinlein’s 109th birthday, July 7, the winners of its three annual $1,000 undergraduate scholarships: Elias Anderson, Carson Butler, and Charles Hanson.

Elias Anderson is a repeat winner from 2015; the first ever multi-year winner. He is enrolled at St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania as a sophomore majoring in Engineering and Mathematics, He hopes to pursue a career in the space industry.

Carson Bulter is the inaugural winner of the Virginia Heinlein Memorial Scholarship for a woman undergraduate major in a STEM subject. She will be attending the University of Virginia’s College of Arts and Sciences as a freshman, majoring in Aerospace Engineering. She envisions herself working with NASA in the future, and has already taken an eight-week online course as a NASA Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholar, as well as a resident course at Langley Research Center.

Charles Hanson is the first scholarship recipient from outside the United States.  He is enrolled as a freshman at the University of Alberta, majoring in Mathematics. He plans to declare a second major in astrophysics when he has the requisite credits to do so. His dream is to become an astronaut, and last year he attended Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama and has been invited back to attend the Advanced Space Camp.

The winners’ checks will be mailed on August 1. For further details, including the recipients’ schools and majors, see The Heinlein Society Scholarship Program.

The entries were evaluated by a committee composed of Dr. Pauline Bennett, Dr. Marie Guthrie, Dr. Keith Kato, Dr. Jerry Pournelle, Geo Rule, Michael Sheffield, and Betsey Wilcox.  A total of 81 entries were submitted, and the committee commented several times during the evaluation process about the difficulty of selecting the Top-10, let alone the Top-3.

[Thanks to Keith Kato for the story.]

Heinlein Society Announces New Scholarship

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Heinlein Society logoThe Heinlein Society will begin awarding the newly-created Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein Scholarship with the 2016-2017 academic year.

The scholarship, endowed by a multi-year donation from an anonymous source, will be available to women undergraduates majoring in STEM (scientific—physical or biological, technical, engineering, mathematics) subjects. The candidates must attend an accredited college or university in any English-speaking country.

The donor is also providing funds to augment a pair of existing scholarships granted by the Society each year to qualified STEM (and SF as literature) major candidates.

All three scholarships will be for $1,000 beginning in 2016.

The donor told THS President Keith Kato that she/he only recently became aware of Mrs. Heinlein’s own formidable scientific background (a PhD candidate in biochemistry at UCLA before she married Robert Heinlein) and found it compelling enough to make the donation.