In the Student Spotlight: June 4, 2021

Kudos to these students

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  • Northern Arizona University Athletics earned both the men’s and women’s Big Sky Conference All-Sport Trophies this year for the sixth time in school history. The NAU teams won five Big Sky titles during the 2020-21 season and had ten Big Sky sponsored teams place in the top four and eight teams place in the top two for their respective sports.
  • Jennifer Zahratka, doctoral student of forestry, was selected for the São Paulo School of Advanced Science on Ecology of Human Sleep and Biological Rhythms event held in Brazil. This experience will complement work she is doing with the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, a small endangered obligate hibernating rodent protected under the Endangered Species Act.
  • Eva Baransky, doctoral student in Earth and environmental science, received a Mineralogical Society of America research grant to study what controls the amount of nickel dissolved in the world’s oceans. Baransky studies with Laura Wasylenki, associate professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability and will conduct experiments in NAU’s Systematic Experimental Study and Analysis of Metals in the Environment lab.
  • Sean Golightly, master’s graduate of communications, and professor of communication Richard Rogers created a video titled, “The Angell Petroglyphs,” which will be screened at the virtual American Rock Art Research Association conference in June. The video is a visually appealing and substantive introduction to a group of petroglyphs east of Flagstaff that are associated with the Sinagua culture between 1075-1225 C.E.
  • Doctoral student of forestry Lydia Bailey presented her work, “Unbust the crust: Restoring unseen desert diversity” for the Wild Ideas presentation series for the Chelan-Douglas Land trust. The presentation covered biocrust biology, its ecological role and the new field of biocrust as a restoration tool.
  • Several members of the women’s track and field team placed at the west regional preliminary .
    • Junior distance runner Jessa Hanson qualified for the national meet after finishing No. 12 in the 10,000-meter race with her personal best time of 33:56.97.
    • Senior distance runner Jeralyn Poe placed No. 14 in the 10,000-meter with a time of 34:14.64.
    • Junior distance runner Bryn Morley finished No. 27 in the 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:27.59.
    • Junior distance runner Melanie Loff ran a time of 2:06.63 in the 800-meter, which placed her No. 1 in the first heat.
    • Freshman distance runner Maggi Congdon ran a time of 2:07.47 in the 800-meter in the last heat of the day.
    • Freshman throwers Alaina Diggs and Eniko Sara ended up No. 46 and No. 19 overall, respectively, for the season.
  • Senior soccer player Madison Montgomery was awarded the United Soccer Coaches Division I Women’s Scholar All-America and All-West Region Second Team honors. Montgomery was the only Scholar All-American from the Big Sky Conference and one of only seven players recognized on the Scholar All-West Region First and Second Teams.
  • Freshman tennis player Gina Dittmann was ranked No. 117 in the final Oracle ITA Division I Women’s Singles Rankings of the Year, her first career ranking. She ended her debut season with a 15-1 record, which also earned her the Big Sky Conference Freshman of the year and Most Valuable Player awards earlier in the season.