Wiens Wins AAUW Scholarship

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M., March 16, 1999 -- Julie Ann Wiens, a native of Moriarty who is now a senior majoring in electrical engineering at New Mexico Tech, recently was named the recipient of the Socorro Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Scholarship.

Wiens, a 1995 graduate of Moriarty High School, is the daughter of Keith and Chris Neel and Jay Johnson.

She was selected for the prestigious honor from a field of several top female students at New Mexico Tech after submitting statements of her goals and future plans and providing academic
references from Tech faculty.

Wiens currently attends the state-supported research university on both a New Mexico Tech Presidential Scholarship and the Manuel Lujan Scholarship and maintains a 3.64 grade point average (GPA) out of a possible 4.00 while doing so.

Wien's senior design project involves designing and constructing a fiber-optic data acquisition device. Last year, she also contributed to the development of a "fire-fighting" robot, a team effort which garnered her and three other Tech electrical engineering students a fifth-place finish
at the Trinity College Fire-Fighting Robot International Competition in Hartford, Conn.
In 1997, Wiens was selected to participate in the ResearchExperience for Undergraduates (REU) program and worked that summer as a "storm chaser," collecting rain and hail data for
Colorado State University.

She currently serves as chapter treasurer of the Tau Beta Pi national engineering honor society and also is a member of the Student-Produced Leisure Activities at Tech (SPLAT) group.

In addition, Wiens recently was designated a "Tech Scholar" at the university. She also is the captain of the New Mexico Tech Women's Volleyball Club and is active in several other intramural sports programs on campus, including basketball and Ultimate Frisbee.

"The electrical engineering professors at New Mexico Tech are friendly," Wiens relates. "However, the curriculum is tough, but, it's well worth all the time you put into it. . . . New Mexico Tech is a great school for a great education."

AAUW, a national organization of more than 160,000 college graduates, is dedicated to promoting equity and higher education for all women. Since 1966, the Socorro Branch of AAUW has awarded scholarships annually to outstanding women students at New Mexico Tech.