Summer Rhodes Garners Scholarships

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M., February 26, 2001 -- Roswell native Summer Rhodes, who is now a junior majoring in materials engineering at New Mexico Tech, recently was awarded two prestigious scholarship awards from the American Ceramic Society (ACerS).

Rhodes was selected as this year's recipient of both the New Mexico Section of ACerS Undergraduate Achievement Scholarship and of ACerS national Hoffman Scholarship.

Before starting her undergraduate studies at New Mexico Tech, Rhodes was the valedictorian for the Class of 1998 at Roswell High School. She is the daughter of Beth Rhodes and Steven Rhodes, both of Roswell.

The ACerS scholarships were presented to Rhodes at last month's meeting of the New Mexico Section of ACerS, held in Albuquerque.

In addition to her regular classwork at New Mexico Tech, Rhodes currently is working as a laboratory assistant in the ceramics lab at the state-supported research university. She also has interned the past two summers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, performing particle-size analyses of quartz, alumina, and depleted uranium.

Rhodes is a member of Tech's student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.

"I have had a wonderful experience studying in and working with the New Mexico Tech materials engineering department," Rhodes says.