Florida Tech Graduate Student Wins National Scholarship For Women

By  //  May 3, 2015

awarded $15,000

Florida Institute of Technology graduate student Carly Randall has been awarded a 2015-16 Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Scholar Award, a $15,000, merit-based, highly competitive scholarship given to just 85 women in the U.S. and Canada annually who are pursing doctoral degrees at an accredited college or university. (Florida Tech image)
Florida Institute of Technology graduate student Carly Randall has been awarded a 2015-16 Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Scholar Award, a $15,000, merit-based, highly competitive scholarship given to just 85 women in the U.S. and Canada annually who are pursing doctoral degrees at an accredited college or university. (Florida Tech image)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA — Florida Institute of Technology graduate student Carly Randall has been awarded a 2015-16 Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Scholar Award, a $15,000, merit-based, highly competitive scholarship given to just 85 women in the U.S. and Canada annually who are pursing doctoral degrees at an accredited college or university.

Randall, the third Florida Tech student to win a PEO Scholar Award in the last two years, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences.

She was nominated by the Scholar Awards Committee of the Brevard County-based Chapter CK of PEO International. Committee members are Jill Hoffman, Patricia Hemphill and Sandra Bryan.

Randall was recognized for her research proposal, “The relationship between Caribbean-coral diseases and the thermal environment,” as well as her academic record, her potential to make a significant contribution to her field, scholarly activities, career goals, and academic awards and honors.

Randall and her faculty advisor, Robert van Woesik, recently published part of her dissertation study in the prestigious international journal, Nature Climate Change.

“It is such an honor to receive this award from PEO and to be able to represent Florida Institute of Technology and our outstanding Department of Biological Sciences,” Randall said.

“This award will allow me the opportunity to broaden the scope of my dissertation research and share my work with the scientific community at an international level.”

A native of Rockville, Maryland, Randall earned her master’s degree in marine biology in 2009 from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she studied the impacts of climate change on the reproduction of a critical, reef-building coral under Professor Alina Szmant.

Florida Tech Assistant Dustin Smith Named Womens Head Soccer CoachRelated Story:
Florida Tech Assistant Dustin Smith Named Womens Head Soccer Coach

Randall also worked for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development as a student contractor in the coral-ecology laboratory before coming to Florida Tech.

Randall, who has also been named a National Portz Scholar, expects to graduate in Spring 2016 with a doctorate in ecology.

Florida Tech students Lorian Schweikert and Holly Sweat won PEO Scholar Awards in 2013-14.