URSA congratulates Spring Internship and Travel Award recipients
May 14, 2025
The Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity congratulates the following
students who were awarded spring 2025 travel and internship awards:
Spring 2025 Internship Award
Rhiannon Cottle (Art)
Intern-Disney College Program
Walt Disney World Resort (Orlando, Florida)
Undergraduate students with confirmed volunteer, unpaid or minimally paid internships external to UAF are encouraged to apply for URSA Internship award funding. URSA offers up to $3,000 of support for opportunities in the fall or spring, and up to $6,000 for the summer. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Spring 2025 Travel Awards
Kevin Carroll (Art)
Mentor: Jamie Smith
Pastel Workshop: Susan Kuznitsky's "DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK" (Mount Vernon, Washington)
Danny Casner (Wildlife Biology and Conservation)
Mentor: Diana Wolf
Poster Title: DNA sequencing of Hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) stomach contents through
metabarcoding
The Wildlife Society- Alaska Chapter Annual Meeting (Juneau, Alaska)
Linnaea Doerner (Fisheries and Marine Sciences)
Mentor: Lara Horstmann
Poster Title: 4974 Microplastics in bearded seals harvested in Alaska subsistence
communities during the 2010s and 2020s
2025 Alaska Marine Science Symposium (Anchorage, Alaska)
Hannah Greene (Film and Performing Arts)
Mentor: Carrie Baker
2020 University Resident Theatre Association Auditions (Chicago, Illinois)
Brandon Kallenback (Computer and Mechanical Engineering)
Mentor: Michael Roddewig
Presentation Title: Processing dual-polarization lidar data with the wavelet transform
for bathymetric measurements
SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference (Kissimmee, Florida)
Jack Kendall (Computer Engineering)
Mentor: Michael Roddewig
Presentation Title: Detection of benthic algae with a deployable fluorometer
SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference (Kissimmee, Florida)
David McCain (Art)
Mentor: J. Jason Lazarus
Workshop and Portfolio Reviews: Society for Photographic Education 2025 Annual Conference
(Reno, Nevada)
BreAnna Smith (Wildlife Biology and Conservation)
Mentor: Diana Wolf
Poster Title: Extracting Ancient DNA from the North Slope
The Wildlife Society-Alaska Chapter Annual Meeting (Juneau, Alaska)
Group Award: UAF Chapter-Native Alaskan Business Leaders
Students: Marcelo Ketzler-Lopez (Accounting) and Nathan McCotter (Business Administration)
Mentor: Jillian Kates
Presentation Title: Kuskokwim Recreational Center (KRC)
American Indigenous Business Leaders Annual Conference (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Group Award: UAF Native Games Club
Students (L-R): Colin McFarland (Business Administration), Leah Evans (Linguistics),
Parker Kenick (Information Technology), Naatanii Mayo (Art)
Mentor: Donald Crocker
2025 Traditional Games (Juneau, Alaska)
Group Award: UAF Student Investment Fund Club
Business Administration Students (L-R): Tobias Bernhoft-Osa, Alex Armstrong, Matteo
Pecchia, Eric Kelly
Mentor: Kimberly McGinnis
Quinnipiac GAME Forum-Portfolio Competition (New York, New York)
URSA Travel Awards will reopen in July 2025 and are accepted on a rolling basis to support students who plan to actively participate in a conference, competition, immersive program, performance, workshop, or other type of meeting or congregation of the student's peers/professionals in their respective field. Students with accepted participation to an event are encouraged to apply.
For more information on previous internship and travel awardees, visit the URSA Award Recipients webpage.
Contact the URSA office for more information on how to get involved: [email protected] | 907-450-8772.