Northwest senior is state’s top geology student

leger medium

Pictured is Ashley Leger, winner of the
2008 O.R. Grawe Award, which is given
each year by the Association of Missouri
Geologists to state's top undergraduate
student in geology.

Ashley Leger, a senior geology major at Northwest from Omaha, Neb., recently received the prestigious O.R. Grawe Award, which is presented annually by the Association of Missouri Geologists to the state’s outstanding undergraduate geology student.

Leger, who attended Burke High School in Omaha, plans to graduate from Northwest this spring and will seek to attend the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, where she wants to pursue graduate studies leading to a Ph.D.

In summer 2007, Leger was one of two students to receive a scholarship for two weeks of study at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, S.D. She returned to the site this past summer as one of six interns and hopes someday to work there as a member of the professional staff.

Leger is an officer of Northwest’s Geo Club and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She also belongs to the Sigma Gamma Epsilon National Earth Science Society, the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Society and Cardinal Key.

She has held many student leadership positions in the University’s Department of Geology and Geography, including faculty office assistant, lecture assistant, lab assistant and assistant for online earth science courses.

The O.R. Grawe Award is named in honor of Oliver Rudolph Grawe, first president of the Association of Missouri Geologists. It is presented annually to the outstanding junior or senior undergraduate geology major in Missouri. Award criteria include classroom achievement, research and service to one’s academic department.

Each year’s winner is selected on the basis of a letter of nomination from a department chair, a written statement describing why the student chose to enter the field of earth science and his or her plans for post-graduate study, a current copy of the applicant's academic transcript and letters of recommendation from two department faculty members.

In recognition of her accomplishments, Leger was given a Brunton pocket transit and case as well as a plaque and certificate from the association. She also received an expense-paid trip to the association’s annual meeting, which took place earlier this month in Columbia.

Previous O.R. Grawe Award winners from Northwest include Lonnie Cook (1972), Northwest assistant professor of geology John Pope (1995) and Diana Leipard Pope. Northwest Professor Emeritus Richard Felton received the award in 1977 as an undergraduate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Aaron Johnson, Northwest assistant professor of geology, received the award in 1997 as an undergraduate at Missouri State University.

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone: 660.562.1704
Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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