USU scholars honored by Society of American Military Engineers

LOGAN – Three Aggie engineers are recipients of an academic scholarship program that honors the memory of a Cache Valley native, Utah State University alum and decorated military veteran.

Undergraduates James Dean and Austin Stott, along with entering USU freshman Isabella Muffoletto, received 2013 Lt. Col. G. Roger Sunada Engineering Scholarships from the Great Basin Post of the Society of American Military Engineers. The scholars were among six Utah residents, three college students and three high school students, honored at a Feb. 14 ceremony at Hill Air Force Base.

“It is a distinct privilege to award these scholarships to recipients who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement,” said post president Robert Elliott, who presented the awards along with featured speaker Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers (U.S. Army, ret.) and James Lyon, post education and mentoring chair.

The post awards six $1,800 scholarships each year to students who are entering or who have completed the first year of an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology engineering degree program or a National Architectural Accreditation Board architecture degree program.

Dean and Stott are sophomore mechanical engineering majors and cadets in USU’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 860. Dean is a graduate of Northridge High School in Layton, Utah. Stott is a 2008 graduate of Ogden, Utah’s, Bonneville High School.

Muffoletto is a graduating senior at Utah’s Logan High School and will enter USU as a biological engineering major in fall 2013. Since 2011, she has served as a volunteer in the synthetic spider silk lab of USU USTAR professor Randy Lewis.

Sunada, who died in 2000, earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from USU in 1977. A Gulf War veteran, he served as a civil engineer and squadron commander in the U.S. Air Force. He received the Bronze Star along with other commendations. Following his 16-year active duty military career, Sunada served as director of environmental health for Logan City and chair of the Bear River Board of Health.

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