• *wuv ^9 fcvw ■ UVUIJ nvwaJiUUi JUUIUIVI MUUUU ■ 1 g^V / UNL meteorology student claims AMS award By Sarah Bachman Staff writer For the UNL meteorology department, when it rains, it pours - this time in the form of $15,000 awards given to only the nation's best and brightest graduates. For the third straight year, another University of Nebraska Lincoln student has won an American Meteorological Society/Industry/Government Graduate Fellowship. Fellowship winners receive a $15,000 tuition grant for one aca demic year at die graduate school of their choice, which allows them to focus completely on school, according to the AMS' website. Students are able to devote more time and energy to their studies without having to worry about tuition, said this year’s recipient Sarah Tessendorf. “This way I can get a head start in the graduate program and get done in two years,” she said. The fellowships are awarded to those students who have been involved, shown leadership and earned good grades throughout the»r years of being an undergrad uate, Tessendorf said. Not only does the award pro vide money for school, but its prestige - only 12 to 13 fellow ships are given out each year - helps promote considerable recognition in the meteorological world, said Marie Anderson, asso date professor of geosciences and undergraduate advisor at UNL. “It will open up doors for her for the rest of her life,” Anderson said of Tessendorf, who plans to attend graduate school at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. The award also provides tuition to the annual AMS confer ence, to be held in Albuquerque, N.M., next January. At this conference, the fellow ship winners have the opportunity to meet top people in the meteoro logical field, said Amanda Adams, recipient of a 1998 fel lowship. “People who wrote your text book are telling you that you’re smart,” she said. U People who wrote your textbook are telling you that you re smart” Adams graduated from UNL in 1998 and is currently finishing her second year of graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Julie Demuth, a UNL 1999 graduate, received a fellowship for the 1999-2000 school year. She just finished her first year of graduate school at Colorado State. Tessendorf graduated in May with high distinction and served as vice president and president of Sarah Tessendorf AMS award recipient the UNL student chapter of the AMS. UNL Associate Professor of Geosciences Clint Rowe, the advisor for the UNL student chapter of AMS, said Adams and Demuth also served as officers. Tessendorf said she considers this award to be a huge honor and a good reward for her hard work for the past four years. “I feel like what I’m doing and what I’ve already done is worthwhile,” she said.