Bright Schol­ar, Rose­mary Gal­damez is an Envi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence major with a minor in Women’s and Gen­der Stud­ies. She attends Iowa State Uni­ver­si­ty and is expect­ed to grad­u­ate in Spring of 2022. 

How are you explor­ing your career and prepar­ing your­self for life after college?

I have had the incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ty to work in two dif­fer­ent labs with amaz­ing peo­ple in my field. I also have been able to learn more about water qual­i­ty issues, man­age­ment prac­tices and research prac­tices. I believe the con­nec­tions I’ve made and the skills I have gained through these expe­ri­ences will help me great­ly after graduation. 

What advice would you give to some­one who is con­sid­er­ing apply­ing for the Bright Schol­ars or Lois Dale Bright Schol­ar­ship?

Through­out my three years in col­lege, I have felt and appre­ci­at­ed the sup­port from the Lois Dale Foun­da­tion. I strong­ly encour­age any­one con­sid­er­ing apply­ing to the Lois Dale Bright Schol­ar­ship to do so.

What has been your biggest accom­plish­ment so far?

I was the con­fer­ence chair for my soror­i­ty and, after months of plan­ning, we were able to host Lati­na stu­dents from Mar­shall­town High School. We taught them about col­lege and pro­vid­ed resources to help them with their prepa­ra­tion. It was heart­warm­ing to hear about the impact the con­fer­ence had on the par­tic­i­pants. It was a very reward­ing experience.

What is your favorite class and why?

I loved my Ecofem­i­nism course because it was the per­fect com­bi­na­tion of my major and my minor, and I am pas­sion­ate about both. It was eye-open­ing to learn about agri­cul­ture in dif­fer­ent cul­tures and the rela­tion­ship women have had, and con­tin­ue to have, with the environment.

Who is your biggest inspi­ra­tion and why?

My par­ents are my biggest inspi­ra­tion because of all the sac­ri­fices they have made to help me pur­sue high­er edu­ca­tion. They have been my biggest sup­port­ers, and it means the world to me to cel­e­brate my accom­plish­ments with them.