Topics: Awards, Scholarships, College of Architecture and Planning
May 11, 2015
Denise Blankenberger, who just completed her junior year in the Honors College and is studying architecture in the College of Architecture and Planning, has been named a 2015 Udall Scholar.
Denise Blankenberger, who just completed her junior year in the Honors College and is studying architecture in the College of Architecture and Planning, has been named a 2015 Udall Scholar.
The honor comes with a $5,000 scholarship applicable toward her senior year and participation in an orientation week in Tucson, Arizona, this summer. The Udall Foundation honors undergraduate students nationwide for leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to the environment or American Indian nations.
Blankenberger is a leader of Ball State's chapter of Global Brigade, members of which traveled to the rainforests of Panama her sophomore year. In 2014, she received a Cultural Vistas Fellowship that took her to Singapore for an eight-week architecture internship focused on sustainable design.
The Evansville native says her goal as a future architect is to blur the lines between architectural design, environmental sustainability and social justice. "I'm most interested in resilient design, which addresses energy efficiency and the adverse effects of climate change, which has made natural disasters more common and unpredictable than ever before," she said.
One of Blankenberger's mentors, Rod Underwood, praised her selection for the award. "Denise does what every design student should do — determines what should be done, then strives to find a way to do it, not determine what she understands can be done and simply make the best of it," the professor of architecture said. "This dramatic difference in attitude opens the door for her to advance the profession and outlines a path for her success."
Blankenberger said her travels as a student at Ball State have helped her gain greater perspective for her professional passion. "Seeing the places I've been and doing the work I've done in them has shown me that this line of work will allow me to go anywhere," she said. "I've seen firsthand that sustainability is so much more than recycling or solar panels."
Blankenberger was one of 50 Udall Scholars selected from 464 candidates this year. She is the ninth Ball State student to win a Udall Scholarship since 2005.
By Gail Werner, Media Strategist