ASU Student Wins Leadership Scholarship

SAN ANGELO, TX – Linda Abernathy, a civil engineering student at Angelo State University, has been awarded this year’s $5,000 Molitoris Leadership Scholarship for Undergraduates from the Heart of Texas Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS), an international organization dedicated to advancing women in transportation careers.

A senior from San Diego, Calif., Abernathy will be honored at the WTS Heart of Texas Chapter Gala in April in Austin. Only two undergraduate scholarships are awarded each year by the Heart of Texas Chapter. By winning a chapter scholarship, Abernathy will compete with the other chapter winners for a corresponding WTS Foundation Scholarship that will be awarded at the WTS National Conference in May.

According to WTS, the Molitoris Leadership Scholarship is awarded to motivate and reward women who demonstrate leadership in the transportation industry. Abernathy is in the midst of completing an engineering internship with the City of San Angelo that began in 2018, and she is conducting an ASU undergraduate research project titled “Transportation Needs Assessment for the City of San Angelo and the Concho Valley Transit District.” Her ASU faculty mentor for the project is Dr. Dick Apronti.

“Linda Abernathy stands out because she is not afraid to take on responsibilities and challenges,” Apronti said. “Her volunteerism and drive to make a difference in her community is one that few students can combine with the level of academic excellence she aspires to reach. The ASU David L. Hirschfeld Department of Engineering is proud of her achievement because her success is a testament to the hardworking and quality women engineering students in our department.”

In addition to her research and internship, Abernathy is president of ASU’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ACSE) and a member of its competitive team, the RAMgineers. Along with her fellow RAMgineers, she won multiple awards for engineering contests at the 2020 ACSE Texas-Mexico Symposium. She has also received an ASU Carr Academic Scholarship and a 2020 Reece Albert Civil Engineering Scholarship, and she was voted ASU’s 2020 Homecoming Queen.

Also active in the community, Abernathy volunteers for the Keep San Angelo Beautiful organization, City of San Angelo and Paul Ann Baptist Church, and as an assistant basketball coach for the San Angelo Lady Saints.

Abernathy is scheduled to graduate from ASU with her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree this fall.