Hard Working Engineering Major Wins Recognition

HOLLAND – Hope College Engineering/French double major Courtney Clum (’06) had been a dedicated worker in the classroom and across campus during her time at Hope. Her work did not go unnoticed; Clum is the recipient of the Southland Medal (Gerrit H. Albers Gold Medal), an award presented to the outstanding woman of the senior class.

In 2004, Clum was instrumental in starting an Engineers Without Borders chapter at Hope and went on to become its vice-president in her senior year. She and 4 other members traveled to Cameroon in March of 2006 in order find a suitable source of water for a village of 500 people. Her role as an officer in EWB brought several responsibilities for organization this international effort.

During the summer of 2005, Clum worked with Professor Roger Veldman. Their project was titled “Modeling of a Blast Loaded Flat Panel with Stringers”. They examined the amount of deformation in the plates and in the stringers and their results were presented at conferences in Orlando, FL and Dearborn, MI and were published in the October 2006 issue of the International Journal of Impact Engineering. In part because of her research, she was one of those awarded with the engineering Sigma Xi Research Awards.

In addition to her other awards, Clum was awarded an engineering Phi Beta Kappa award for a high level of scholarship in that field as well as the Senior Engineering Prize. She is also a past winner of the Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship for women working in the natural sciences