Hope College junior Eric Dulmes of Oostburg, Wis., has won a prestigious Department of Homeland Security Scholarship for the next two years.
The highly selective scholarships are awarded to undergraduate students who are studying in a homeland security-related science, technology, engineering or mathematics (HS-STEM) field with an interest, major or concentration related to one of 17 homeland security research areas.
The department anticipated awarding only 30 of the undergraduate scholarships nationwide during the current 2010 competition cycle.
The awards are for students with two years of undergraduate education remaining, and cover full tuition and mandatory fees during both years as well as a stipend totaling $23,000 across the two years. The stipend provides support during the two academic years as well as during a 10-week internship that the program will coordinate for the summer between the two academic years. Scholarship recipients commit to a year of full-time service in one of the 17 homeland security research areas, which range from advanced data analysis and visualization; to biological and chemical threats and countermeasures; to explosives detection, mitigation and response; to transportation security.
Dulmes is majoring in engineering with a mechanical engineering emphasis and minoring in mathematics. He has been conducting research during the past two summers on structural blast response with Dr. Roger Veldman of the Hope engineering faculty. He anticipates working in blast detection, mitigation and response after graduation, after which he is considering pursuing graduate work and a career in mechanical engineering.
Dulmes is son of Mark and Joy Dulmes of Oostburg. He is a 2008 graduate of Oostburg High School.