May 13, 2022
Two K-State students earn Eisenhower Transportation Graduate Fellowship for second time
Two master's students in regional and community planning in the Kansas State University landscape architecture and regional & community planning department are recipients of the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Graduate Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration for the second time.
Jason Groothuis, Omaha, Nebraska, and Tyler Tripp, Frisco, Texas, are receiving fellowships to support their studies in transportation-related disciplines. Both received the fellowships in 2020.
Groothuis is again receiving a $5,000 fellowship and Tripp will again receive a $10,000 fellowship. Both fellowships include a stipend, tuition support and the opportunity to attend the 2022 Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Groothuis received the fellowship for his ongoing project "Evaluating the Inclusion of Equity in the Planning and Implementation of Omaha Bus Rapid Transit (ORBT), Omaha Nebraska."
"After starting out in an architecture design studio my first year, I transitioned to regional and community planning as I appreciated the ability to look at the larger picture and give more consideration to the greater community that interacts with the built environment in which they live," Groothuis said.
Tripp received the fellowship for his project "Assessing the Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure on the Willingness to Commute via Bicycle."
"My interest in transportation and increasing equity has spread far past my education or work experience. I have also found myself joining transportation advocacy movements," said Tripp, who started a campus branch of the Manhattan advocacy group Bike Walk MHK.
Greg Newmark, research associate professor of civil engineering and instructor in regional & community planning, is the major professor to the fellowship-winning students.
Students from the landscape architecture and regional & community planning department are frequent winners of the prestigious Eisenhower fellowship, with recipients in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. That amounts to $134,900 in total support to the students from the fellowship program.