Barrett student Tatum McMillan traveled the world with support from Jaap Sustainability Scholarship

Tatum McMillan, a senior biomedical engineering major in Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, has traveled the world with support from the Jaap Sustainability Scholarship.

“As an honors engineering student, I have been fortunate to be able to travel to three continents – Europe, Asia, and Africa – for four separate engineering projects in 2023 and 2024. The Jaap Sustainability Scholarship has helped offset the cost of travel and materials for the projects to make sustainable differences internationally,” she said.

“Ultimately, my mission in life is to help people, the planet, and animals alike, and this scholarship has not only validated my efforts thus far, but has facilitated the ability to continue my sustainability endeavors.”

The Jaap Sustainability Scholarship (Summer Internships and Thesis Support Funding) offers Barrett Honors College students two types of funding, one for summer internships and another for thesis support. This scholarship is available to Barrett students pursuing a summer internship or researching their honors thesis in sustainability, particularly solutions to sustainability challenges on a local, regional, national or global scale.

When applying, students interested in internship funding should select “internships” and students interested in thesis funding should select “thesis support funding”. Students can apply for both scholarships, but need to submit a separate application for each one.

Applications open Nov. 1, 2024 and close Feb. 1, 2025. Recipients will receive approximately $1,000. Funds will be awarded for fall 2025.

More information about the Jaap Sustainability Scholarship and an application are on the Barrett scholarship portal.

As vice president of the ASU Engineers Without Borders chapter and team lead for its Kenya Clean Water Accessibility Project, McMillan traveled to Kenya, East Africa over the summer of 2023 to implement a rainwater catchment system aimed at increasing water availability for children at Naki Secondary School.

As a founding member and research lead of Coral Cure, McMillan went to Spain with Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) for a coral reef restoration project in spring 2023 and 2024, where she met with stakeholders, showcased coral nursery prototypes and helped determine which iteration was best for implementation in the Costa Brava, a coastal region in northeastern Spain.

McMillan also traveled to Vietnam with EPICS as the design lead for the Vietnam Monkey Enrichment Project over winter break of 2023.

There she worked on prototyping and building monkey bridges to conserve the primates on the Son Tra peninsula. The monkey bridges reconnect fractured primate habitats and provide them with safe routes for migration to help preserve monkey species, including the endangered red-shanked douc langur.

Currently, McMillan is completing her honors thesis on the importance of sustainable engineering projects worldwide based on her personal, hands-on experiences with such projects.

“I feel very honored to have been chosen for this scholarship as it is a testament to the sustainability work that I have completed. Obtaining this scholarship has allowed me to continue to pursue my sustainability interests and make a difference not only locally, but globally,” she said.

“I never anticipated making global changes or experiencing so many new perspectives as an undergraduate, and I am forever grateful for these experiences and the various sustainability progress I have made,” she added.

McMillan encourages students interested in sustainability to apply for the Jaap Sustainability Scholarship.

“I will always be a proponent of applying for a scholarship that is applicable to your skillset and experiences. If you have made, are in the process of, or will make a sustainable impact, I suggest you apply for the Jaap Sustainability Scholarship,” she said.