Patricia “Itzel” Rodriguez
Senior Patricia “Itzel” Rodriguez was awarded the 2021 Alan C. McClure Graduate Scholarship.
“I know that my professors were really pushing for me,” Rodriguez said. “It feels amazing to know that there are people out there who support me. It really does mean something that my education means a lot to them too.”
Named after the maritime arts and sciences innovator and pioneer, the Alan C. McClure Graduate Scholarship is part of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers’ (SNAME) Graduate Scholars Program.
For Rodriguez, it serves as a foundation for her doctoral degree at Texas A&M where she will harness her lifelong fascination with ships with a focus in naval architecture.
Rodriguez joined SNAME her sophomore year as an underclassman ambassador. As a junior, she served as vice president and is now president of the local student branch.
Ashley Mullen
“I’ve always loved the ocean,” said Ashley Mullen, graduate student at Texas A&M University at Galveston. “I’ve always been intrigued by it because it’s just so massive and vast, and there’s so much we don’t know about it.”
A recipient of the 2021 Engineering Graduate Merit Doctoral Fellowship, Mullen was introduced to ocean engineering as a freshman. Now, she is pursuing her master’s and doctoral degrees.
“I’m super blessed and thankful to not only have the rest of my education paid for, but also to be paid to do what I love,” Mullen said. “It’s one thing to be an undergrad and to do well, but this fellowship is a reminder that people want me here.”
Mullen’s main interests lie in wave energy — a branch of power generation and renewable energy in which power is produced by floating devices placed on the ocean’s surface.