U of A Students Receive Steele-Croxton Memorial Scholarships

Amy Wilson

- l-r: Zachary Tipton, Bill Watkins, president of the Beaver Water District Board of Directors, Trent Woessner and Emily Sherrill.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas students Zachary Tipton and Trent Woessner of Fayetteville and Emily Sherrill of Rogers were awarded Steele-Croxton Memorial Scholarships by the Beaver Water District  Board of Directors during the board’s regular meeting Thursday, Feb. 15.

The scholarships provide support to students in the U of A’s College of Engineering and Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences who are studying and exploring careers related to water. The scholarships are funded by participating district board members and other interested individuals and organizations and are named for the late Joe M. Steele and the late Hardy W. Croxton, leaders and past board members.

Tipton, who is finishing his last undergraduate semester as a major in environmental, soil and water science, is minoring in Mandarin Chinese and statistics. He is a non-traditional student, has studied abroad on many occasions, works full-time in a U of A computer lab to support his family and tutors lower level students of Chinese through the university’s International Programs office.

Woessner is a junior in the biological engineering department and is also pursuing a minor in sustainability.

“Without the scholarship, my family and I would suffer a tremendous financial burden,” he told the district board in his thank you letter.

Sherrill is also a junior, majoring in civil engineering and has already completed a minor in Spanish.

“I hope to someday serve the Northwest Arkansas community as a professional engineer with an environmental focus,” she said.

About the Beaver Water District: The mission of Beaver Water District is to serve customers’ needs by providing high quality drinking water that meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements and is economically priced consistent with our quality standards. BWD supplies clean, safe drinking water, sourced from Beaver Lake, at the wholesale price of $1.34 per thousand gallons to Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville. These cities in Northwest Arkansas then pump, store, distribute and resell the water to their customers -- more than 320,000 people and industries in their cities and surrounding areas.