Silva, Flores are 2019 Minority Scholarship Recipients

Adriana Silva and Melanie Flores are the recipients of the 2019 APA Florida Minority Scholarships.  Adriana and Melanie will each receive $2,000 and $1,500 respectively, to apply towards education expenses.

Adriana is a first-year graduate student in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. She recently received her Bachelor of Science with Honors in Environment & Society from Florida State.  

Prior to graduate school, Adriana held positions with ReThink Energy Florida, a statewide nonprofit that promotes renewable energy, and the Kranz Lab, a research lab in FSU"s Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science.   As a program coordinator for ReThink, she led their advocacy day at the Florida State Capitol and worked to educate citizens on current environmental issues.  While at the Kranz Lab, Adriana assisted in research on phytoplankton and biogeochemistry.  Now in the field of planning, Adriana want to focus on affordable housing.

          

Melanie, who is the daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants, is also first-year graduate student in Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. In August, she received a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from FSU.  Her graduate studies specialties include transportation, land use, and GIS.  Currently Melanie is interning with StarMetro, the transit service in Tallahassee.   

After graduation, Melanie hopes to push innovation to improve transportation systems, in order to be more integrated, resilient, and accessible. She intends to focus on data sharing, multi-modal transportation planning, technological impacts to the transportation field, and to ensure communities and residents from all backgrounds are heard and valued in the process.  

Congratulations to both Adriana and Melanie!

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