Local college students win honors

Zachary Bush of Cottonwood Heights, a membere of the Bowdoin College class of 2012, was named a Sarah and James Bowdoin Scholar for 2011-12. He is majoring in biology and mathematics at the school.

Students who are designated Sarah and James Bowdoin Scholars are in the top (highest GPA) 20 percent of each class for the previous academic year. In addition, those scholars who earned a GPA of 4.0 are designated Sarah and James Bowdoin Book Award winners.

Bowdoin College is a small, highly selective liberal arts college located in Brunswick, Maine, about 25 miles north of Portland. One of the oldest colleges in the nation, it received its charter in 1794. Bowdoin enrolls approximately 1,750 students from across the country and around the world.

Parker Dylan Shaw of Cottonwood Heights, a graduate student majoring in Latin American literature and cultural studies in the University of Pittsburgh Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature in the School of Arts and Sciences, received the Ivan Santa-Cruz Memorial Award from the University’s Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Program. Shaw traveled to Santiago, Chile, to conduct research on the Chilean Boy Scout movement especially during dictatorships in Santiago.

This year, 43 students received scholarships between $2,000 and $5,000 to study abroad. Students traveled to Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, England, Egypt, France, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Lebanon, Morocco, Peru, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Sicily, Spain, Syria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine and Vietnam.