Florida Tech Student Wins Peace Scholarship

– Florida Tech doctoral student in chemistry, Ria Yngard, has earned a $6,000 award from the P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship Fund. The organization
awards scholarships to women to support their doctoral work.

“This is the first time anyone at Florida Tech has won this award, and it’s the first time any of the P.E.O. chapters in Brevard County have had a winner,”
said Florida Tech humanities and communication instructor Janice Teegen, a P.E.O. member. There are eight P.E.O. chapters in Brevard County.

The purpose of the scholarship, said Teegen, “is to assist a select group of goal-oriented, mature international women who have the potential to return to
positions of influence in their homelands, where they can promote world understanding, which, ultimately, must be the basis for permanent world peace. The
goal is to foster peace through education.”

Yngard, from Paramaribo, Suriname, earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the Teacher Training College in her native country. She earned a master’s
degree in chemistry at Florida Tech and started the doctoral program in spring 2003. Her doctoral research will focus on wastewater treatment.

The P.E.O. began as the P.E.O. Sisterhood in 1869 on the campus of Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Since 1949 P.E.O. has given 4,728
International Peace Scholarships to women from 156 countries.