North Dakota Space Grant Program

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Pearl I. Young Scholarship

Pearl I. Young Scholarship

The NDSGC has established the prestigious Pearl I. Young Space Grant Award for a female student at the University of North Dakota. Applicants will ideally be involved in a research project of NASA relevance. Young grew up in North Dakota and attended school there. At age 11 she left home to work as a domestic in order to attend high school. After attending Jamestown College for two years, she transferred to the University of North Dakota. She graduated from UND in 1919 as a Phi Beta Kappa with a triple major in physics, mathematics, and chemistry.

Despite her heavy course load, financial necessity dictated that Young work while pursuing her studies. She served as a laboratory assistant in the Physics Department and also worked for the U.S. Weather Bureau. After graduation she taught physics for two years at UND. She then accepted an appointment at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. She was the first woman hired as a technical employee, a physicist of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). That agency later became NASA. She was the second woman hired as a physicist by the federal government. When Young died in 1968, her obituary noted that she had been a scientist, university professor, journalist, lecturer, author and world traveler.

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

Female gender identity or outside the gender binary
Minimum 3.5 GPA
American Citizen
Student majoring in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) or STEM Education field at University of North Dakota

Annual Due Date: March 1st
Pearl Young Scholarship Application Guidance
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