Lee Honors College Student Wins National Alpha Lambda Delta Scholarship

Ashley Dittmar, a Lee Honors College student and 2019 Medallion Scholar at Western Michigan University, was recently awarded the Jo Anne J. Trow Scholarship in the amount of $3,000 by Alpha Lambda Delta, a national honor society that recognizes students’ academic success during their first year at a college or university.

Alpha Lambda Delta awarded 50 Trow scholarships this year to outstanding students from across the country. The scholarships currently offer awards that range from $1,000 to $6,000 and selection is based on maintaining a 3.5 grade point average, academic records, participation in Alpha Lambda Delta activities, campus and community service activities and the applicant’s essay answers. The scholarship is for the 2021-22 academic year and is in honor of Jo Anne J. Trow, who served Alpha Lambda Delta as a District Advisor from 1974 to 1979, as Secretary from 1979 to 1983, as President-elect from 1984 to 1985 and as President from 1985 to 1988.

Ashley is from Birch Run, MI and is a Student Planned Major at WMU who was inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta in 2020. Upon learning she’d received the award, Ashley felt “excited and relieved because I had changed my major last fall and needed to take more summer classes, so I can still graduate within four years. I will be able to use this scholarship to reimburse for the price I paid for my summer classes this year, which were prerequisites for other classes I need to take for my new major.”

Of her experience as a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, Ashley says, “Being in ALD has given me a lot of opportunities to explore my interests related to my academic and career goals. I have attended ALD’s ‘Career Conversations,’ where I learned about career options in the field I’m interested in (public health) and I was able to find volunteer opportunities through ALD that allowed me to get into the field of public health, such as volunteering at vaccine clinics throughout Kalamazoo this spring. Since joining ALD, I have a lot clearer idea about what I want to do once I graduate from WMU.”

To learn more about Alpha Lambda Delta, The National Honor Society for First-Year Success, please visit their website. For more information on WMU’s Alpha Lambda Delta chapter, please visit the chapter website.