Seven UCLA students received competitive scholarships from the Los Angeles chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar this year in honor of their accomplishments, research, and promise in the transportation field. 

WTS is an international organization that aims to advance the academic and professional careers of women in the transportation industry, primarily by supporting students and professionals and facilitating networks and connections between them. 

The Los Angeles chapter awards over $100,000 annually to women in transportation-related high school, community college, undergraduate and graduate programs in Southern California. Six of the nine scholarships for graduate students in the 2022-23 academic year were awarded to students at UCLA.

Two students, Lucie Wu and Greer Cowan, received the top WTS-LA award, the Myra L. Frank Memorial Scholarship. Wu and Cowan are both second-year urban planning students. 

Wu aims to work in the general transportation field after receiving her degree, whether at a transit agency or in transportation and environmental consulting. “I am especially interested in environmental issues as they relate to transportation. I would like to engage my past skills and experiences in human-centered design and combine them with urban planning,” Wu said. 

Wu is working on a capstone project focused on the usage of BruinHub, a space on the UCLA campus that opened in 2021 with the goal of providing supercommuting and housing-insecure students with basic amenities. Her project will evaluate whether the program is targeting and helping its intended beneficiaries, and the findings will be used to improve outreach and impact. 

Cowan, the other top scholarship recipient, hopes to help public agencies improve the quality and comprehensiveness of their mobility data and develop a citizen-centric approach to urban analytics following her graduation. She currently works as a graduate student researcher for the Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative out of the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies. Cowan is working on a capstone project with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency focused on understanding and addressing gender-based harassment on their transit systems. 

“I’m honored to be supported by WTS during my second year of graduate school. On top of the transformational financial support of the scholarship, meeting and talking to women at various stages of their career in the field during the scholarship award event was an inspiring opportunity,” Cowan said.

Wu, Cowan, and the other WTS-LA scholarship recipients were all honored at an annual dinner in November 2022.

Other Recipients 

• Adria Stauber, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning student, was awarded the BYD Build Your Dreams Scholarship.
• Shaellen Franco, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning student, was awarded the WTS-LA & Psomas Graduate Scholarship.
• Yasmina Yusef, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning student, was awarded the WTS-LA & Mott MacDonald Graduate Scholarship.
• Katrina Deloso, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning and Master of Public Health student, was awarded the WTS-LA & Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Equity in Transportation Scholarship.
• Sophia Balkovski, an undergraduate student studying economics and public affairs, was awarded the Ava Doner Memorial Scholarship.