Graduate Awards 

Ama Appau:
Frank Cox Jones Scholarship

Ama Konadu Appau is currently entering her second year of the MS data science program with a focus on Business Analytics. She earned her bachelor's degree in actuarial science from the University of Ghana and came to AU having already served as a teaching assistant in her undergraduate program. Ama has served as a TA for Calculus I, our graduate-level Statistical Methods course, and several sections of our core data science course, Statistical Programming in R, including our first-ever section offered to DCPS high school seniors as part of our new dual enrollment program. Ama has been described by her faculty TA supervisors as careful and meticulous in her work and thoughtful in her engagement with students. She describes herself as a tenacious and goal-oriented individual who is always seeking opportunities to grow and be impactful in her community.  Ama will be spending this summer working as a data analytics intern with the biotech corporation Genentech.

Johnson Odejide:
Frank Cox Jones Scholarship

A disciple of Jesus Christ, a husband, a dad, and a software engineer now turning into a statistical sleuth, Johnson Odejide received his OND, HND, PGD, BS, and MS in computer science in Nigeria, and is pursuing a second MS in data science. He has a publication under his belt and has co-authored others. He is a research assistant to Professor Siddiqui on then Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems project, where he works with data to solve the challenge of food waste in the United States.  In his free time, Johnson loves to play soccer and mentor younger ones on everyday, ordinary life issues.

Josephus Nyumalin:
Kenneth “Jacob” Ward Scholarship

Josephus TC Nyumalin is an international student from Liberia, a beautiful small country located on the west coast of Africa. Josephus is a graduate student pursuing an MS degree in Statistics. Prior to joining the AU family, he earned an MS in Quantitative Economics from the California Lutheran University, and an honors BS in economics and mathematics from the University of Liberia. With keen interest in education and deep passion to help others, Josephus serves as a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, where he works with undergraduates on basic statistics and calculus.

While pursuing his MSQE, he served as Forecast model and database programmer at the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting and as Graduate Research Assistant for Institutional Research. He also served as Community Outreach Coordinator for the African Student Association, a campus-based student organization. As a young professional, Josephus wants to use his skills and knowledge acquired from the MS in statistics program to meaningfully contribute to the United Nations Development Programme sustainable development goals with keen focus on goals 1 & 4  (End Poverty in all Its Forms & Quality Education)  in his country, region, and the world at large. He is friendly, highly self-motivated, eager to share his knowledge with fellow classmates, and sees challenges as opportunities for growth and development. For fun, he loves to hang out with friends, ride bicycles, and practice martial arts (Taekwondo). Josephus look forward to more opportunities to enable him to pursue a PhD in Economics and serve as a professor at various institutions of higher learning. 

Undergraduate Awards

Collin Coil:
Hanna Miriam Sandler & Bella Sandler Scholarship

Collin is a rising AU senior majoring in mathematics and data science. He hails from Franklin, Tennessee. He is an avid researcher, and he applies the math he learns in the classroom to his work in artificial intelligence and congressional studies. In his spare time, Collin rows for the American University Rowing Club. 

Laura Claire Heinly:
Hanna Miriam Sandler & Bella Sandler Scholarship

Laura “Claire” Heinly is an honors mathematics major with a Spanish minor. She is also on the pre-med track. She will be graduating in spring of 2024. Claire is from Chapel Hill, NC. She took a gap year before starting at American. In the fall of that year, she lived with a family and taught in a school for low-income children in Ghana. In the spring of that year, she was taking classes in Sevilla, Spain, and living with a family, but her program ended abruptly due to the pandemic. She recently finished an AU study abroad program in Madrid, where she was able to focus on her Spanish and benefit from living in the country as she had hoped to do during her gap year. 

In addition to her coursework at AU, Claire has been a tutor in the math department since spring of 2022. She has also been on the women’s club rugby team since her first year at AU. She took up rugby, having never played it, as an AU student. She was a team captain during the fall semester of her junior year and will be president during her senior year. Claire worked in a research lab focusing on the evolution of CRF01_AE, a circulating recombinant form of HIV-1, using R and other programming software in the summer of 2022. She is returning to the lab for hands-on work in the summer of 2023. Her long-term plan is to take a few years off and work following graduation and eventually apply to medical school. 

Thomas Schupp:
Hanna Miriam Sandler & Bella Sandler Scholarship Award

Tommy Schupp is a rising junior majoring in mathematics and data science for political science. He is very passionate about number theory and loves to share this passion with others. Outside of mathematics, Tommy enjoys running and lifting weights.