Q&A: CEES Student Awarded Graduate Dean's Distinguished Thesis Prize

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Andrea Tavera Paredes, a master's student in the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science at the University of Oklahoma, was recently honored with the Graduate Dean's Distinguished Thesis Prize. 

The Graduate Dean's Distinguished Thesis Prize is awarded to thesis-based master's students exhibiting outstanding performance. Award areas are comprised of three academic specialties: science and engineering; social sciences, education and the professions; and the humanities and fine arts.

OU Engineering talked with Paredes to learn more about her journey.

"I first came to OU as an exchange student in 2018, and I was able to develop such strong relationships with professors and students, that I decided to come back to get my master’s in 2019. Of course, those relationships were only the cherry on top of how amazing OU is as a university; the people, the events, the campus, the opportunities, the student associations, the squirrels ... there’s just nothing quite like it anywhere else.

While getting my master’s, I built new amazing relationships with my coworkers, other students, my professors, particularly with my thesis committee members, and it’s because of the things that I learned from them that I am the woman I am today, and I am where I am today, working for a top engineering company in the United States. 

Little 18-year-old Andrea in Colombia would have never believed such things were possible."

Learn more about awards and competitions in the Graduate College at the University of Oklahoma. 


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