Farmington Resident Received ASU’s Online Undergraduate Research Scholarship

Farmington native Preston Toehe is first-ever scholarship recipient from Arizona State University's Online Undergraduate Research Scholarship program also called OURS. Through the college of liberal arts and sciences. The OUR scholarship was awarded to five students at ASU online. Each winner receives a $1,000 in funds to support their education and research efforts. You're watching the Local News Network brought to you by Sun Ray Park and Casino and Pop's truck and RV center. I'm Deborah Uroda, Preston Toehe is majoring in geographic information science, and he hopes to pilot cutting edge drone technology.

This grant helped my research in furthering the drone technology. We looked into the FAA waivers to fly over 400 feet, which was restricted to drones. They only let us allow us to fly at 400 feet but we needed to capture over thousands of acres of land. And we switched over to a fixed wing drone called the Trinity, and that captures a 90 minute flight time.

With ASU online, Toehe can stay local in Farmington with his wife and two children while completing his education. He works here as a drone pilot and engineer technician at the Navaho transitional and energy company.

I'm here in New Mexico and my school is out in Arizona, so it makes it possible for me to study, either through their online library. And I have a library through my computer.

ASU online media relations coordinator. Daniela Vizcarra, says the degree he seeks directly aligns with his professional efforts. That's why, he was the first of five to receive the $1,000 scholarship.

A $1,000 isn't quite much, but it goes a long way. It helps me as being a first generation, a college graduate this coming spring. It helps out and takes off the load off of my family and the resources that pulls away from them. It also helps me out to, not to stress out going to other resources and trying to find, either loans or something that would also take away from my family and what they're needing but the scholarship will greatly help.

Although it wasn't created specifically in response to the pandemic, the program and scholarship was set up to offer hands-on research opportunities for online students. since it's inception last year, 63 students have participated in research projects.

Because of this grant. I'll be graduating in spring in may 9th. And it helped me greatly to finish this last chapter in my education career.

Students who are enrolled at ASU can look through the scholarship portal to find additional details and apply for scholarships at scholarships.asu.edu. Thanks for watching this addition of the local news network, I'm Deborah Uroda.

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