Dayton Engineer

By Karen Updyke, School of Engineering

Engineering major, Araion Bradshaw, received the University of Dayton’s 2022 Presidential Outstanding Scholar-Athlete Award and was recognized at the R.U.D.Y.S. (Recognition and Celebration of University of Dayton Student-Athletes Year-End Showcase).

“I was honored to mentor Ms. Bradshaw on her master’s in engineering management capstone project: Developing a sustainable infrastructure for her non-profit, Athletes Driving Change,” said Bradshaw’s award nominator, Sandy Furterer, associate professor with the University’s Department of Engineering Management, Systems and Technology.

Presidential Outstanding Scholar-Athlete Award

This award is a prestigious award that is presented annually to a male and female student-athlete and recognizes their academic achievement, leadership and service to the University and the Dayton communities. The recipients are recognized as individuals who use their college athletic experience to make a positive contribution to their profession and community.

Excerpts from Furterer:

. . . She was always able to balance her academics and athletics and excel. . .. She has consistently achieved high marks in her courses, but more importantly, she engages with her students to network, lead and mentor other students within her courses.

As part of her Lean Six Sigma project, she worked with Premier Health. . .. Her leadership skills helped to gain the trust of her team and the client on a complex engineering project. . .. She helped the project to be a great success.

For Araion’s engineering management capstone project she initiated, Athletes Driving Change, to design a year’s worth of action plans for an up-and-coming social justice organization run by student-athletes across five states. . .. The study also researched, created and implemented an organizational structure to be adopted to ensure constant leadership within the organization as athletes move in and out of the system. This project was Araion’s passion to enact change toward equality and social justice in an organizational structure conducive to the college atmosphere.

. . . She cares deeply for her family and is a role model for her younger siblings. She volunteers in the community . . . refereeing and coaching co-ed youth basketball, cooking for the homeless, volunteering at the YMCA, elementary schools, and the Ronald McDonald House, and visiting hospitals, nursing homes, and veterans’ homes.

Araion exemplifies the student-athlete leader and the Marianist values of community, learning, leading and serving.

Previously, Bradshaw received her Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree and, as an undergraduate student, she participated in the University’s Bachelor’s Plus Master’s Program. She graduated in May 2022 with her master’s degree in engineering management and is currently working towards her second master’s degree, an MBA, and intends to graduate this fall. As a student-athlete, Bradshaw was a guard for the University’s women’s basketball team.

Congratulations, Araion!