Kaitlyn Dunahee, a senior in civil engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, has been named a 2025 recipient of the Remington R. Williams Award.
A member of the Kummer Vanguard Scholars Student Steering Committee, Dunahee has held leadership roles for the Residential Commons Hall Association and the Residential Hall Association, represents Christian Campus Fellowship for Student Council, tutors fellow students and is a peer mentor in S&T’s Cornerstone Peers program.
The University of Missouri Board of Curators awarded the scholarship to seven students who attend UM System universities: four from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and one each from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Missouri-St. Louis and S&T. Each recipient receives $1,000 and a leadership medal to wear at their graduation. The students will also be recognized during a Board of Curators meeting at their university.
The Remington R. Williams Award recognizes exceptional student leaders who inspire and advocate for their fellow students. To be considered for the award, students must be involved in at least two student organizations and hold a major leadership position in at least one, and maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA. Each of the seven awardees were nominated by a student, faculty or staff member, and all embody the exceptional commitment to others that defined Williams during his time as a law student at UMKC and a master’s student at UMSL.
Williams served as student representative to the UM Board of Curators from 2020 until his death in June 2022. He was a model of committed student leadership, and the board created this award to honor his legacy of kindness, collaboration and service.
Dunahee was nominated for the award by two faculty members, an administrator and a fellow student at Missouri S&T.
“One of the most notable examples of her contributions to the Kummer Vanguard Scholars program has been showcased in her spearheading the initiative for community service contributions to be included and required for students in the program,” wrote Dr. Rachel Kohman, assistant dean of entrepreneurship education in the Kummer College.
“Kaitlyn worked with fellow committee members to create a rationale statement and plan for implementation,” Kohman wrote. “She reached out to community-based organizations in Rolla to learn about opportunities for Kummer Vanguard Scholars to engage in service with those organizations. Her motivation to create value and inspire service to the community has persisted over multiple semesters as she brought this concept to life.”
Multiple nominators noted that Dunahee asked questions to better understand concepts and was eager to help her classmates.
“Even when my engineering management course was officially online, students could attend class in person once a week,” wrote Dr. Javier Valentin-Sivico in his nomination. He is an assistant teaching professor of engineering management and systems engineering.
“Kaitlyn was among the few students who regularly participated in the in-person lectures and the course learning center,” Valentin-Sivico wrote. “During the learning center, Kaitlyn would assist other students when they had questions on problems she had already solved.”
Dr. Ralph Flori, professor emeritus of earth sciences and engineering, noted a unique characteristic that he noticed about Dunahee.
“Kaitlyn has so many remarkable dimensions,” Flori wrote. “As one example, she took four years of Chinese in high school and knows enough Mandarin Chinese to interact some with our Chinese students at S&T. She’s a busy student working to make everything and everyone around her better.”
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