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Psychology Major Selected Udall Scholar

April 7, 2014

Psychology Major Selected Udall Scholar

Rebecca Plumage, a junior majoring in psychology, has been named a 2014 Udall Scholar. The Udall scholarships - created in honor of the late Congressman Morris K. Udall and his brother Stewart L. Udall, also a congressman and former Secretary of the Interior – are awarded to sophomores and juniors across the U.S. on the basis of commitment to careers in the environment, tribal public policy or Native health care; leadership potential; academic achievement and record of public service. Udall Scholars receive a $5,000 scholarship and participate in a leadership retreat with scholars from around the country. Plumage is one of only 50 Udall Scholars selected this year. She is Ohio State’s eleventh Udall Scholar and the first to win in the Native health care category.

A native of South Dakota, Plumage is a member of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes and a member of the American Indian Council. She helped plan Ohio State's 2013 Alternative Thanksgiving/Harvest Celebration and brought the Lakota hip hop duo Nake Nula Waun to campus. She also helps promote Indian interests in the local community through the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio. In 2013, Plumage was recognized with a National American Indian Education Foundation Scholarship.

Plumage works as a research assistant in Professor Vladimir Sloutsky’s Cognitive Development Lab and as an intern in the department’s Psychological Services Center. Last summer, Plumage interned with the South Dakota Department of Social Services in the Division of Child Protection, working with foster children, over half of whom are American Indians who had been removed from reservations and placed into non-Native homes.

After graduating from Ohio State next spring, Plumage plans to obtain a PhD in psychology before returning to South Dakota as a mental health professional serving Native American foster children. By promoting tribal customs, Plumage hopes to alleviate the mental health problems faced by this community and thereby strengthen the resiliency of future generations of Native Americans in her home state.

For more information about the scholarship, visit the Udall Foundation website.

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