UK student 1 of 65 nationally to receive Udall Scholarship
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 18, 2025) — AJ Hopkins, a rising senior natural resources and environmental science major, was awarded the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship.
Hopkins is the first University of Kentucky student to receive a Udall Scholarship since 2013, and is one of 65 recipients from 49 colleges and universities to receive one. The scholarship program identifies future leaders in environmental, tribal public policy and healthcare fields. It is highly competitive, with students participating in their schools’ internal competitions before receiving consideration from the Udall Foundation.
The $7,500 Udall Undergraduate Scholarship is one of the awards endorsed by UK’s Office of Nationally Competitive Awards.
Hopkins, who is minoring in public policy and also a Lewis Honors College student and Gaines Fellow, said she is looking forward to the networking opportunities that come with the Udall Scholarship.
“This program has a long history of connecting environmental scholars and policy advocates from across the nation,” she said. “Those connections through the Udall alumni network provide me immense opportunities to engage with and learn from the leaders who came before me.”
Hopkins has spent many years working and volunteering in environmental stewardship and education, but a specific childhood memory sparked her interest in the subject.
“Behind the house I grew up in — maybe a 10-minute walk down a wooded hill — is a little creek I used to go read at. It has changed a lot since I was younger — the tall banks are eroded, ivy is starting to cover the trees — but the same log I leaned my back against when I was in high school is still there. I think everyone should be able to find little refuges like this, and that belief drove me to want to learn how to protect those places.”
Hopkins said her most influential professors have been Krista Jacobsen, Ph.D., and Kenton Sena, Ph.D.
“AJ is a natural choice for this recognition as a student who has demonstrated a deep commitment to environmental stewardship and is focused on a career of impact and meaning in our shared global future of environmental sustainability,” said Jacobsen, an associate professor of sustainable agriculture in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and faculty of The Food Connection at the University of Kentucky.
“She is an exemplary student,” said Sena, a Lewis Honors College senior lecturer. “Her powerful curiosity and compelling passion have long been focused on wicked problems at the nexus of food systems and the environment. Her recognition as a Udall Scholar is an acknowledgment of this passion and drive, and an investment in her bright future that will yield a hundredfold.”
Hopkins is looking toward graduate school or law school after finishing at UK, but she said those are open-ended plans.
“I hope that this award and the experience attached to it will help shape my perspective on how I can best apply my skills toward environmental stewardship,” she said.
For more information on the Udall Scholarship or other major awards, visit the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards webpage.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and healthcare. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $1.02 billion research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.