Sweet Briar awards prestigious Wyllie Scholarship to budding engineers

Engineering professor Bethany Brinkman works with seniors Des’rae Davis (left) and Maddy Lee in 2017.


Sweet Briar College, one of only two women’s colleges in the country with an ABET-accredited engineering program, has awarded Wyllie scholarships to five members of the Class of 2022.

The recipients are Sydney Campbell, of Amherst, Va. (Amherst County High School); Elizabeth Martin, of Dothan, Ala. (Northview High School); Elizabeth Murphy, of Greenbush, Va. (Broadwater Academy); Griselda Vasquez-Ramirez, of Covesville, Va. (Nelson County High School); and Iris Williams, of Lynchburg, Va. (Heritage High School).

Sweet Briar is committed to increasing the number of women engineers. To that end, the College offers the competitive Wyllie Scholarship to encourage and support women who have an interest in majoring in engineering science at Sweet Briar. Wyllie scholarships are awarded at up to $5,000 per year for four years. Scholarship decisions are based on a student’s academic record and her interest in engineering, not on financial need.

Wyllie scholarships are possible thanks to the generosity of the Wyllie family, particularly Margaret “Peggy” Wyllie, who graduated from Sweet Briar in 1945. In addition to scholarships, the Wyllie endowment provides support for experiential learning, outreach to high school girls and professional development of engineering students. Thanks to the Wyllie family’s support of our community, Sweet Briar engineering graduates now work in a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense, energy and medicine.