Ashley White, a Virginia Tech senior honors student pursuing degrees in both materials science and engineering and music performance, has been named to USA Today's 2004 All-USA College Academic Team. White is the daughter of Sheila and David Rose of Newport News, Va., and Stephen and Susan White of Ashland, Ore.

The annual All-USA program honors 60 undergraduates at the nation's colleges and universities who excel in both scholarship and leadership. White is one of 20 students on this year's third team. USA Today also selected 20 students for each of the first and second teams.

USA Today's announcement of All-USA team members cites White for her 11-week tour during summer 2003 of Paraguay and Mexico, where she worked with youth orchestra programs. White, who is an accomplished violinist and a student of Spanish, used her Virginia Tech University Honors Scholarship to fund the tour.

This spring semester White is in Italy, working on various research projects and studying engineering and music at the University of Rome. In the past, she has participated in engineering internships at NASA Langley, the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Cornell University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Already a published researcher, White is co-author of a scientific paper on aerogel materials published in the Dec. 2003 issue of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids and of an experiment published in the 2000 Virginia Junior Academy of Science Proceedings. She is a member of the ceramics research group led by professor David Clark, head of materials science and engineering at Virginia Tech.

Since 2000 White has performed as student concert master with the New River Valley Symphony, and in 2001 she became first violinist for the Virginia Tech Spring Quartet. She also teaches private violin lessons at the Performing Arts Institute of Virginia and coaches violin students for the Blacksburg Youth Orchestra.

In addition to the University Honors Scholarship, White received a 2003 Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a national research award given to select students, and the Lewis Hoffman Award, presented by the American Ceramic Society to only one undergraduate annually. In 2002 she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

White also has received nine other scholarships while at Virginia Tech, including the Hokie Scholar Award, which pays full tuition for four years; Pulley-Louden Scholarship; Gilbert and Lucille Seay Scholarship; Pamplin Leader Award; Music Department Scholarship; and the Alfred E. Knobler Scholarship.

White, who plans to graduate in May 2005, is the fourth Virginia Tech student selected for the All-USA Team. Past honorees are Susan Cox, a 1992 aerospace engineering graduate; John Michael Schmidt, a 1998 biology and environmental sciences graduate; and Sarah Airey, a 2001 electrical and computer engineering graduate.

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