The scholarship is awarded to a Ph.D. candidate in any area of English studies.
Selection of the Hinrich Scholar will be based on the following criteria:
- high-quality scholarship and research;
- personal initiative in leadership;
- service to the graduate student community;
- creativity in teaching/tutoring. (This is optional. Teaching experience is not required for this scholarship.)
The Committee may solicit graduate faculty and graduate student recommendations to determine the Hinrich Scholar. Income for the scholarship is derived from an endowment fund made possible by memorial gifts and department faculty, staff, student, and friend contributions.
Any Ph.D. student may apply who has completed at least 24 hours of graduate work toward the Ph.D. in English, above the requirements for his/her previous degree OR 24 hours of graduate work toward an interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree. Applications will be processed by the Department Scholarship Committee.
Application materials should submitted to JuDean Howerton via email at judean.howerton@okstate.edu. See the English Department Scholarship page for application deadlines.
Download printable application form
Sally Wellenbrock Hinrich, Ph.D. (1946-2008) was born in Yakima, Washington and raised in Stockton, California. She graduated from the University of Washington in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts in History, and she later earned a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) from Portland State University (1988) and a Master of Public Administration from Lewis & Clark College (1993) in Portland, Oregon. She married and raised three children, taught English and other subjects at area colleges, including Lewis & Clark, Concordia College, and Portland Community College, and spent seven years living and teaching in Saudi Arabia.
In 2002, Sally was admitted to the TESL/Linguistics doctorate program in the Department of English at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK. During her tenure in the Department, she taught English courses as a Graduate Teaching Associate and served with distinction in the Assistant Director positions for the International Teaching Assistant Program and the International Composition Program. Sally also served as a leader, mentor and model for her fellow graduate students in both formal and informal ways, through her involvement in the Department and her academic field. These activities include working on department committees, attending and presenting her research at state, national, and international conferences, submitting articles for publication, teaching workshops for graduate students on professional development topics, engaging students in discussions, both in groups and one-on-one, on academic and professional issues, encouraging others to get involved in service to the university and their professional fields, and hosting numerous student/faculty social gatherings in her Stillwater home.
Sally’s graduate studies and research work were outstanding—she served as a lead teacher and key research assistant on the Department's Aviation English grant, funded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. She devoted herself with dedication to the collection of authentic Air Traffic Communication data and the design of effective methods for teaching English language skills to international Air Traffic Controllers. This work formed the basis of her dissertation, titled "The Use of Questions in International Pilot and Air Traffic Controller Communication." In May, 2008, Sally graduated from OSU with the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English.
Dr. Hinrich was appointed to a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Texas at Tyler, but she was unable to begin her new post due to the discovery of terminal brain cancer while attending an international conference in Göteborg, Sweden. She moved back to Portland and passed away in November, 2008, surrounded by her family and friends. Sally loved teaching, traveling, laughing, collecting camel art and taking walks with her beloved dog, Tiger.