NDSU sophomore Marissa Kunerth has been named a 2017 Traffic Safety Scholar and awarded a $1,000 scholarship to attend the 35th annual National Lifesavers Conference on Highway Safety Priorities, March 25-28 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kunerth, who is from Fulda, Minnesota, and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in strategic communication, is one of 38 U.S. and Canadian college students selected through a competitive application process.

The conference features the latest research, strategies, countermeasures and new approaches to address the nation’s traffic safety problems. 

This is the second year of the Traffic Safety Scholars program, which provides college students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees the opportunity to attend the conference, the largest gathering of traffic safety professionals in the United States. The goal of the program is to showcase the diversity of opportunities in traffic safety and encourage students to pursue a career in the field

Kunerth and other Traffic Safety Scholars will be honored at a pre-conference reception on March 24 in Charlotte, where they will be welcomed by Jana Simpler, director of the Delaware Office of Highway Safety and chair of the Governors Highway Safety Association; Rick Birt, vice president of SADD; and John Ulczycki, vice president of legislative affairs for LMG Holdings Inc. and chair of the Lifesavers board of directors. They’ll have an opportunity to participate in three plenary sessions and more than 80 workshops featuring leading experts in the field of distracted and impaired driving and walking; child passenger, pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, teen and older driver safety; adult occupant protection; vehicle technology; law enforcement; commercial vehicles; and roadway design.

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