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CORVALLIS - Outstanding scholarship, character and contributions to the community have earned Britta Hinrichsen Oregon State University's 2004 Outstanding Senior Woman Award.

Hinrichsen, who graduated summa cum laude this June from OSU's Honors College, is spending the summer working for the National Weather Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center. Her undergraduate honors degrees are in environmental science and environmental economics, policy and management.

The OSU award is sponsored by the American Association of University Women to further the advancement of women.

A native of Anchorage, Hinrichsen will work in Alaska entering river observations into a data system for use in forecasting models and updating and creating databases until the middle of August when she'll head back to school.

"I am moving to South Royalton, Vermont, to attend Vermont Law School for its environmental law program," she said. Hinrichsen is enrolled in the joint juris doctor/master of studies in environmental law program for the Class of 2007.

"I am not sure exactly what type of job I will want after attending Vermont Law School," she said, "but I want to work with ocean law and policy. I could easily see myself working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or another government agency. I hope to end up in the Pacific Northwest, but who knows where the jobs will be when I graduate."

While at OSU, Hinrichsen served as newsletter editor for the campus Policy and Law Society and also worked on the College of Agriculture Sciences Student Advancement, Recruitment and Retention Committee, as well as the college's Writing Committee.

She is also one of the principal authors of a law and policy review concerning the gray wolf in Oregon.

"It's a paper to analyze the relationship between the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act and to determine how economic interest has standing in relation to wolves in Oregon," Hinrichsen said.

An accomplished cellist, Hinrichsen performed with the OSU Symphony while at Oregon State.