2025 Scholarship Recipients
S.M. Hankins Scholarship Kaylie Williams
Established by retired faculty member S. M. Hankins, this competitive award recognizes a student with strong academic achievement and a demonstrated commitment to the field of urban and regional planning. The 2025 recipient is Kaylie Williams, a double major in Community and Regional Planning (primary) and Geography (secondary). Kaylie was elected President of SPAN for the 2025–2026 academic year, following her service as Secretary in 2024–2025. She has shown outstanding leadership through roles such as THCAS Representative for ECU’s Student Government Association, Student Leadership Assistant, and Water Collection Specialist for the Community Water Network. Kaylie is also a recipient of the Urban Planning Alumni Scholarship (2024) and the Geography Scholarship (2025). Her professional development includes a 2024 summer internship with the Wilson County government and participation in the 2025 Sustainable Buenos Aires research program with ECU’s Foreign Language Department. She also participated in the 2024 Summer Study Abroad in South Korea.
Urban Planning Alumni Scholarship Cooper Hilbert
This year, two students received the Urban Planning Alumni Scholarship: Cooper Hilbert and Caramia Landis. This competitive scholarship is awarded annually to students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and a strong commitment to the planning profession.
Cooper Hilbert is pursuing dual degrees in Community and Regional Planning and Economics. He served as SPAN President for two consecutive academic years (2023–2025). The biggest accomplishment he achieved during his service was organizing and fundraising for two trips to the National American Planning Association (NPC) conferences in Minneapolis, MN (2024) and Denver, CO (2025), which included nine and 14 students, respectively. The Planning program nominated him for the 2025 Robert H. Wright Leadership Award. During his undergraduate years, Cooper earned multiple scholarships, including the ECU Access Scholarship, Thomas W. Rivers Scholarship, Pirate Navigator Scholarship, Burney and Judy Warren Study Abroad Scholarship, and the S.M. Hankins Scholarship. His professional development is further reflected in his four internships—with Insight Planning & Development (2023), the Town of Windsor (2024), HarvestBeam (2024), and Kimley-Horn (2025). The internship with HarvestBeam was featured in the ECU News.
He also participated in the Summer Study Abroad program in South Korea twice—first as a student in 2023, and again in 2025 as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant.
Urban Planning Alumni Scholarship Caramia Landis
Caramia Landis is the other recipient of the Urban Planning Alumni Scholarship in 2025. As an ECU Brinkley-Lane Scholar, she has shown her strong leadership in various capacities–Honors College Representative, ECU SGA (2025), Undergraduate Research Assistant for the Dare County Workforce Housing Research (2024-2025), Student Leadership Assistant (2023), and Social Media Manager for Voter411. The impact she has made on the students and the community was highlighted in her receiving the 2024 Community Impact Student Award by the North Carolina Campus Engagement. In the Summer of 2025, she works as an intern with the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability at Duke University. Partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the team develops metrics to assess the effectiveness of nature-based solutions and risk reduction measures. She also participated in the 2024 Summer Study Abroad in South Korea.
Robert E. and Margeryfay R. Cramer Scholarship Yadiel Reyes Cruz
The Robert E. and Margeryfay R. Cramer Scholarship is awarded by the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment to support students majoring or minoring in Geography in their participation in study abroad programs.
Yadiel Reyes Cruz recently completed his first year at ECU, majoring in Community and Regional Planning. He has been an active member of SPAN and was elected Vice President for the 2025–2026 academic year. This summer, he participated in the 2025 Summer Study Abroad program in South Korea and is also working with the City of Goldsboro as an ECU Public Service Fellow.