UW's Medina Focused on Community and Benefiting Others During College Education

When University of Wyoming senior Paula Medina receives her diploma Saturday, May 16, in the UW Arena-Auditorium, she will leave a legacy of student leadership, advocacy and both campus and personal achievement.

 

Medina will leave UW with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering and environment and natural resources, as well as an engineering honors minor, and plans to work in water resources engineering in the West. Originally from Quito, Ecuador, then New York City and later Cody, her moves taught her the value of having and being involved in a strong community, something she’s carried on both after arriving in Cody and, later, UW, she says.

 

“I just feel really strongly about the ability and the power that you have as somebody who’s very involved in any aspect of a community. It kind of helps you create support networks and just increase your ability to do things and know people,” Medina says.

 

After landing at UW, Medina was director of the Associated Students of UW (ASUW) before becoming its current president. She also is the first College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Award of Special Merit winner and 2026 Joint Engineering Physical Sciences Council Student of the Year Award winner. Other positions held by Medina include international project manager for Engineers Without Borders, where she led a project in Guatemala to safe water access, and co-chair of the United Multicultural Council from 2023-25.

 

Medina has been named as one of two Outstanding Graduating Senior Awards recipients for 2026. The award, formerly the Tobin Memorial and Rosemarie Martha Spitaleri Award, recognizes graduating seniors with exceptional academic achievement, leadership, service, involvement, character and citizenship. The award is the highest honor bestowed on UW undergraduate students.

 

Peter Parolin, dean of the Honors College, describes Medina in a supporting letter for the award as a brilliant student who is committed to using her skills to do good in the world. She also has done excellent work as a student leader, he adds.

 

“She advocates powerfully for initiatives that will serve UW students, and she has the strategic skills that allow her to get her initiatives across the finish line,” Parolin says. “More than her strategic skills, though, Paula brings an ethical North Star to her leadership work: she identifies things that matter and constituencies that need someone to stand up for them, and she works on their behalf without equivocation or fear.”

 

Driven by Benefiting Others

 

Rather than her individual accomplishment, Medina’s achievements are driven by working to benefit others and bringing visibility to available resources -- increasing the capacity to do more, she says.

 

Students have the most powerful voice on campus, she adds, something she likes to remind them whenever she gets the opportunity to speak at the university.

 

“I really hope that the things that I’ve accomplished and the things that I’ve done can really show students how far having a little bit of audacity, a little bit of courage and a little bit of vulnerability to get in there and talk to people, and tell them what issues are there, can really help benefit your experience as a community member,” Medina says.

 

Medina’s experience moving to Cody from the Big Apple provided a sense of how difficult it is to transition to new places, illustrating the value of showing a little vulnerability. Arriving in Cody, Medina described herself, jokingly, as an emo teenager moved out of what she knew and, without a car, unable to get anywhere. So, she began to join clubs, meet people and become part of a community. This included Cody High School’s speech and debate team, where a senior-year debate involving water policies caused her to shift from a prospective political science major to a prospective engineering major.

 

“I kind of have used that sense of vulnerability and openness that I had when I first moved to all these places, from Ecuador to New York City to Cody,” Medina says. “Sometimes, you just have to put yourself out there and be the first person to show vulnerability in a space.”

 

This included learning about difficulties involved with getting to Denver International Airport (DIA). At the time, Medina was without a car and also returned home via DIA.

 

Medina, ASUW executives and the chair of the United Multicultural Council at the time worked to find a solution for international and out-of-state students who had trouble getting from DIA to Laramie. This led to the creation of the ASUW DIA shuttle.

 

Recently, the shuttle served 71 passengers during J-Term, according to Medina’s award packet. It’s a good value addition to the university that shows the importance of students asking for what they want, she adds.

 

When it comes to student impact, Medina also is proud of her efforts related to the recently passed increase in Hathaway Scholarship amounts per semester, which became law in February, as well as the efforts of Wyoming’s legislators, who are listening to student’s needs.

 

Last summer, Medina spoke with Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, about the Hathaway Scholarship, which led to Medina speaking on the benefits of the Hathaway and potential increases in front of the Joint Education Committee. Additional lobbying efforts came from ASUW senators, executives and students. Following this year’s legislative session, the Hathaway honors level will increase to $2,360; the performance level to $1,770; and opportunity and provisional scholarships to $1,180. Needs-based scholarships increased to a maximum of $2,120 and a minimum of $150, according to UW’s webpage for the scholarships.

 

“It makes me happy, also, as somebody who was struggling … thinking about going to college, that now there’s going to be less of a financial strain because of the increase of the Hathaway for a lot of high schoolers,” Medina says.

 

Nothing would be possible without the sacrifices of her mother, she adds.

 

“I would like to thank my mother, Irene Maxwell Bolaños, for the immense sacrifices that she made for me to go to college and to live in this state that has given me so many great opportunities,” Medina says. “She always made me believe I was capable of doing anything I set my mind to. None of my accomplishments could’ve

been possible without her.”

 

Personal Success

 

Outside of her campuswide, statewide and international accomplishments, Medina found success as a student and member of the second cohort of the Tomé Scholars to Fellows Program in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. The full-ride scholarship program is for undergraduate students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, arts or math degrees, and provides “a scholarship for 100 percent of tuition reimbursement, room and board, as well as funding for one or more unique experiences,” the scholarships’ UW webpage says.

 

The Tomé scholarship is the reason she was able to attend UW, and one of the things she’s most proud of, she says.

 

The Haub School expanded what Medina thought possible with her career and ability to help people, she adds. Its sustainability and environmental program allowed Medina -- who originally wanted to study environmental engineering -- to, in many ways, create a “quasi-environmental engineering degree” by combining a civil engineering and environmental and natural resources major.

 

After graduation, she wants to remain in Wyoming, ideally in a smaller office and community where she knows the people she’s working with, much like during her time at UW. She hopes to work on infrastructure projects focused on providing better quality water or distribution of water to people, she says.

 

“The University of Wyoming will remain part of every place I go next because so much of my own transformation occurred here,” Medina says in her letter for the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award. “If my time at UW demonstrates anything, it is this: that good citizenship is not a title one holds, but a responsibility one chooses to uphold -- by helping others and strengthening the institutions that make opportunity possible.”