NORTH SMITHFIELD – Ella Wenzel, a junior at the University of Rhode Island and lifelong North Smithfield resident, has been named one of two recipients of this year’s Miya D. Brophy-Baermann Memorial Scholarship.

Wenzel is the first undergraduate student at URI to receive the award, which was established in memory of Miya Brophy-Baermann, a 24-year-old speech-language pathologist and URI graduate who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Providence in Aug. 2021.

Each year on the anniversary of Miya’s death, the scholarship is awarded to one URI student and one Rhode Island College student pursuing careers in communicative disorders, including speech-language pathology and audiology.

Wenzel, who is double majoring in communicative disorders and psychology, said her interest in the field w

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