Jude Dierker

Samuel “Jude” Dierker is a Sophomore at The University of Missouri studying Industrial Engineering. He is from Northern Kentucky where he was homeschooled during grade school and then attended Covington Catholic High School. Jude chose Mizzou for a multitude of reasons, but the two biggest were his desire to be successful in diving, and his goal to be a successful engineer. Jude sums up these two goals in saying that: “Diving is my passion, then with hard work and determination, making a difference for others through engineering is my future.” 

From a young age, Jude loved to take things apart and put them back together. He was the one who everyone in the house went to if anything broke. Because of this he explored some basic engineering classes through a program called PLTW that was provided by his high school. Once through those classes he was sure engineering was for him. At Mizzou he chose industrial because of his love of interaction with people and the industrial engineering field provided that. 

Jude comes from a big and loving family of 9. He is very close with all of his 6 siblings, but he has an especially close relationship with his 18-year-old sister Ellie and his 16-year-old brother Aidan. 

Thus far in his time at Mizzou, Jude has most definitely enjoyed making friends in the engineering department as well as on the swim and dive team. He has also been working closely with the Catholic organization “Focus” and their missionaries on campus. Jude’s favorite memory from his Freshman year was when he was able to be at the SEC diving competition and be a part of the amazing atmosphere and high level of talent. 

In Jude’s limited free time he can be found hiking on the various state park trails in the Columbia area or playing any sport under the sun. He also loves to read influential books by successful individuals from the past such as “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Finally, you will see Jude around a lot of people as mentioned before that he loved to talk with his friends and also those he has not made a special connection with yet. 

Jude hopes that through receiving this scholarship he can emulate some of the incredible qualities that Josh Seidel had and bring about a greater awareness of the amazing life Josh led!  

Jude is honored and grateful.