September 11, 2008

Student award winner has longstanding ties to NC State

  — Esmeralda Luna-Ramos is this year's Faculty Senior Scholar

Esmeralda Luna-Ramos and Dr. Russell King, a professor of industrial engineering who works with undergraduate awards. (Photo: Nate Degraff)

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Esmeralda Luna-Ramos has been part of the Wolfpack family ever since her father, a soil scientist, left Mexico in 1988 to obtain his doctorate degree here at NC State. Esmeralda was five months old at the time, and she took her first steps and spoke her first words at the E.S. King Village on campus.

Nearly two decades later, Esmeralda decided to attend college at NC State. She is a chemical engineering major and a French minor, and she is a top student. Esmeralda is a recipient of the Caldwell Fellows Scholarship, the William Jackson Goodrum Scholarship, the Raleigh Engineers' Club Scholarship, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund/Bank of American Endowment Scholarship, among others.

Esmeralda is a natural leader with a strong commitment to community service, and has used her talents to help various organizations that support underprivileged youth. Earlier this year, she created and led a spring break service trip to her hometown in Mexico, where she and others taught children about health care. She has also volunteered as a camp counselor for the SATELLITE program, encouraging students from rural areas to get interested in science and technology.

Esmeralda has also contributed to her field of study. She has conducted nanotechnology research for her department, and her accomplishments include fabricating a microfluidic device to separate fluorescent latex and silica particles. She has worked at Procter & Gamble as a process engineering intern, where she improved a packing process and created a contingency plan.

Through all this, Esmeralda has maintained a close-to-perfect grade point average. Her accomplishments make her an outstanding choice as this year's Faculty Senior Scholar.

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