College honors four outstanding seniors
The College of Engineering at North Carolina State University presented the 2016 Outstanding Senior Awards to four exceptional students chosen from multiple nominees in the categories of Leadership, Citizenship and Service, Scholarly Achievement and Humanities.
The winners and nominees were honored during a banquet held by the College and the Engineers’ Council on May 5 at the North Carolina State University Club.
Eric Bolender, a senior in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of History, received the Senior Award for Humanities. Through the pursuit of degrees in computer science and history, he has earned a 3.9 GPA in his history major, putting him in the first rank among those seeking his degree and in the top 10 percent within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences as a whole. As one associate professor in the Department of History stated, “Getting a second degree is an accomplishment in itself, but maintaining this level of performance is remarkable.”
A Benjamin Franklin Scholar, Bolender is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, a dean’s list member for four consecutive years and a technical intern at the SAS Institute since 2012.
As a student in the Department of History, he has taken advanced courses in areas ranging from Ancient History, Colonial America, Nazi Germany, and Church and State relations. For his senior seminar, Eric wrote a paper on the Spanish Reconquista examining whether Christian efforts to depose Muslim rule in Spain should be seen as an example of religion playing an overriding role in government that one professor described as “a model of undergraduate scholarship, carefully defining terms judiciously deploying evidence.”
As a computer science major, Boldender has served as a team lead on his senior design course project sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, where he and his team worked to develop a responsive Web application that allows health care providers to look up health information related to their patients to check in when they arrive at a doctor’s office.
Yon-Soo Lee, a senior in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, received the Senior Award for Citizenship and Service. Lee has dedicated her time as a student at NC State to helping others and has made major contributions in the fight for women’s rights and the fight against sexual violence.
Lee has been a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Tau Beta Pi Honor Society and Chi Epsilon Honor Society, and has been the NC State Colony President for Alpha Phi Gamma Sorority Inc., where she helped organize Alpha Phi Gamma Speaks – an event in which students are asked to take a vow to stand against domestic violence by hand printing a banner.
As a student leader, she has advocated for more inclusion, diversity and resources. She has demonstrated this by helping to coordinate events such as the At Home in the World Diversity Grant and collaborative events with the Women’s Center, the GLBT Center and another Asian-Interest sorority to discuss issues that affect Asian-American women in the United States. As one nominator said, “I have never seen a student so dedicated to not only leadership roles, but also to her academics.”
Toluwalope Oyelowo, a senior in the Joint UNC/NC State Department of Biomedical Engineering, received the Senior Award for Leadership. Oyelowo has demonstrated her leadership skills at the university level and with her extracurricular activities. As one of her nominators stated, “Tolu is a young woman of high character. Her level of intellect, motivation, integrity and determination has been consistent throughout her years.”
Oyelowo has been named to the Dean’s List multiple times, and has been a member of the NC State Scholars Program and a NC State’s Pack Promise Scholar. Her leadership skills have been seen across multiple facets of campus life. She has served as the academic excellence chairperson for the NC State chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), chairperson of the African American Student Advisory Council, an Engineering Ambassador and peer mentor, and president of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. She has served as a Summer Transition counselor with the Minority Engineering Program assisting first-year minority students and helping with their transition into university life and engineering coursework.
During her time in the National Society of Black Engineers, Oyelowo recruited a record number of 187 collegiate chapters to join the national retention program to implement and be held accountable for specific activities to promote academic success of the collegiate membership. Also, she was involved in the Society’s Retention Toolkit, which was underwritten by Exxon Mobil Corporation to highlight effective institutional strategies. In addition, her research and implementation efforts will be showcased in another toolkit for retention and success, which is a 2016-17 partnership with the American Society of Engineering Education.
Stephanie Michaela Rikard, a senior in the Joint UNC/NC State Department of Biomedical Engineering, received the Senior Award for Scholarly Achievement. Rikard has demonstrated her passion for the College and the field of engineering by holding an active role in the Engineering Ambassadors program and as an active leader promoting global health issues.
Rikard has maintained a 4.0 grade point average in biomedical engineering with minors in tissue engineering and biotechnology while being active in research and has four publications – two in scientific journals and two in an engineering education journal, and five conference presentations – four of them as first author.
Her research involvement spans many parts of the College. She is currently investigating methods for using patient-derived stem cells to treat pulmonary fibrosis in Dr. Cheng’s lab at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Previously, she worked in the lab of Dr. Zhen Gu, where she helped develop targeted drug delivery systems for cancer treatment as a way to kill cancer cells without damaging healthy, desirable cells. In addition, she worked at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the summer of 2013 with wounded service personnel to investigate the mechanism of unwanted bone growth in scar tissue of prosthetic users. And last summer, she studied the progression of metastic cancer.
Her academic honors include: National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholar, BME Honors Program, NC State Scholars Program, NC State Dean’s List, Alpha Eta Mu Beta – National BME Honor Society, Finalist for Astronaut Scholarship, Finalist for College of Engineering Faculty Senior Scholars, and Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research Award recipient.
Other nominees for the awards were:
LEADERSHIP
Samuel Joseph Cope, Nuclear Engineering
Leah-Craig Fleming, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Kristen Goodman, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Suzanne Leonard, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Kelly O’Donnell, Textile Engineering
Taufik Reharjo, Materials Science Engineering
Michael Shadduck, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Laurel Timko, Computer Science
Travis Tippens, Electrical and Computer Engineering
CITIZENSHIP AND SERVICE
Brinnae Marie Bent, Biomedical Engineering
Mario Castro, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kaitlin Crenshaw, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Alex DeGeronimo, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Kaitlyn Kramer, Textile Engineering
Shrey Satpathy, Nuclear Engineering
T’ana Kathleen Tomlinson, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENT
Jordan Christopher Bendl, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Rachael Foote, Textile Engineering
Lauren Koepnick, Computer Science
Emily McGuinness, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Jacob Garner Monroe, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Matthew Anthony Pless, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Maura Randolph, Materials Science Engineering
Nina Colby Sorrell, Nuclear Engineering
Garrett Sunda, Electrical and Computer Engineering
HUMANITIES
Patrick Balogh, Textile Engineering
Rachel Benton, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Zachary A. Goodman, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Arianna Nasser, Biomedical Engineering
Vinicius James Taguchi, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Morgan Westbrook, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Alexander Yadon, Electrical and Computer Engineering
