Student of the Year Recipients Recognized at Annual Meeting
PennACE recognized the achievements and contributions made by four undergraduate students enrolled at member institutions who have completed an internship or co-op assignment with the JoAnne Day Student of Year Awards at the May 2020 annual meeting. Three awards were presented in these categories: Liberal Arts, STEM and Business. Recipients were presented with plaques and checks by their respective career services center during the Spring semester.
This year’s recipients were notified at the end of January. Recognition plaques and the $500 cash award were mailed to the respective career centers for distribution and recognition as they deemed appropriate. The awardees were announced to the membership by email and by an article placed in the February issue of the PennACE newsletter, the Messenger.
Kaitleen Brady served as an intern with the Penguins Foundation during the Spring 2019 semester and in was later hired by the foundation as a game night assistant. Highlighting her internship was a “Her Hockey Night” that she and three other female interns conducted during a Penguins home game last March in conjunction with National Hockey League's Gender Equality Month. Afterward, the foundation was able to raise $17,000 to continue to assist local charities within the Pittsburgh region. The “Her Hockey” night project was recognized by the NHL on social media platforms and press releases.
Abby Braddock, manager of foundation programs, praised Brady and said the project has become an annual event for the Penguins Foundation that many other NHL teams are looking to replicate. She added that it was one of the foundation’s most successful in-game activations and social media campaigns. “Kate showed leadership, creativity and great initiative in making sure that this project came to life,” Braddock said. “Kate never backed down from that challenge and did everything she could to make sure those challenges were met and exceeded.”
Taylor Mahan completed a finance internship with PITT OHIO and was tasked with many responsibilities, which included successfully leading a group of interns, taking responsibility for organizing meetings, distributing responsibility, and keeping the group engaged and on task while preparing for presentations with upper-level management and ownership. She completed an individual credit card analysis project that led to future policy changes within PITT OHIO.
"Taylor rose to the challenge and handled this work efficiently and effectively, finishing many items accurately while only having been shown them once, and asking thoughtful questions when necessary," said Don Riddle, assistant controller at PITT OHIO. He noted that in the eight years his department has been using interns, Mahan was the first to work independently on a monthly closing cycle.
As an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the largest national lab operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, Vanessa Maybruck worked with staff scientist Dr. Jesse Ault and collaborated with his colleague at the University of Hawaii. Their research was in the field of computational fluid dynamics and focused on modeling and simulating microfluidic particle separations using a process called diffusiophoresis, with applications to the treatment of cancers and other diseases.
Dr. Ault stated “Vanessa performed at a high level of competency and ultimately produced a substantial and thorough report that formed the basis for the theoretical modeling section in a paper that was submitted for publication along with one of our experimental collaborators. Vanessa's work was of a superior quality and quantity given the relatively short summer internship period.”
Many thanks to the 2019-20 Selection Committee. Committee membership is open to any PennACE member in good standing. Please join us!
The 2020 application process and selection criteria will be posted in July at https://www.pennace.info/joanne-day-award. For more information, email pennace.org@gmail.com.