Welcome to Penn State, Millennium Scholars!

Posted by Stefanie Tomlinson on June 24, 2014 in Campus Life, Students, World Class Engineering | 0 comments

Chemical engineering major Grace Noel of Wexford, Pennsylvania, moves into her room.

On Monday (June 23) a new cohort of Penn State Millennium Scholars moved into Hartranft Hall on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Over the next six weeks, the first-year students will participate in summer bridge activities that will help them get acclimated to the University Park campus environment, prepare for fall classes, learn about different research opportunities, and perhaps most important of all, forge lasting friendships with one another. Specifically, the Scholars will tour Boeing in Philadelphia and the National Institutes of Health, take math and engineering classes, attend teambuilding workshops and have some fun at Hersheypark.

Physics major Connor Cassady of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, unpacks his belongings in Hartranft Hall.

The Scholars had some interesting insight about the advantages of being selected for the Millennium Scholars Program. Caroline Van Pelt, an engineering science student from Wellsville, Pennsylvania, said she is most looking forward to finding out about research opportunities. “I don’t know exactly what kind of research I want to do yet, but this program will help me narrow it down.”

Mays Landing, New Jersey, native Timi Aboderin, a computer engineering major, noted he is excited to learn skills necessary for living independently.

Biochemistry major Sneha Yennawar of State College, said she hopes to make many social and professional connections.

Modeled after the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the Penn State Millennium Scholars Program was established last year as a collaborative effort between the Eberly College of Science and the College of Engineering. The aim is to recruit academically talented high school seniors whose future plans include pursuing a doctoral degree in science or engineering, to increase the diversity of researchers in those fields.

For more information about the program, visit http://millennium.psu.edu/