Professor Laura Guertin's teaching came to life on Tuesday, August 23, as a 5.8 earthquake literally rocked Penn State Brandywine. As associate professor of Earth sciences, she helped install an earthquake monitoring station on campus in 2008 that not only picked up the vibrations from this earthquake, but continues to detect those occurring in South America and even the magnitude 9.0 that devastated Japan in March.
As psychology continues its rise in popularity among college students, this fall Penn State Brandywine will begin offering a bachelor's degree in the field to meet the needs and interests of current and prospective students.
The bachelor of psychology degree program will combine the knowledge, skills and values of psychology with a liberal arts foundation.
Adam J. Sorkin, Distinguished Professor of English at Penn State Brandywine, won a prestigious prize for translation this summer. On May 27, in Târgu Jiu, Romania, at the first Ioan Flora Poetry Festival (officially, the "Ioan Flora Days of Poetry"), he was awarded the Ioan Flora Prize for Translation, named for a Serbian-born Romanian-language poet who was educated and lived in Bucharest.
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Penn State Brandywine Associate Professor of Engineering Ivan Esparragoza was honored with an international award for his collaborative work on a project that provides resources and opportunity to encourage minority students to participate in the engineering and technology fields.
Penn State Brandywine senior Sara Neville and junior Labanya Mookerjee presented their research projects at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference and Exposition in June at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Traveling with these students was their adviser and mentor Laura Guertin, associate professor of Earth sciences.
Penn State Brandywine junior Eileen Fresta is undertaking an interesting challenge for her summer internship.
As an intern for the Oliver H. Bair Company, owner of the Cumberland Cemetery in Media, the American studies major is sorting through old cemetery records that date back to 1860 to orchestrate a walking tour of the site.
Fresta said the script used during the tour will contain background information on approximately 20 local historic people buried at the cemetery, including Thomas Pratt, founding father and resident of Middletown Township.
Megan Kawamoto is spending her summer not on the beach or by the pool, but in a cemetery. The sophomore engineering major has teamed up with Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Laura Guertin to study marble gravestones to uncover hundreds of years' worth of pollution and climate information. Their results will help unearth just how much more pollution is in the air today.
Senior Stephanie Tracy has accomplished many things as a student at Penn State Brandywine. She played on the men's soccer team for three years and is currently on the cross country team. She has earned a 4.0 in each of the last two semesters and served as secretary of the Student Government Association (SGA) this past academic year.
Penn State Brandywine Professor of English Phyllis Cole was honored last month with the prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society. An active member of the group for more than two decades, Cole said the award was not only a surprise, but also humbling.
"The company I am in makes this a really significant honor," she said. "The people who have won this award are nationally and internationally-known Emerson scholars, at a time when Emerson's stock is very high. It's a recognition by a group of people I really value."
Penn State Brandywine athletes were recognized for another great season at the 23rd annual Athletics Banquet on Sunday, May 15, at D'Ignazio's Towne House in Media.
Laura Patton, intramural and fitness center coordinator, said the banquet was held to recognize student athletes who have performed well during the season both in the classroom and on the field of play.Â