Medina recognized with 2009 Graduate Student Service Award

Francelys Medina, a doctoral candidate in materials science and engineering graduating in December 2009, has been honored with the 2009 Graduate Student Service Award. Established in 1991, the award recognizes a graduate student who has best combined high academic achievement with leadership in University or other public activities.

A 2008 recipient of the Women in Sciences and Engineering Recognition Award and the 2006 Laurel Award for Outstanding Service, Medina has maintained a cumulative 3.59 grade-point average while serving several organizations and audiences. She has volunteered in her department and among her graduate student peers, but also has reached out to schoolchildren across Pennsylvania to encourage them to consider studying science and technology fields.

At the University, Medina served the Graduate Student Association in several capacities, as a council delegate, representative and student advisor, and is a peer mentor for incoming graduate students. She has been asked to be a guest lecturer at multiple Penn State campuses, is a member of her department's recruitment committee and has become, according to a nominator, an "active voice about issues related to recruitment of female high school students."

While a National Science Foundation Teaching Fellow, she organized field trips for hundreds of elementary, middle and high school students from multiple regions of Pennsylvania to visit Penn State facilities, such as the Materials Research Laboratory and the Department of Physics. She has traveled to students' classrooms as well, offering materials science and engineering demonstrations, presentations and hands-on activities in schools in Allegheny, Centre and Dauphin counties.

Medina also organized and instructed at several University outreach events such as the Clean Energy Expo, Hydrogen Day at Penn State, and WISE Camp Summer Program, SMARTS Girls Residential Experience, MTM Engineering Camp for Girls, Nittany Science Camp for Girls and most recently, the space industry-themed Exploration Days at Penn State.

The main purpose for Medina's service, as noted by a nominator, is "to mentor and guide minority and female young students on careers in science and engineering in order to promote diversity at Penn State." But more important, the nominator added, "she has positively impacted a large number of K-12 students, teachers, in-service teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professors and technical staff members at Penn State."