Celebrating our Exceptional Students

We would like to celebrate the exceptional students that we have in the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials. Alina Mejias, an SBIO student who graduated with her Master’s degree in December 2019, was awarded the 2019 H.E. Burkhart Outstanding Masters Student award which is given due to the recipient’s outstanding academic, scientific, and professional achievements.

Mejias had the following to say about her education in our department:

“During my graduate years, I was able to choose the classes I saw fit to build the professional profile and the expertise I wanted while working as a laboratory manager in the Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design.

Working as a manager not only provided me two years of working experience but also taught me to interact with people from different industries and to manage time and deliver my tasks on time to the customers; it also taught me to take responsibility for my mistakes and learn from them so they are not repeated by me or someone else.  

Additionally, working as a manager allowed me to mentor packaging undergrad students who had lots of energy and the willingness to learn. Coming from an Industrial Engineering background and supported by Dr. Horvath’s continuous improvement mentality, I was able to help teach the undergrad students and my graduate student colleagues the importance of lean manufacturing methodologies such as 5S, etc. 

This master's degree allowed me to cultivate my knowledge on many different branches; knowledge that has now opened the doors to a great opportunity for me which is working for the train manufacturing company building the first high-speed train the U.S.A.”