Earth and Mineral Sciences

EMS Program helps develop scholarship, experiential learning and global literacy

2022 Fall EMSAGE Laureates Credit: Penn State All Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — At a large school like Penn State, it can sometimes be hard to find your niche — however, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Academy for Global Experience, or EMSAGE, encouraged senior Mufaddal Gheewala to discover his place on campus.

Coming from the United Arab Emirates, Gheewala initially concentrated on the routine of classes and maintaining his GPA. Once he was accepted in EMSAGE, volunteer and leadership opportunities flooded his academic routine, and he was able to realize the value in experiences outside the classroom, he said.

“I would say EMSAGE is a good way — especially for undergrads who are coming from all over the world — to get more hands-on experience than you would otherwise,” said Gheewala, who is majoring in energy engineering and double minoring in sustainability leadership and environmental engineering. “I would tell students to apply — shoot your shot, see what happens. And you will obviously get a lot of experience out of it.”

Established in 2009, EMSAGE helps students find multifaceted experiences in learning and global literacy, scholarship and community service as they define their Penn State path and develop the knowledge to decide their next steps towards their career.

EMSAGE has three stages that students can move through to reach the ultimate status of laureate. Expanded in the fall of 2019, the program added two growth stages — protégé and practitioner — to help students set goals and develop an engagement plan to achieve them.

Eager to share their knowledge, the laureates are the role models of this community mentorship program as they advise the practitioners. Similarly, those inducted as practitioners will mentor the protégés. Promoting students’ success both inside and outside the classroom, this framework allows members of EMSAGE to connect with a wide variety of students, faculty and alumni, said Karen Marosi, director of student engagement in EMS.

“Students do not get assigned a one-on-one mentor, but the idea is to know what a lot of people are doing, so the student gets pieces of advice from many different people,” Marosi said.

Gheewala learned as a practitioner to step outside his comfort zone and approach new people, in turn growing his communication and networking skills.

“I had never been a mentor before and helping them figure things out benefited me as well,” Gheewala said. “For example, I helped a student connect with a few people in the college’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and that kind of made reach out to professors and got me closer with them as well. I feel more comfortable talking with them now.”

Laureate and senior environmental systems engineering major Gabe Hiestand said entering the program as a protégé and advancing through all three stages guided him to discover his "Why?" — why he strives to understand course work and achieve exceptional grades, why he chooses to get involved in clubs and research and why he loves science.

“One big thing the program emphasizes is that you don’t just collect these achievements and you graduate and that’s the end of it, but that there is something you want to do with this experience,” Hiestand said. “And this program helped me figure out my why.”

Laureate Delián Colón-Burgos, a senior studying meteorology and atmospheric science, said that EMSAGE matures students into resourceful and versatile individuals through scholarship, experiential learning and service.

“I knew that I wanted to do more at Penn State than academics,” she said. “I wanted to be an engaged person in the college and be a leader, being involved in different organizations and doing stuff outside the classroom — and EMSAGE was a great program to do that.”

Coming to Penn State from Puerto Rico, Colón-Burgos said she looked up to EMSAGE Laureates and leaned on them for support, and that helped build a sense of community for her.

“For me a big thing coming from a different culture was a pretty hard adjustment,” she said. “I’m really thankful for organizations that provided mentorship — and EMSAGE was one — because I have great achievements that will help me get a job in the future and help me stand out from other students who focus only on academics.”

The 2022 Fall EMSAGE Laureates are:

  • Gabriel Hiestand, environmental systems engineering
  • Conner Patton, energy engineering
  • Meredith Pepka, environmental systems engineering
  • Katherine Rasmussen, environmental systems engineering
  • Jordan Thibodeaux, petroleum and natural gas engineering
  • Zhihan Wang, energy business and finance
  • Alison Johnston, geography
  • Camila Pena, geography
  • Sunday Siomades, geosciences
  • Michael Ammendola, materials science and engineering
  • Lucas Erich, materials science and engineering
  • Aarushi Jadhav, materials science and engineering
  • Meddelin Setiawan, materials science and engineering
  • Jun Weng (Wayne) Yeo, materials science and engineering
  • Delián Colón Burgos, meteorology and atmospheric science
  • Isabelle Jernigan, meteorology and atmospheric science
Last Updated December 9, 2022

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