PFL Graduates Honored

In a ceremony last month, the Graduate School recognized the graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who have successfully completed the Preparing Future Leaders programs.

PFL programs are designed to establish a foundation for lifelong professional development for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Since 2007, PFL has delivered 617 events to more than 14,000 participants. The PFL Celebration of Graduate Student Success honored participants who completed  the Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching program, the Mentoring and Teaching Practicum, the Preparing the Professoriate program, the Graduate Leadership Development Series, the Certificate in Career Development, as well as the inaugural group of PFL Ambassadors.  More than 100 colleagues, friends, family, faculty, and staff members attended the ice cream social and poster session to celebrate NC State’s commitment to excellence in professional development.

Provost Warwick Arden congratulated the students and postdocs.

“You, our graduate students, are critical to the success of NC State,” he said. “We want to celebrate your dedication and commitment in supporting and advancing the mission of our university. You are our next generation of leaders in the academy, in industry and in our communities. Many of you are already shaping the future with your commitment to teaching, research, leadership and service.”

Menglong Hu, Ph.D. student in chemistry, served as the keynote speaker for the ceremony. He successfully completed the Graduate Leadership Development Series, and now serves as a PFL Ambassador.

“Through PFL, I learned about leadership, communication skills, career development and teaching,” he said. “I learned how to handle an interview, how to motivate my students in class, how to conduct my research, how to deal with the conflict and how to teach effectively. I always knew that those skills were very important for my future development, but I couldn’t find a way to learn them systematically. PFL provided me the channel, a channel I can’t find anywhere else.”

Arden joined Rebeca Rufty, Barbi Honeycutt, Melissa Bostrom and Beth Overman as they awarded 111 certificates to students who successfully completed the PFL programs. The recipients of each award are:

PFL Ambassadors 2012-2013

• Alicain S. Carlson, Horticultural Science
• Natalie Kathleen Cooke, Nutrition
• Chirag R. Gajjar, Fiber & Polymer Science
• Menglong Hu, Chemistry
• Marc Philip Kai, Chemical Engineering
• Haritha Malladi, Civil Engineering
• Barry Peddycord III, Computer Science
• Katherine Ryker, Marine, Earth, & Atmospheric Sciences
• Molly Hartzog Storment, Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media
• Audrey Kayo Watanabe, Industrial Design

Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching Graduates, Fall 2012-Spring 2013

• Alecia Anderson, Sociology & Anthropology
• Bethany Bradshaw, English
• Shanita Brown, Curriculum & Instruction
• Gerald S. Burgner, Horticultural Science
• Mangesh Champhekar*, Textiles Engineering, Chemistry, & Science
• Hammad Arshad Cheema*, Textiles Engineering, Chemistry, & Science
• Hui Cong*, Textiles Engineering, Chemistry, & Science
• Angel Elisa Cruz, Crop Science
• Kathy DeBusk, Biological & Agricultural Engineering
• Joshua Dillard, Design
• Robert Dinterman, Economics
• William J. Gabler*, Textiles Engineering, Chemistry, & Science
• Ladan Ghobad, Design
• Alexander Gill, Economics
• Ursula Hairston, Office for Institutional Equality & Diversity
• George Hallowell, Architecture
• Christina Harrington, Design
• Allison Hedges, Mathematics
• Maqbool Hussain*, Textiles Engineering, Chemistry, & Science
• Jennifer A. Kimball, Crop Science
• Jana Koehler, English
• Meng Li, Statistics
• Shuang Liang, Chemistry
• Devorah A. Marks Stowe, Population Health & Pathobiology
• Avinav Nandgaonkar*, Fiber & Polymer Science
• Jacob Norton, Mathematics
• Irina Pritchett, Management
• Margaret Rahmoeller, Mathematics
• Srinivasan Rasipuram, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
• Kelley Rathod, Graphic Design
• Stephanie Riche, Economics
• Kelly Rockwell, Biology
• Jennifer Sabourin, Computer Science
• Soundarya Srirangan, Plant Biology
• Kevin D. Stallings, Crop Science
• Robert Thomas Super III, History
• Jeffrey Charles Swift, Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media
• Sameer Sudhakar Tendulkar, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
• Wenwen Zhang*, Textiles Engineering, Chemistry, & Science
• Jiameng Zheng, Plant Biology

* TECS graduates under the leadership of Stephen Michielsen.

Chemistry Teaching Certificate Graduates, Fall 2012 -Spring 2013

•  Leiah Carey, Chemistry
• James McCord, Chemistry
• Jonathan Mills, Chemistry
• Tara Moening, Chemistry
• Caleb Porter, Chemistry

Preparing the Professoriate Fellows and Mentors, 2012-2013

• Alyssa Armstrong, Mathematics; Mentor: Kailash Misra
• Robert W. Benim, Mathematics; Mentor: Alina Duca
• Jennifer Dixon, Marine, Earth, & Atmospheric Sciences; Mentor: Dave DeMaster
• David Fiala, Computer Science; Mentors: Sarah Heckman and Frank Mueller
• Kathleen Foote, Physics; Mentor: Albert Young
• Rachael Gordon-Wright, Mathematics; Mentor: Pierre Gremaud
• John T. Holodnak, Mathematics; Mentor: Bojko Bakalov
• Jess Houle, Entomology; Mentor: Clyde Sorenson
• Tara D. Hudson, Educational Research & Policy Analysis; Mentor: Audrey Jaeger
• Rupa Iasmin, Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering; Mentor: Joel Ducoste
• Meagan Kittle Autry, Communications, Rhetoric, & Digital Media; Mentor: David Rieder
• Dan Maroncelli, Mathematics; Mentors: Brenda Burns-Williams and Ernest Stitzinger
• Kestrel McCorkle, Plant Pathology; Mentor: H. David Shew
• Emily Gray Medlin, Comparative Biomedical Sciences; Mentor: Shannon Pratt-Phillips
• Nicole Nesheim, Curriculum & Instruction; Mentor: Carol Pope
• Tamara Pandolfo, Zoology; Mentors: Nick Haddad and Thomas Wentworth
• Terrance Pendleton, Mathematics; Mentor: Alina Chertock
• Brian Piper, Operations Research; Mentor: Ranji Ranjithan
• Srinivasan Rasipuram, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering; Mentor: Andrey Kuznetsov
• Nathaniel J. Schwartz, Mathematics; Mentor: Molly Fenn
• Guillermo Velarde, Forest Biomaterials; Mentors: Daniel Saloni and Richard Lemaster
• Brittney M. VornDick, Physics; Mentors: David Aspnes and David Haase
• Justin Wright, Mathematics; Mentor: Hoon Hong

Mentoring and Teaching Practicum – Graduates and Mentors, Spring 2013

• Christine M. Bergeron, Toxicology; Mentor: Francie Cuffney, Meredith College
• Nathanial Burch, Mathematics; Mentors: Stephen Robinson, Wake Forest University and Kirsten Doehler, Elon University
• Natalie Kathleen Cooke, Nutrition; Mentor: Lauren Halderman, UNC Greensboro
• Aaron Freeman Fox, Crop Science; Mentor: Steve Moore, Elon University
• Molly Erin Meachum, English; Mentor:  Paige Vinson, Durham Technical Community College

Graduate Leadership Development Series Graduates, 2012 – 2013

• Juhee Bae, Computer Science
• Venkata Krishnan Chandramouli, Industrial & Systems Engineering
• Hana Chmielewski, Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering
• Lei He, Economics
• Abhay Joijode, Fiber & Polymer Science
• Carissa Lada, Material Science & Engineering
• Mary Lewis, Plant Pathology
• Suzanne Martin, Social Work
• Veronica Mbaneme, Biological & Agricultural Engineering
• Ana McClanahan, Leadership, Policy, & Adult and Higher Education
• Aparna Mohan, Electrical & Computer Engineering
• Kesireddy Rakeshreddy, Civil Engineering
• Maria Riaz, Computer Science
• Ravikanth Vangala, Textile Technology Management
• Hui Wang, Operations Research