Gaertner to Represent Penn State's Eberly College of Science as Student Marshal at Summer Commencement 2010
Carol Lynn Gaertner of Wexford, Pennsylvania, will be honored as the student marshal for both the Eberly College of Science and the College of Engineering during Penn State's summer commencement ceremonies on 14 August 2010 at the University Park campus. Gaertner has selected Victor Nistor of the Department of Mathematics and Moses Ling of the Department of Architectural Engineering to be her faculty escorts for the commencement exercises.
Gaertner will graduate from Penn State with a 3.94 grade-point average and bachelor's degrees in both Architectural Engineering and Mathematics. She has been a member of the Phi Alpha Epsilon Architectural Engineering Society since 2009, the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society since 2008, and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society since 2007. In addition, she has received several academic scholarships, including a Gladys M. Baird Scholarship in Architectural Engineering in 2009 and a Professor Vincent L. Pass Scholarship in Architectural Engineering in 2008. In 2005, her first year at Penn State, she received a Schreyer Honors College Academic Excellence Scholarship, a H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Scholarship, and a C. Melville Junior and Kenneth Barr Scholarship. She has been on the Dean's List every semester during her years at Penn State.
In 2009, under the direction of Penn State Professor of Mathematics Victor Nistor, Gaertner participated in a research project investigating numerical methods, focusing on the finite-element method. Professor Nistor also advised Gaertner on her Schreyer Honors College undergraduate honors thesis, "More Efficient Choices of Linear Bases in Numerical Methods." In addition, Gaertner has participated in several internships throughout her college career. In 2007, she was an engineering intern with the CLT Efficient Technologies Group, where she assisted in the development of energy-conservation measures. Last year, she assisted in the structural-design plans for commercial, educational, and religious buildings at Rathgeber/Goss Associates, a structural-engineering firm located in Rockville, Maryland.
This summer, Gaertner is participating in Penn State's 3rd Annual PSU-PKU Summer Mathematics Program, where Penn State students and students from China's Peking University collaborate on applied mathematics projects, present their research, and participate in cultural events. Gaertner will enter a Ph.D. Program in Penn State's Department of Mathematics in August 2010.
In her free time, Gaertner serves as an Architectural Engineering Envoy, giving tours to prospective high-school students, and she has participated in the Schreyer Honors College mentoring programs. Throughout her years at Penn State, she has tutored many math students at the Penn State Learning program, and also has worked as a Penn State Learning coordinator. In addition, she has served as a member of the Finance Committee for Penn State's IFC/Panhellenic Council Dance Marathon (THON), a student-run effort to raise funds and awareness for the fight against pediatric cancer. She is an avid swimmer and scuba diver, and has served as a teaching assistant for the Kinesiology 45 SCUBA class.
Gaertner is a graduate of North Allegheny Senior High School. She will be accompanied at commencement by her parents Gary Gaertner and Christine Cipriani, her brother Michael Gaertner, her uncle Alfred Cipriani, and her aunt Aida Cipriani.
CONTACTS
Barbara Kennedy (PIO): 814-863-4682, science@psu.edu