Author: CECAS

The Outstanding Boyd Scholar Award is given to a student who completed their first year of engineering study in the Boyd Scholars program and is now being recognized as the most outstanding graduating senior of the program based on their accomplishments, including scholarship, leadership, engagement, and integrity in engineering. Kate Johnson began her engineering studies as a General Engineering Learning Community (GELC) student in Fall 2019 and joined the Boyd Scholars group in the summer. She felt “underprepared” for calculus when she enrolled at Clemson, and the GELC-Boyd Program provided her the opportunity to catch up to her peers with supplemental summer courses.

With this help, Kate was able to enter her chosen engineering program on time in her sophomore year. She realized as a Clemson student that it was important to become involved with organizations and other opportunities on campus and has accumulated an impressive list, including the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Clemson Rocket Engineering Club, Material Advantage, The Clemson RPG and MTG Club, American Physics Society (APS) (and attended the 2024 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) held at Clemson), and working with her church group for college students in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Additionally, she served in a variety of leadership roles. As deputy project manager for the NASA L’SPACE Program, she was responsible for overseeing all scientific data and (along with her team) submitted a New Technology Report (NTR) to NASA for their design. She was also selected as a member of a technical review panel to review four other designs presented that semester served as the primary investigator for one of the reviewed designs, and served under the leadership of John Dankanich, the Chief Technologist- NASA Marshal Space Flight Center. Kate’s engineering experience during her sophomore Creative Inquiry project on Lunar Regolith Simulants inspired her to seek an aerospace co-op opportunity.

She completed three rotations at Champion Aerospace. She was the first MSE co-op participant that Champion Aerospace had hired in recent years. In her first rotation, she worked in manufacturing engineering, then switched to product engineering for her last two rotations, working on exciters, magnetos, ceramics, and igniters. Kate is hopeful that some of her designs may end up in space! Kate will graduate with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering with minors in Chemistry, Nuclear Engineering, and Radiological Sciences with a 3.36 GPA.

After graduation in May 2024, Kate will travel to Cleveland, Ohio to intern for the summer at NASA Glenn Research Center. Her team will work on high-temperature polymeric materials for use in hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion systems. In Kate’s words, “To say that this is the engineering opportunity of my dreams would be an understatement!” She has applied to the Clemson Ph.D. program for Fall 2024. She clearly exemplifies all that this award stands for, including accomplishments in student organization and community service, leadership, engagement, and research.

Spring 2023 marks the first graduating cohort of Boyd Scholars, as well as the first year of awarding a student the Outstanding Boyd Scholar Award. This award is given to a student who completed their first year of engineering study in the Boyd Scholars program and is now being recognized as the most outstanding graduating senior of the program based on their accomplishments, including scholarship, leadership, engagement, and integrity in engineering. As the inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Boyd Scholar Award, AJ Sanders embodies all these qualities.  

AJ has been heavily involved in several student organizations during his time at Clemson, taking the initiative to serve in several executive roles. He has been a part of Clemson Engineers for Developing Communities (CEDC) since Spring 2020 and became the Marketing & Branding director in 2021, leading the group through a complete brand shift. He has also been heavily involved in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), in which he has served as senator and vice president and is currently serving as president of Clemson’s chapter. Finally, he completed the Certified Student Leader program and has been a part of the CECAS Student Advisory Board.  

Additionally, AJ has gained a lot of rich experience during his 3 engineering co-op rotations at BMW, making numerous valuable contributions within the quality department. He progressed the department’s data visualization capabilities with Power BI, creating a dashboard prototype that went on to inspire a global standard for a quality management system used across plants over the global BMW network. To do this, AJ had to become an expert in the quality management system and was also tasked with leading training on the system and supporting systems for full-time test and production coordinators. Towards the end of his time at BMW, AJ was tasked with a change management lead using Oracle APEX to complete a project that had been rotated through 2 employees before him. This was a real opportunity for AJ to put his prior co-op experience to the test, along with the leadership skills and training to “think like an engineer” to navigate a complex situation with new and changing information and corporate red tape.  

AJ has accomplished all of this and more during his time at Clemson, all while maintaining strong grades. He is a model engineering student and is well-equipped to have a successful engineering career. After graduation, AJ will work in Ally Financial’s Data Analyst-Early Talent program and plans to earn his MBA within the next five years.  

A subset of the GELC students is selected as Boyd Scholars who are given a financial award to complete 7 credits of summer classes on campus at Clemson. Funding for their tuition, room, and board are provided by a generous gift from the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation. Our third cohort of Boyd Scholars started their summer classes in May 2022. With this third cohort, the program has financially supported over 125 students in completing the first-year curriculum “on-time”, allowing these students to change their major form General Engineering to a degree-granting engineering major prior to the start of fall courses and saving them an extra semester of full tuition. 

CECAS IDEAS Magazine Spring 2021 Cover Story: Update  

Two of our Boyd Scholars from the first cohort in 2019-2020 were featured in a cover story describing the impact of the Boyd Scholars Program in the Spring 2021 issue of our college’s magazine, IDEAS. We reached back out to both of these students to check in and see how their studies have been progressing over the last year.  

Daniel Graves is currently majoring in industrial engineering and has been actively involved in several student organizations: Beta Upsilon Chi (Treasurer), Alpha Pi Mu Industrial Engineering Honor Society, Clemson Reformed University Fellowship, and Clemson Believers for Racial Unity. Daniel has also been gaining hands-on industry experience with work at the US1 facility in Greenville, SC, and as an Industrial Progress Engineering Co-Op student at Michelin, North America. His career goals are to use experience and expertise to make improvements wherever his feet are planted, but he specifically aspires to build a strong foundation for his career in the upstate South Carolina area given his positive experience working here as a co-op student. 

AJ Sanders is also majoring in industrial engineering and is also active in several student organizations: National Society of Black Engineers (Vice President of Clemson’s chapter), Clemson Engineers for Developing Countries (Marketing & Branding Director), and Collegiate Curls. AJ is currently working as a Co-Op student with BMW’s Launch & Change group, where he was part of the team that helped conduct the official checks and handover of the Bill of Materials for the BMW G09 to Plant Spartanburg. He aspires to complete an MBA after finishing his undergraduate engineering degree and is also interested in pursuing a career in engineering consulting.