FPE Honors its Outstanding Undergraduate Students

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Clockwise from top: Dietz, Steranka, Roy and West.

The A. James Clark School of Engineering typically holds its Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony to recognize undergraduate students for their excellence in academics, leadership and service. The ceremony was canceled this year due to the current health crisis, but that does not mean the efforts of our outstanding students have gone unnoticed. To that end, the UMD Department of Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) would like to recognize the following students:

Emily Dietz is the recipient of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Ambassador Award, which acknowledges students who have served as exemplar FPE Ambassadors, going above and beyond to promote the major.

Shuvam Roy is the recipient of the Robert J. Taylor Academic Achievement Award, offered by the Salamander Honor Society to the Department junior with the highest GPA.

Karolyn Steranka is the recipient of the FPE Chair’s Award, presented to a student who made the most significant contribution to the Department mission through their service and leadership during the year.

Madison West is presented with the Society of Fire Protection Engineers Outstanding Senior Award, offered to the department senior with the highest GPA.

About our awardees:

Emily Dietz is a junior fire protection engineering student and is studying abroad at Lund University in Sweden. She is a former member of College Park Scholars and Flexus Living and Learning programs. On campus, Emily served as a fire protection engineering ambassador for two years and conducted research through the Psychology Department's Culture Lab. Emily has held two summer internships at Telgian Engineering and Consulting in Wilmington, DE and Burns and McDonnell in Arlington, VA.

Shuvam Roy is a junior fire protection engineering student with a 4.0 GPA. He is a member of the University Honors program as well as the Alpha Lambda Delta and Phi Eta Sigma (ALDPES) Honors Society. He is a recent inductee of the Salamander Honorary Society. This summer, Shuvam will be interning at Pepco Holdings.

Karli Steranka is a senior fire protection engineering student and the president of the Salamander Honorary Society, placing her in charge of planning the FPE Career Fair. She is a teaching fellow for Human Response to Fire, an upper level FPE course. After graduation Karli is pursuing a master's of science in fire protection engineering at the University of Maryland.

Madison West is a senior fire protection engineering student from Wakefield, RI. She is a member of the women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, the Tau Beta Pi honor society, and Theta Tau professional engineering fraternity. Madison is also vice president of the Salamander Honorary Society, and a tutor with CP tutors. She has been working for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) since her freshman year and has helped them update the Human Behavior Guide, SFPE Handbook, and create a database of enclosure fires. After graduation, Madison plans to pursue an M.S. in Reliability Engineering at UMD. 

Published May 12, 2020