Scholarship profile: Jennifer Gowen

Jennifer Gowen wants to travel, but she’s not looking for beach vacations or fancy hotels.

Instead, she wants to combine her chemical engineering background with expertise in foreign languages and business so she can manage complicated overseas projects when she graduates. She feels she’ll be ready for the challenge because of the scholarship support she’s received at NC State.

Her next trip: Thailand, where she’ll be taking economics, marketing and a Thai language course during the spring 2010 semester.

“It’s just allowed me to take trips that give me a better understanding of the global environment,” Gowen, a junior chemical engineering major, said of her Park Scholarship. That financial freedom, along with the scholarship’s associated education and leadership activities, she said, “has made me a better person.”

Gowen is one of many top NC State engineering students who benefit from scholarship support. The scholarships help top students pay for school and give them the chance to explore other opportunities outside the classroom. Alumni benefit from these scholarships, too, as students who might have had difficulty affording college end up excelling at NC State, boosting the value of an NC State engineering degree.

Gowen, who grew up in Kernersville, became interested in NC State when she took part in a biotechnology and life sciences summer program at NC State as a high-school student. She lived on campus for the entire summer, met the head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and spoke before the board of the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, or BTEC.

“I realized that I liked biotechnology and that I wanted to apply to NC State,” she said.

During her college search, she applied “ruthlessly” for scholarships, and was awarded one of the most prestigious in the country, the Park Scholarship at NC State. The scholarship includes the full cost of tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, and travel and personal expenses.

Attending NC State became a no-brainer.

“Once I got here, I just fell in love with it,” she said.

Gowen has excelled academically, posting a 3.78 GPA, but she has also taken advantage of the travel opportunities the scholarship provides. She went to Italy during her sophomore spring break with the Park Scholars program; she was able to afford it because of the stipend she received from the scholarship.

But the scholarship program has helped her do more than travel.

“It teaches us to be well-rounded people who learn to think critically about the environment that we’re in,” she said.

It also teaches students to be leaders. Gowen’s experience includes managing the Engineering Career Fair at NC State, one of the nation’s largest events of its kind held specifically for engineering students. She planned logistics, coordinated more than 50 volunteers and implemented a new management system and a resume book for companies.

She’s also been an Engineering Ambassador, joining other top students who donate time to College events. Along the way, she was named the Outstanding Sophomore by the NC State chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Off campus, she spent last summer as an intern with ExxonMobil in Fairfax, Va. She’s also worked with Urban Ministries of Wake County.

“Being afforded the time to do this work by having a scholarship makes me a stronger candidate for any career,” she said.