This student story is part of a larger post titled “Sending Off Our 2025 Graduates.” Read the full article here.
- Major: Civil engineering and international studies
- Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Fun Fact: While studying abroad in Spain, she competed in an ultimate frisbee national tournament.
Park Scholar Emi Boldor knows that the buildings suited to withstand major earthquakes are engineered to be flexible. She applied a similar wisdom to her time at NC State, finding ways to stretch her abilities by thinking globally and collaboratively.
Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Boldor witnessed the devastation of hurricanes and floods and decided to study civil engineering. But at the College of Engineering, she was drawn toward earthquake research.
Her interest in structural engineering for earthquakes led her to the Seismic Design Competition — and an extracurricular community just as excited to design and build complex towers made of balsa wood that could withstand earthquake simulations.
The competition and her coursework helped Boldor understand the value of collaborative group work.
“Civil engineering has many different concentrations,” Boldor said. “When you work together, you might share overlapping knowledge, but you also get to learn from other people’s specific expertise.”
A Benjamin Franklin Scholar, she has combined engineering with social sciences and will get a second degree in international studies. Boldor spent summers in Romania growing up and has naturally developed an interest in global perspectives. She traveled to Qatar to explore the impact of the 2022 World Cup on its infrastructure and also studied in Spain, where she learned to embrace its different rhythm and culture.
Boldor loved volleyball on Spain’s beaches, but she knows how to shake things up. In the fall, she’ll enroll in an accelerated Ph.D. program in earthquake engineering at the University of Colorado, where she can go skiing.
“I’m looking forward to the snow!”
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