Contact:
Mike Ferlazzo
570-577-3212
570-238-6266 (c)
http:// mike.ferlazzo@bucknell.edu
December 18, 2024 – Brennah Kennedy ’26 arrived at Bucknell with a commitment to sustainability and a passion to improve the environment. “I grew up on a farm where I had a very close relationship with nature and animals,” says Kennedy. “I feel like my purpose as a human is to make the planet a better place to live, so I’ve taken those passions from my personal life and carried them into my academic and professional life.”
Her background growing up on a farm in Montoursville, Pa., coupled with her love of working with her hands, pointed her in the direction of an environmental engineering degree. However, it was during her Engineering 100 course that she was introduced to a new path. “I found that electrical engineering had a lot of applicability to things like sustainability and renewable energy. The electrical and computer engineering department even had a sustainable energy concentration, so that’s what I wanted to focus on,” she says.
By the end of her first year on campus, Kennedy signed up for the Grand Challenges Scholars Program to put her passions into practice. With mentorship from esteemed faculty, Grand Challenges Scholars engage in multidisciplinary and multicultural research while incorporating the four grand challenges themes of sustainability, health, security and social access into their college careers. At the recommendation of Brad Putman, Richard E. Garman Dean of the College of Engineering, Kennedy enrolled in a global engineering course and set her sights on discovering sustainable solutions to some of society’s most pressing problems.
“I worked on a specific project that focused on producing energy from pavements with piezoelectric technology, which is a technology that you insert into pavement that produces power from the mechanical stresses of vehicles driving over the pavement,” says Kennedy, who, alongside Putman, participated in a virtual exchange course with students and faculty from An-Najah University in Nablus, Palestine. “My goal in pursuing this theme is to promote the development of new, alternative energy sources and promote more access to energy in rural and underdeveloped areas.”
Collaborating with students from different cultural backgrounds allowed Kennedy the opportunity to learn about the importance of empathy and compassion in the field of engineering, while her internship in the Office of Campus Sustainability taught her how to apply lessons from the lab at home. Following her sophomore year, she secured a position as a student researcher in Vanderbilt’s Nanoscale Transport Phenomena Laboratory, where she focused on energy transport, heat transfer and nanomaterials that have specific applications for sustainable design.
If there’s one thing Kennedy has learned from her time at Bucknell, it’s that she’s a problem-solver. “I like looking at problems and then finding solutions,” she says. “Engineering gives you the technical and analytical knowledge you need to do that.” Her minor in environmental studies and sciences has also given her a “holistic approach” to sustainability. “The liberal arts aspect of environmental studies and sciences has shifted what I want to do with my degree as an engineer,” she says. “Of course, what I will be doing will be geared towards helping the environment, but I also want to focus on the communities that need it the most.”
-30-
To download full image, right click and select “Save image as”
Photo by James T. Giffen, Marketing & Communications