Ashley Frost, a doctoral candidate in sociology and demography, and Steven Marshall and Eric Sauder, both undergraduate mechanical engineering majors and Schreyer Honors College scholars, have been awarded the W. LaMarr Kopp International Achievement Award. Frost is honored as the 2009 graduate recipient, and Marshall and Sauder share the 2009 undergraduate award.
The award recognizes one graduate student and one undergraduate annually who has contributed significantly to the advancement of the international mission of the University. It is named for the retired deputy vice president for international programs.
The designation "achievement" includes, but is not limited to, the display of excellence in: graduate research, or an undergraduate academic course of study and/or research, with a significant international component; participation in international programs and/or field projects; graduate student teaching with significant international content, or undergraduate student leadership in improving relations among peoples from different regions of the world; and service to the international community.
Frost, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, West Africa, prior to beginning graduate studies at Penn State, has demonstrated her dedication to the global mission of Penn State through her research direction and leadership of projects, her internationally focused teaching philosophy, as well as several extracurricular activities focused on international issues.
She has participated in field research in Central America, where her team's work eventually led to a book chapter on gender and sustainable development, and in Sri Lanka, where her team evaluated the needs of a women's group that had been devastated by a 2004 tsunami. Her dissertation focuses on the experiences of a unique group of Ghanaian men, which required three months of field work. Frost followed that with a grant-funded quantitative analysis of the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey that identifies personal and demographic characteristics that predict gender-equitable attitudes among a representative sample of men from that nation.
She volunteered for two years by meeting individually with Penn State students interested in serving in the Peace Corps, and she continues her volunteerism by working with her adviser to organize participants in a study-abroad program at the University of Ghana.
Marshall and Sauder met in fourth grade and since that time have shared an interest in using their education to participate in internationally focused service projects. They developed and helped lead a long-term initiative to provide an international, immersive, collaborative, multidisciplinary active-learning experience for students from engineering, business and social sciences in Jamaica. The philosophy of the program sees students at creators, entrepreneurs, problem-solvers, activists and leaders with passion to work toward a freer, friendlier, fairer and more sustainable planet.
Mustard Seed Communities (MSC), a faith-based nonprofit organization based in Jamaica working with mentally and physically disabled young adults, approached Penn State in 2007 for help in developing a residential community for their constituents. The proposed site, called Jacob's Ladder, is in a remote area of Central Jamaica's Blue Mountains that lacks tillable soil for crops, energy resources and adequate water supplies. Through conversations with MSC planners, site operators and staff, Penn State hopes to develop solutions that promote sustainability and increase the quality of life for the residents and workers at Jacob's Ladder.
Marshall and Sauder not only engaged in honors thesis work on the project but were equally involved in the creation of a larger home, a structure to permit the three-semester effort -- from assessing the community's needs to designing the plans to constructing and implementing the design solutions -- to proceed. Marshall recognized the residents' need for sensory stimulation and researched ways to provide a reflection path with multiple stimulation systems. Sauder identified travel issues to the remote site and capitalized on donated electric golf carts to solve the problem, then researched a system of recharging stations to power the carts. Both students were instrumental in advertising, coordinating, maintaining and managing a team of students for the MSC project. The team was requested to make a formal presentation to the prime minister of Jamaica during the organization's fundraising banquet in New York City. The student leaders connected the organization to a broader network of retail, Jamaican government and funding organizations, helping MSC develop into a larger, sustainable entity.
Marshall and Sauder also participated in a three-week study tour of Jordan -- where they took keen interest in learning the language and being immersed in the culture -- and also have visited Tanzania, Australia and the Sovereign Nation of the Ojibwe Tribe. They have not only enhanced their own educational experiences at Penn State but have dramatically impacted the lives of other Penn State students, assisted in creating a sustainable project in Jamaica, and continually promote internationalization through their enthusiasm and dedication to cross-cultural interactions.