The seating arrangement at EMPOWER’s end-of-the-year event said it all: EMPOWER trainees enjoy spending time together. Almost all of the graduate students sat together at a single long table for the reception.

“This is the end of EMPOWER’s first full year with trainees,” EMPOWER Program Director Laura Lautz told the group of about 40 people who filled the Member’s Lounge at Drumlin’s. The current EMPOWER graduate students, the leadership team, affiliated faculty, and PDSA faculty, were all on hand to celebrate the end of the semester. A slideshow cycling through the highlights of the year was projected in the front of the room.

While the reception was informal and only a few words were spoken by Lautz, she did take the opportunity to present the program’s first ever “Director’s Citation for Excellence” to two students: Kristy Gutchess and Sara Alesi. This award is given in recognition of exceptional academic performance and professional growth in the EMPOWER program.

“Kristy wants to be an academic – a professor. She has taken every opportunity to pursue this career with a passion, which is a key reason she received this citation,” said Lautz. “She has used her PDSA coursework to improve her writing for scientific publication, and her preparation for teaching at the college level.”

Like Kristy, “Sara stands out in her commitment to the EMPOWER program – she participated in virtually every professional development program we had to offer,” says Lautz.  “Sara was one of our first students to make a connection with Dan Olson-Bang, in Graduate Career Services, and use that connection to secure an internship with Plumley Engineering, a local environmental consulting firm, for her career pathways experience.”

According to Lautz, “both students represent what we hope students will achieve in EMPOWER – capitalizing on opportunities to enhance their professional growth to pursue the career of their dreams.”

In a fitting close to the year, the trainees lingered at the reception long after the awards were presented, the slideshow was turned off, and the faculty departed.