WINNER - 2005

Oliver Bowen Throughout my Lafayette College career, I have strived to achieve a balance between my personal, academic, community, and social interests. I have aimed to excel in specific areas yet remain a well-rounded and active member of the Lafayette community. In working toward this goal, I have had the opportunity to experience many aspects of Lafayette, I have gotten to know a huge variety of students, professors, and administrators, and I have made a personal effort to uniquely contribute to Lafayette’s student life and the community around us. In particular, I feel that I have contributed to Lafayette through my strong desire to bridge gaps between various student groups. In my first year here, I noticed a strong division between the international and the American students on campus. As my college career progressed, I realized that this division was more widespread, and that there was a lack of interaction between many different groups on campus. First as a peer advisor, then as a member of my fraternity’s executive board, and currently as the ISA president and a resident advisor, I have made a major effort to lessen the division between groups on campus, and help integrate Lafayette’s diversity into the rest of the community. From my first arrival on Lafayette’s campus, I have been fortunate enough to make friends with a wide variety of students from various student groups. Through this personal interaction, I have gained a unique understanding of different people’s backgrounds and perspectives, and this has made my Lafayette experience so valuable. To me, Lafayette is not only about what we can learn in the classroom, but more importantly about what we can learn from each other.

 

Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Minor: Computer Science
Thesis: "High-level Control of a Hardware Routing Accelerator"

Academic Activities/Awards

• Dean’s List every semester (1,2,3,4)
• Excel Scholar with Professor Nestor on “Computer Aided Design - Verilog Visualization” (3)
• IEEE Students Activities Conference presented paper titled “Improving Routing Performance using an FPGA Maze Routing Accelerator” (4)
• Senior Honors Thesis, Electrical Computer Engineering, “High Level Control of an FPGA Maze Routing Accelerator” (4)
• Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honor Society (3,4)
• Eta Kappa Nu, Electrical Engineering Honor Society (3,4)
• Order of Omega, Greek Honor Society (3,4)
• Recipient of Electrical Computer Engineering Award (4)
• Recipient (on behalf of ISA) of Lafayette Intercultural Networking Council Recognition Award (4)
• Off-campus internship at Agere Systems (Summer 2004)

Campus Service Activities

• Resident Advisor in McKeen Hall (3) and Gates Hall (4)
• Peer Tutor in Math (1), in Physics (1,2)
• International Student Peer Advisor (2)
• Member of LINC executive council (4)

Community Service Activities

• Kids in the Community (KIC)–Presented Engineering Experience at KIC site (2)
• Reinstated Delta Upsilon’s Tutoring Program
• Participated in organization of “Olympic Day(s)” for the Boys and Girls Club through Delta Upsilon International (3,4)
• Worked with the ISA board to initiate and organize three community service projects, including country presentations at KIC site, holiday dinner and fun activities at Spring Gardens Daycare Center, and an afternoon visit and international presentation to a nearby elementary school (4).

Athletics

• Crew Club (1)
• Intramural Sports (1,2,3)

Special Interest Group Activities

• President of International Students Association (4)
• Vice President of Scholarship, Delta Upsilon Fraternity, responsibilities included setting up a house tutoring system, organizing academic mentors for new pledges, organized alumni-faculty dinner and academic awards, head of Delta Upsilon's judicial board at Lafayette (3,4)
• Active member of IEEE student chapter (3,4)
• Lafayette Wine Society (3,4)
• Peer Advisor and ISA board member (2)