November 02, 2023

Emily Hunt: Loyola’s Choudhury Sarkar-Dey Medal

I can remember that on my first day of class at Loyola, I was one of three women in my Messina class. Somewhat intimidated, I refrained from participating and asking questions. My lack of confidence in myself as a student in a male-dominated major inhibited me from reaching my full potential freshman year. At the end of the year, as I was sent home due to the Covid-19 outbreak, my engagement with coursework changed dramatically and I gained the confidence to ask questions and engage in discussions that I did not have before. This change rapidly transformed my understanding and abilities within my major. After my freshman year, as I became an upperclassman, I felt I had a duty to other students to instill in them the same curiosity and confidence I had found in myself. Loyola has provided me with the opportunity to support others and help them reach their full potential through opportunities in community service, mentorship to others, and my career.

In my first semester I saw the disparities between students from previous backgrounds, especially in my larger prerequisite classes. Although some privileged students, such as myself, came from college-preparatory high schools, many students lacked the resources needed to perform well in their college courses. In these classes often referred to as “weeder” courses, I saw students who did not have the previous knowledge or study habits drown in coursework and perform poorly, often being forced to withdraw from the course. The advantages students who come from rigorous academic backgrounds allowed them to pass these classes while other students were often set off-course from their graduation track or dissuaded from pursuing a major in STEM. Concerned by this disparity between students who did not have access to extensive academic resources prior to Loyola, I felt the need to work with students to create an equitable learning environment, especially for first-year students.

This desire inspired me to begin my job tutoring for The Study at Loyola, which offers free tutoring to full-time students. I began in the spring of 2021 tutoring in physics, math, and engineering courses and attempted to instill in the students the same confidence and skills that I had gained over the past year. I saw students transform in their abilities and helped steer them towards independence in their study habits which would hopefully set them up for success going forward. I formed extremely close relationships with the students I tutored and ended up solely doing recurring appointments for students whom I had worked with previously. Being able to provide a safe and judgment free learning environment for these students tremendously changed their confidence in their abilities. Seeing these changes demonstrated to me the importance of bringing about equity to students in academics.

In the Fall of 2021, while taking a statistics class, I was offered the opportunity to engage in a service opportunity in lieu of a final project. Seeing the difference I could make through my service to students through The Study, I took upon this opportunity to tutor local high-school students in weekly sessions for various STEM courses through an organization called Bridges. Bridges offers free tutoring to local Baltimore public school students and has incredibly high graduation rates among the students who remain with the program. The program is dedicated to engaging with students on a personal level to provide mentorship and support to students and prepare them for higher education. Throughout my service with Bridges, I developed close relationships with the students I saw and not only gave them assistance with their work, but developed a personal friendship with them.

While tutoring, many of the students showed me their class resources and I saw they were often given individual work which was monitored and checked through computer software, lacking an individualized and personal approach to their learning. This often hindered the students’ progress; after only a few moments of individualized explanation and practice, the students would understand the material. The lack of individualized learning demonstrated the disparity in education among students who attended Baltimore public schools; therefore, this made my time at Bridges even more engaging and demonstrated the importance of my service through their program.

My sophomore year at Loyola I joined the Society of Women Engineers, or SWE. The club provided role models who introduced various resources and service opportunities within the department and allowed me to connect with other female engineers. My junior year, I developed a close relationship with the president, Julia, who demonstrated service to others and the importance of engagement with underclassmen to provide support. I was able to ask her questions about internships, courses, and career opportunities throughout her time as president. However, as my co-president Molly Janoch and I became co-presidents of the club, we developed a peer mentorship program within the club to assist underclassmen through their introductory years at Loyola. Through this program, each underclassman was paired with an upperclassmen who shared engineering concentrations and interests. Through this program, we assisted in connecting female students to guide and support each other within this daunting, male-dominated field.

The Ignatian characteristic cura-personalis encourages us to grow in spirit throughout our education at Loyola. My junior year I took an environmental philosophy course to fulfill my core requirement, however, this class resonated with me in a way which changed my entire perspective on my career and duty as a human being who shares the earth. The class discussed all of the ways harm to the environment disproportionally affects those of lower income levels. Toxic fumes and waste threaten the lives of those who live near these areas; incinerators near poor communities, mountaintop removal mining waste spilling into water supplies of poor, rural neighborhoods, and dumping grounds targeted in third-world countries are all examples of the way our impact on the environment affects others, and therefore our need to care for those who are affected. I wrote a reflective paper on the book Bringing Down the Mountains by Shirley Burns which especially influenced me to apply for my internship at Westinghouse Electric Company, the leader in nuclear power development throughout the world. This book discussed how poor, rural Appalachian communities have their livelihoods and homes stripped away from mountaintop removal mining, MTR, which is a large-scale invasive mining process. I felt an obligation to directly contribute towards innovation that would save people like those living in the Appalachian region from the life-threatening effects of processes like MTR. At Westinghouse, I continued to work in research and development for reducing climate change and working towards a carbon-free future.

Loyola has demonstrated to me the importance of continuing to engage in service and building communities, which I have continued at Westinghouse. I became a member of the organization Women in Nuclear, WIN, which connects and empowers women who work in the field of nuclear energy throughout the United States. Additionally, Westinghouse itself hosts a variety of opportunities for members to network and discuss additional ways to bring about a more inclusive environment within the company so all feel empowered and comfortable in the workplace. Additionally, during my internship I assisted with volunteer opportunities through Westinghouse’s partnership with United Way, a nonprofit organization which focuses on bringing equity to communities throughout the country.