ECE Senior Erika Elston Receives Gerald F. Scanlon Student Employee of the Year Award
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UMass Amherst has selected senior Erika Elston of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department to receive one of its Gerald F. Scanlon Student Employees of the Year Awards. The award is given to student employees who exhibit outstanding performance while dedicating their creativity, time, effort, and talents to aid UMass Amherst in carrying out its mission and purposes. The university honored Elston and other award recipients at a ceremony on April 2 in the Old Chapel. See video about Elston: Watch now.
As part of the university's continuing effort to encourage and reward exemplary employees, the Gerald F. Scanlon Student Employee of the Year Award was instituted in the 1987-88 academic year.
“I nominated Erika for the award because of her dedication to helping the Peer Advising Program in the ECE department grow,” said ECE Academic Advisor Emily Krems. “In the Peer Advising position, she meets mostly with first years and sophomore students in ECE. Erika greets students into the office. She asks them what brings them into Peer Advising. She advises students around time-management strategies and how to balance the workload, what to expect in courses. And if a student is struggling in a class, Erika can help as well.”
As an ECE Peer Advisor, Elston holds weekly drop-in hours to help fellow students navigate academic challenges, course selections, and time management. Using skills she learned from ECE 202: Computational Tools for ECE, she also developed a spreadsheet that visualizes advising-program data, thus helping faculty measure outreach and impact. Her service extends to the Riccio College of Engineering Dean’s Undergraduate Advisory Group, where she functions as secretary, documenting meetings and representing the concerns of her peers to college leadership.
Krems went on to say that “Erika has a vast amount of knowledge, given that she is an electrical engineer in the ECE department. Erika took it upon herself to compile the data of students signing in for Peer Advising. She has charts and tables and percentages, and she shares that information at our Peer Advising meetings. And the information is also going to be shared this semester with the faculty.”
According to Krems, “Erika also goes above and beyond in that she helps with events during the semester. We have events for women in ECE. We have events for graduate students. She helps set up, helps clean up, makes it a very comfortable experience for the students attending these events. Erika also cares deeply about students and the student experience. I’ve been really impressed to see her get excited about students that come back to get more advice from the Peer Advising team.”
Krems concluded that Elston has contributed a tremendous amount to the Peer Advising program. As she said to Elston, “You have helped it grow and develop, and you have given your all while meeting with the students and during our team meetings. I have really appreciated having you on the Peer Advising team. I’m going to miss you when you graduate, and I’m also so happy for you.”
Elston majors in Electrical Engineering and is preparing for a career in the semiconductor-manufacturing industry, a path that has been shaped by her coursework and hands-on engineering experience while at UMass Amherst, including her summer internship at BAE Systems, where she worked as a hardware-engineering intern in Nashua, New Hampshire. Read more about Elston.