“I am very honored and grateful to everyone involved in the process and all those who supported me,” Rajan said. “I have dreamed of being recognized within the STEM field since I was a child. I do not think I have words to express how happy I feel.”

The award is presented by the Cooperative and Experiential Education Division of the ASEE. Rajan was recognized for her summer internship with CVS/Aetna.

“I interned with Aetna over the summer after my junior year,” Rajan said. “Initially, I worked on code maintenance which in simple terms is reading code and making sure that each line was being run. I was essentially increasing code coverage. Over time, I started picking up other tasks as well. I learned about their machine-learning models and was also able to propose an alternative method for one of their projects with the help of my mentor.

“I gained a lot of soft skills as well from my team,” she continued. “The values they portrayed and the support they provided made for a comfortable learning environment.”

John Bau, director of career development for QU’s School of Computing and Engineering, will present the award to Rajan at the ASEE’s annual conference on Feb. 9 in Charleston, South Carolina.

“Hephzibah has been a model student since she started at Quinnipiac,” Bau said. “She has definitely earned this recognition."

Nominated students must be enrolled in a four- or five-year undergraduate program and majoring/working in any undergraduate discipline recognized by the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology. Nominated students also must have completed at least one work term (paid or unpaid) in which the student participates in work related to their major. The internship must be appropriately supervised on-site and by a university educator, with specific learning objectives and an opportunity for reflection and evaluation.

“I’ve known Hephzibah to be a leader on campus since I met her,” said Taskin Kocak, dean of the School of Computing and Engineering. “Hephzibah’s award is especially meaningful for us as we are the newest school at Quinnipiac. It is a testament to the outstanding education provided by our faculty and the dedicated support of our career director, John Bau, that this recognition is made for a member of only our eighth graduating class.”

Rajan said her career goal is “to work in an environment that will allow me to build, research and develop products that are feasible, eco-friendly and energy efficient. In short, I want to work on portable, scalable and robust engineering architectures that can help the community at large.”