Jenna Meanor Receives the 2017 Fall Praxair TA Award

Graduate student Jenna Meanor is the recipient of the 2017 Fall Praxair Exceptional TA Award. Recipients are selected for both the fall and spring semesters, and presentation of the fall Award is an important part of the Schoenborn Graduate Research Symposium during the spring.

Jenna was born in Durham and grew up in Cary, NC. She graduated from Wake Forest University in 2016 with a BS degree in Chemistry with a Biochemistry Concentration, a BA degree in Spanish (including 5 months abroad in Spain speaking only Spanish), as well as a minor in Mathematics. During her time at Wake Forest, she engaged her interest in basic research in a lab at Duke’s Medical Research Center, and also made time to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, Project Pumpkin, TEDx, and several efforts to raise funds for cancer research.

At NCSU, Jenna is the leader of a new project area in the Keung and Rao research groups to develop nanosensors of chromatin states in living cells with potential applications across human disease, cell biology, and cellular engineering. She’s also the Graduate Student Association’s President and as her colleagues can attest, a diehard Carolina Hurricanes fan.

Recipient selection begins when students in each class are given the opportunity to vote for the TA and respond to a series of questions regarding that TA’s performance. Results of the vote are tabulated and, after class size is factored-in using a statistical model, six finalists are chosen. Afterwards, a faculty selection committee selects the winner based on the student responses, as well as letters provided by the course instructor.

As a TA for CHE446/546: Design and Analysis of Chemical Reactors, Jenna earned high compliments from both students and the instructor. Students were highly complementary of the review sessions and lectures she held, and they especially expressed that she genuinely cared about them and made time for them outside of normal office hours.

The TA Award is funded by Praxair as part of its financial commitment to support the department and our graduate program. Drs. Todd Skare and Yang Luo from Praxair made the Award presentation.

Congratulations to Jenna for your Award and your efforts to provide our students with a quality educational experience!