{"id":16786,"date":"2026-05-04T11:25:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=16786"},"modified":"2026-07-14T19:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:50:04","slug":"engineering-her-way-to-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2026\/05\/04\/engineering-her-way-to-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering her way to Penn State\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Jakob Strohl \u201826, staff writer <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abriana Ferrari arrived on campus at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, choosing to become a Dutchman after spending much of her early education in a homeschool co-op. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was lucky enough to be offered a scholarship that has made my education here very affordable,\u201d she said. \u201c[It\u2019s] granted me amazing opportunities outside of the classroom.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrari made no\u00a0initial\u00a0mention of being just one of four in the\u00a0class of 2026 to receive the John Bowman\u00a0Allwein\u00a0Scholarship and its accompanying full academic ride. Yet her record speaks for itself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, she\u2019s fought for a 3.96 GPA in biochemistry, two highly-selective Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) at R1 universities and two research assistantships at LVC. She has also logged hundreds of hours in tutoring and recitation leadership, making it fair to ask whether it was mere \u201cluck\u201d on the part of Ferrari or just the school betting on the right individual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a very inquisitive person, and I love learning about the world around me,\u201d she said. “I think this\u00a0led to my interest in chemistry.\u00a0I realized it was something I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing after my first research internship the summer before my junior year.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That internship was at Mississippi State University, where she studied biophysics alongside graduate students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, her passion has continued to bring her great success. Ferrari has been a standout in LVC\u2019s Chemistry Department, winning awards this year for being the best senior in the program and recognition as the most impressive student in the physical chemistry subdiscipline, though she credits much of it to her professors and her goals in life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Sterner was my biggest mentor here,\u201d she said. \u201cI look up to her a lot. Watching her teach has shown me how to best help the students that I work with.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrari also mentioned Drs. Peelen, Marsh and Patton as instrumental in her growth as an aspiring chemist and cited plans for graduate studies as an antidote for senioritis.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/strong>I\u2019ve wanted to get my PhD for a while now and that\u2019s a huge motivator for me to work hard at my classes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her largest success came recently when she persevered through what was described as an incredibly overwhelming and very time-consuming application process, making it into Penn State\u2019s PhD-tracked chemical engineering\u00a0program, a\u00a0top-30\u00a0program in the nation,\u00a0with no engineering background.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But underneath all the accolades, Ferrari is very human. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sometimes I am [excited for my future], but sometimes I’m just terrified,” she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u00a0also\u00a0noted that her sleep since being accepted to Penn State has been more erratic and that she has been dealing with a kind of persistent, all-encompassing, omnipresent impostor syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverall\u00a0though, I think I’m excited,” she said. “I think\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to love\u00a0grad\u00a0school.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first few semesters were rough; her advice to future students is to make lots of friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCollege will be\u00a0absolutely miserable\u00a0if you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have friends,” she said. “It\u2019s ok to put yourself out there; you\u2019re not going to look stupid,\u00a0and if you do, no one will remember it, so just go talk to people. They\u2019re probably just as nervous about meeting people as you are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jakob Strohl \u201826, staff writer  Abriana Ferrari arrived on campus at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, choosing to become a Dutchman after spending much of her early education in a homeschool co-op.  \u201cI was lucky […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news","8":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16839,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16786\/revisions\/16839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}