Amanda Cook of Royal Palm Beach was named a 2014-15 Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar during an April 16 ceremony at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. This was the 39th year RIT has presented this award to honor its students.
The bronze medallion award was given to 104 students who have met the criteria — a minimum grade-point average of 3.85 out of 4.0; completion of more than two-thirds of the credit hours required for a bachelor’s degree; and demonstrated community engagement, such as creative work, serving student committees, civic activities, employment or independent research. RIT chooses less than 1 percent of the students from all five campuses worldwide for the annual honor.
Cook is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at RIT. She completed a co-op at GE Aviation as a design engineer, is a lab instructor for strength of materials and currently works as an engineering co-op student at General Cable. In addition, Cook worked two semesters as an undergraduate research assistant programming models to predict suicidal behavior, culminating in published work for the Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction Program.
Cook is a captain of the RIT varsity softball team, a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, the recipient of the Tiger Power Den Female Athlete of the Year and was named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association scholar athlete. After graduation, she will attend Officer Candidate School for the U.S. Navy to become a nuclear surface warfare officer.
Cook is a 2012 graduate of Suncoast High School, where she dual majored in the International Baccalaureate and math, science and engineering programs.
In addition to the student award, each scholar was asked to honor a high school teacher who had a profound influence on their career. Cook nominated David Traill, an IB history teacher at Suncoast, who traveled to RIT to receive his award at the Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar ceremony.
