“When I started at UTSA as a freshman, I made my first friends from joining UTSA’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. The members of the organization became a second family to me and inspired me to step up and push myself in ways I didn’t think were possible. I have grown into a person I never thought I could be,” Penn said.
During her sophomore year, Penn was the fundraising chair for the local NSBE chapter. Increasing financial constraints, however, almost brought all of her extra-curricular involvement to a halt. Paying for her own education, by fall 2020 Penn was working multiple jobs to cover all of her expenses. Unfortunately, she had to take on so many hours that she was forced to drop her fall classes before the end of the semester.
A paid internship with Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat/Chrysler Automobiles, that Penn received through NSBE, and summer tuition assistance, enabled Penn to catch up on some of her classes during the summer of 2021. Thanks to savings and a paid internship with Johnson & Johnson the following fall, she was able to re-enroll for the fall 2021 semester.
Upon her return to UTSA, Penn received both the Margie and Bill Klesse Endowed Scholarship in Chemical Engineering and the National Society of Black Engineers Academic Excellence Scholarship. She served as the treasurer for NSBE and even started a financial literacy series for the society’s members to help them learn how to pay off loans and become financially responsible. She was recently elected president of NSBE for the upcoming 2022-2023 academic year.
Penn spent this past summer interning at Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she enjoyed performing equipment validation and verification and helped design a test fixture for a fellow team. Her plans after receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2024 include receiving her doctorate in biomedical engineering and working for a medical device company. Later in life, she even hopes to pursue entrepreneurship opportunities and receive her MBA. With a bright future ahead of her, Penn expresses gratitude for her scholarships, noting that they have made all the difference for her current and future successes.
