Name: Tori Vadyak (Resource Innovations Lead)

 

Hometown: Easton, PA (also home to the Crayola crayon)

 

High School: Marian High School

 

Activities Outside of WEPO: Baking, eating chocolate (and all other types of food, really), playing guitar, hanging out with my cat, and at PSU, I'm involved with Utree and TA for Cas 100 for engineers

 

Internship/Co-Op Experience: Last year I interned at the Hometown Air Products Plant. I worked as a process engineering intern, and had the joy of wearing steel-toed boots, hardhat, safety vest, nomex jacket, and safety glasses on my daily ventures around the plant. This year, I'm back at Air Products, but I'm at the corporate headquarters in Trexlertown. I'm working in Advanced Controls, which means working mostly with our databases.

 

Why did you choose to come to Penn State? I think a lot of things factor in. It's a great engineering school and much cheaper than most since I'm in-state. My grandparents are big PSU football fans, too. But the thing that really won me over was just how beautiful the campus is. 

 

What has been your best memory as an engineering student? Ordering Insomnia cookies to Fenske building at 11:00 pm when we were still in office hours and trying to finish a coding assignment due the next day. I've never been happier to see anyone than I was to see that delivery guy. Also, passing passing Physics 211 and finishing Physics 212 and never having to deal with that crap again.

 

What has been your best memory as a Penn State student? Hmmm, that's a tough one. Probably just laughing with my roommates about something - you know, like the "doubled-over, can't breathe, snorting like a wildebeast" types of laughs that only happen once in a while and reveal just how wonderfully awkward you are.

 

What advice would you give a first-year engineer? Engineering school is much harder than I ever expected. College was really the first time I failed. My advice would be to not put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect. You can and will still be wildly successful without a 4.0. 

 

Give me one fun fact about yourself. I can eat more chocolate in one sitting than anyone I know. My boyfried usually doesn't know whether to be appalled or impressed.

 

 

Tori is a senior studying Chemical Engineering.