The ISyE student is the first Dean’s Scholar to graduate and has helped shape the community-centered program for future generations.
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Bethanie Penna had hoped to enroll at her dream school as a college softball player, using an athletic scholarship to pay the costs of a top-notch, but out-of-state education.
A torn ACL in her junior year of high school derailed that plan, but she was still drawn to Georgia Tech and the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Penna grew up in Miami, and Tech offered her a scholarship to help with the out-of-state tuition.
But the rest — housing, food, books, and all the other costs that add up? She would need loans to cover them.
Penna talked it over with her sister, Leanne, who understood the dilemma but helped settle Penna’s fears about taking on student debt: “She’s a mechanical engineer, someone who inspired me to go into STEM, and she said, ‘You know, the outcomes that you’re going to see at Tech are going to be unparalleled.’”
That conversation clinched it, and Penna decided to become a Yellow Jacket.
Then, in the weeks leading up to her first day on campus, she received an email that seemed to erase those money worries — and therefore seemed too good to be true.
“It said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve received this amazing, prestigious scholarship — the first of its kind.’ I thought it was spam, so I didn’t reply,” Penna said. “Then I got a call a week later, and no, it wasn’t spam.”
Penna was invited to join a new program in the College of Engineering called the Dean’s Scholars that would help pay for her studies and connect her with a community of students. She would be among the first scholars.
“That took the burden away from me,” she said. “Now, I didn’t have to work a part-time job if I didn’t want to. I could focus on what I came to Tech for: to study, explore, get involved, and find what I like.”
She did all that and more, traveling to Utah, California, and New York City for internships. Planning dozens of service projects for her sorority. Mentoring and being mentored.
And now she’ll be the first Dean’s Scholar to complete the program and graduate.
More than that, she’s helped shape the burgeoning program for future scholars, pushing for more community-building events and formalized mentoring.
“In our first conversation, Bethanie shared what the scholarship program meant to her and her dreams of what it could be,” said Lauren Morton, program manager for the Dean’s Scholars Program. “A few weeks later, she followed up with a thoughtful email that has become a touchstone — I refer to it often, and at the beginning and end of each academic year, I always ask Bethanie, ‘How are we are doing?’
“Her vision is a testament to the value and importance of centering the student voice in scholarship and campus programming.”
In our first conversation, Bethanie shared what the scholarship program meant to her and her dreams of what it could be. ... Her vision is a testament to the value and importance of centering the student voice in scholarship and campus programming.
LAUREN MORTON
Program Manager, Dean’s Scholars Program
In addition to helping build the Dean’s Scholars program, Penna is deeply involved in the Omega Phi Alpha service sorority. She took on a leadership role planning several weekly service opportunities for members.
Sometimes that meant volunteering at an equestrian center for adults and children with disabilities or sorting donations at a food pantry. Penna quickly became especially fond of working at The Bloom Closet, which offers a free, boutique-like shopping experience for foster children.
“My favorite service projects have always been ones where I can directly see the impact I have,” she said. “With The Bloom Closet, you see the kids coming in, and they get so excited when they find that pair of jeans that fits them. It’s just such a direct effect, and it gives me so much joy and a lot of satisfaction.”
She also found satisfaction working with students as a resident assistant for three years and getting involved with the Society of Women Engineers.
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Through her sorority, Penna has been involved in service projects ranging from equine therapy at the Reece Center to volunteering at a food pantry.
Penna (far right) also volunteered at the Bloom Closet clothing boutique for foster children.
Penna has dabbled in entrepreneurship, too, thanks to a fellow Dean’s Scholar who told her about CREATE-X in her first year. This semester, she’s part of a team in the CREATE-X Capstone course that also will participate in Startup Launch over the summer.
Their startup is a platform that matches pop-up businesses with available retail spaces, and they’ve already hosted an event along the Beltline with 15 vendors that turned a small profit.
This summer, Penna will work with the team to continue developing their business while also spending time at home in Miami. Then she’s headed back to New York for a full-time job as a consultant at PwC where she will focus on cloud and digital projects.
As she prepares for that next step, Penna has found herself thinking about the impact the Dean’s Scholars program had on her. And whether she’d even be considering this new adventure without it.
“I don’t know if I would have been able to afford to go to New York with the amount of student debt that I would have had,” she said. “There have just been so many byproducts like that that this scholarship has given me.”
The Dean's Scholars Program is supported by philanthropic gifts from alumni and friends as part of Transforming Tomorrow: The Campaign for Georgia Tech, a more than $2 billion comprehensive campaign designed to secure resources that will advance the Institute and its impact — on people’s lives, on the way we work together to create innovative solutions, and on our world — for decades to come.
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