The Arkansas Alumni Association announced the 2023 Seniors Awards on May 19. Selected based on their academic achievements, leadership skills and extracurricular campus and/or community activities, the Seniors of Significance are the only students on campus who are eligible for the next two tiers of the Alumni Association’s Senior Awards program: The Razorback Classics and Senior Honor Citation.

Abby Harris, 2023 Senior of Significance

Abby is from Fort Smith, Arkansas. She knew that she wanted to major in Industrial Engineering before starting at the University of Arkansas. Over the past year, she has served as the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) student chapter president and served as the president-elect during the 2021-2022 academic year. She has also been a member of Alpha Pi Mu, the industrial engineering honor society, and the Society of Women Engineers.

Abby worked as a Peer Mentor for First-Year Engineering during her sophomore and junior years, and as an undergraduate teaching assistant for Dr. Rainwater’s Computing Methods II class in her junior and senior years. 

Apart from the College of Engineering, Abby was active in the Wesley college ministry and Delta Delta Delta sorority where she served as the assistant to the House Mother and the Recruitment Logistics Coordinator. 

During her undergraduate career, Abby was recognized with numerous scholarships and awards. She was recognized as the ArcBest Corporation Outstanding Freshman in Industrial Engineering in 2020. She was awarded the Jean Rountree Fite Memorial Scholarship and the John and Lois Imhoff Endowment Scholarship for the 2021-2022 academic year. In the 2022-2023 academic year, Abby received the nationally competitive UPS Scholarship for Female Students from IISE. 

She served as team leader for her capstone team which was sponsored by ArcBest. During the 2023 Capstone Symposium, Abby was recognized as an Outstanding Team Leader and her capstone team received an award for their Outstanding Achievement in Data Analysis. She graduated in May of 2023 with the highest distinction and was recognized as a First-Ranked Senior Scholar by the College of Engineering for maintaining a cumulative 4.0 grade point average. Additionally, she was recognized as the 2023 Outstanding Senior in Industrial Engineering. 

During the summer of 2021 Abby interned at ArcBest as a Pricing and Supply Chain Engineering Intern and during summer of 2022 she interned at J.B. Hunt on the Dedicated Contract Services (DCS) team. Following graduation, Abby will be returning to ArcBest as a Pricing and Supply Chain Engineer.

Paris Joslin, 2023 Senior of Significance

Paris is from Little Rock, Arkansas and always knew that she wanted to attend the University of Arkansas. Her love for the university translated into a passion for on-campus involvement. She served as the secretary and vice president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) student chapter for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, respectively. She also was involved in Alpha Pi Mu, the industrial engineering honor society, and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Apart from engineering, she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority, serving as banner chair assistant and recruitment logistics coordinator. 

In terms of research and other relevant projects, Paris graduated with honors and completed undergraduate research with her advisor, Dr. Chase Rainwater. Her honors thesis was titled “Automated Visualization Pipeline of Near Real-time Risk Management System”. She was also a Capstone Team Leader for the project titled “A Decision Support Tool to Automate and Optimize Contract Staffing using Linear Programming” in partnership with Infinity Labs LLC. Her team won several awards such as Project of the Year, Outstanding Team Leader, Outstanding Team Member, Outstanding Faculty Advisor, and Outstanding Industry Partner. Her team will be participating in the Senior Design Competition at the national IISE conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Throughout her undergraduate career, Paris received several scholarships and awards. She was awarded the Harold & Inge Marcus National IISE Scholarship, was a member of the University of Arkansas Alumni Association Scholar program and was recognized as a First-Ranked Senior Scholar by the College of Engineering for maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Paris also completed her Six Sigma Green Belt Certification through IISE. 

Paris held four internships in a variety of industries such as political fundraising, civil engineering, aerospace technology & process improvement, and supply network optimization. Her most recent internship was a product supply internship with Procter & Gamble (P&G) on the Sam’s Club Customer Team where she leveraged her knowledge of industrial engineering topics to build software tools to promote more meaningful data insights and help automate business practices.

She will return to P&G and the Sam’s Club Customer Team in Fayetteville, Arkansas after graduation for a full-time position as a Supply Chain Manager.

Check out the full news story about the Arkansas Alumni Association Honors here.

 

Published May 19, 2023