Dear Georgia Engineering Foundation Committee, I am writing to extend my strong support of Kimani Coates for the Georgia Engineering Foundation scholarship program. Through my own background as a research chemist who has transitioned to a career in scientific and technical recruiting, I have worked with many students over the years, assessing their skills and capabilities, and watching them become successful scientists and engineers. I met Kimani during the summer of 2021 through an internship program that I organized and managed at Zymergen. Kimani was one of five students who joined the company for a 5-week microinternship cohort in partnership with Smash Rising and he made an indelible impression on me. As the program manager for interns, it was my responsibility to hire Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate candidates for scientific and technical roles across the organization and organize learning and development programming for them during the course of the summer. Zymergen’s summer interns are typically upperclassmen undergraduates as well as graduate students. In comparison, the students in the Smash Rising cohort were early in their academic careers with many of them, Kimani included, being incoming college freshmen. One of the enrichment activities I organized was a Zoom and Learn series where, each week, a Zymergen Subject Matter Expert would present to the interns about their scientific, technical, and/or business-related work. Prior to the Smash Rising cohort joining the team, I noticed that the other summer interns were not engaging in Q&A with the speakers. Each week, the interns would sign in and listen, but no one would offer any questions. This all changed when Kimani joined the group. Though he sometimes lacked the experience to formulate his questions in an articulate, concise manner (not uncommon for a student just starting out), he still made it a point to ask at least one question, if not several, during the one hour session. His questions ranged from basic ones in order to seek clarity to more complex questions demonstrating a deeper level of scientific curiosity and thought. While I was not involved in developing or managing Kimani’s direct software engineering project, I am familiar with the work that was accomplished and I attended the Smash Rising cohort’s final presentation. Through this experience, Kimani was able to apply Design & Prototype Thinking to solve a real-world challenge, grow his coding skills in Python through additional training and project application, develop teamwork and collaboration skills, and network with technical and scientific professionals in industry. Kimani has the makings of a successful engineer; he has demonstrated a curiosity to ask questions and seek answers, embrace and adapt to new situations, and the motivation to develop strong technical prowess. I wholeheartedly support the investment in Kimani’s future through scholarship consideration by the Georgia Engineering Foundation. Sincerely, Michelle A. Young
Dear Georgia Engineering Foundation Committee, I am writing to extend my strong support of Kimani Coates for the Georgia Engineering Foundation scholarship program. Through my own background as a research chemist who has transitioned to a career in scientific and technical recruiting, I have worked with many students over the years, assessing their skills and capabilities, and watching them become successful scientists and engineers. I met Kimani during the summer of 2021 through an internship program that I organized and managed at Zymergen. Kimani was one of five students who joined the company for a 5-week microinternship cohort in partnership with Smash Rising and he made an indelible impression on me. As the program manager for interns, it was my responsibility to hire Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate candidates for scientific and technical roles across the organization and organize learning and development programming for them during the course of the summer. Zymergen’s summer interns are typically upperclassmen undergraduates as well as graduate students. In comparison, the students in the Smash Rising cohort were early in their academic careers with many of them, Kimani included, being incoming college freshmen. One of the enrichment activities I organized was a Zoom and Learn series where, each week, a Zymergen Subject Matter Expert would present to the interns about their scientific, technical, and/or business-related work. Prior to the Smash Rising cohort joining the team, I noticed that the other summer interns were not engaging in Q&A with the speakers. Each week, the interns would sign in and listen, but no one would offer any questions. This all changed when Kimani joined the group. Though he sometimes lacked the experience to formulate his questions in an articulate, concise manner (not uncommon for a student just starting out), he still made it a point to ask at least one question, if not several, during the one hour session. His questions ranged from basic ones in order to seek clarity to more complex questions demonstrating a deeper level of scientific curiosity and thought. While I was not involved in developing or managing Kimani’s direct software engineering project, I am familiar with the work that was accomplished and I attended the Smash Rising cohort’s final presentation. Through this experience, Kimani was able to apply Design & Prototype Thinking to solve a real-world challenge, grow his coding skills in Python through additional training and project application, develop teamwork and collaboration skills, and network with technical and scientific professionals in industry. Kimani has the makings of a successful engineer; he has demonstrated a curiosity to ask questions and seek answers, embrace and adapt to new situations, and the motivation to develop strong technical prowess. I wholeheartedly support the investment in Kimani’s future through scholarship consideration by the Georgia Engineering Foundation. Sincerely, Michelle A. Young
Dear Georgia Engineering Foundation Committee, I am writing to extend my strong support of Kimani Coates for the Georgia Engineering Foundation scholarship program. Through my own background as a research chemist who has transitioned to a career in scientific and technical recruiting, I have worked with many students over the years, assessing their skills and capabilities, and watching them become successful scientists and engineers. I met Kimani during the summer of 2021 through an internship program that I organized and managed at Zymergen. Kimani was one of five students who joined the company for a 5-week microinternship cohort in partnership with Smash Rising and he made an indelible impression on me. As the program manager for interns, it was my responsibility to hire Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate candidates for scientific and technical roles across the organization and organize learning and development programming for them during the course of the summer. Zymergen’s summer interns are typically upperclassmen undergraduates as well as graduate students. In comparison, the students in the Smash Rising cohort were early in their academic careers with many of them, Kimani included, being incoming college freshmen. One of the enrichment activities I organized was a Zoom and Learn series where, each week, a Zymergen Subject Matter Expert would present to the interns about their scientific, technical, and/or business-related work. Prior to the Smash Rising cohort joining the team, I noticed that the other summer interns were not engaging in Q&A with the speakers. Each week, the interns would sign in and listen, but no one would offer any questions. This all changed when Kimani joined the group. Though he sometimes lacked the experience to formulate his questions in an articulate, concise manner (not uncommon for a student just starting out), he still made it a point to ask at least one question, if not several, during the one hour session. His questions ranged from basic ones in order to seek clarity to more complex questions demonstrating a deeper level of scientific curiosity and thought. While I was not involved in developing or managing Kimani’s direct software engineering project, I am familiar with the work that was accomplished and I attended the Smash Rising cohort’s final presentation. Through this experience, Kimani was able to apply Design & Prototype Thinking to solve a real-world challenge, grow his coding skills in Python through additional training and project application, develop teamwork and collaboration skills, and network with technical and scientific professionals in industry. Kimani has the makings of a successful engineer; he has demonstrated a curiosity to ask questions and seek answers, embrace and adapt to new situations, and the motivation to develop strong technical prowess. I wholeheartedly support the investment in Kimani’s future through scholarship consideration by the Georgia Engineering Foundation. Sincerely, Michelle A. Young