2023 Clark Scholars
Meet the Class
Class of 2023
Marina Awad
Class of 2023
Marina is majoring in Biomedical Engineering on the pre-med track. While at UVA, she has been a teaching assistant, student researcher and officer in the Engineering Student Council and Society for Women Engineers. She presented research at an international medical conference in 2022. When COVID disrupted plans in summer 2020, she worked with the Center for Diversity in Engineering to create a virtual STEM camp for middle and high school students.
Trenton Bilyeu
Class of 2023
Trenton is from Roseville, California and loves using mechanical engineering to find innovative solutions. He has completed an internship at General Dynamics Electric Boat in fluid systems engineering and a systems engineering internship at Sierra Nevada Corp. At UVA, he has been a summer resident advisor for the Clark program, research assistant investigating novel designs for a linear Stirling generator, computer help desk technician and member of the Virginia Motorsports student group.
Daniel Boachie
Class of 2023
Daniel hails from Hampton, VA and is majoring in Computer Engineering with an interest in app development. Daniel was previously in the Student Game Development Club at UVA and the 3D Printing Club, and is currently a member of the National Society of Black Engineers. He is an avid chess player and enjoys applying his engineering mindset to home repairs.
Gina Brown
Class of 2023
Gina is from Phoenixville, PA near Philadelphia. She is majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Spanish. At UVA, she was chair of the Leadership Council for Clark Scholars and a teaching assistant for a biomedical engineering class. Gina plays club tennis and is also a member of the Virginia Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team. She is looking forward to a business engineering class in Argentina in January 2023.
Anne Felipe
Class of 2023
Anne is from Arlington, Virginia and double majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Economics. Last summer, she interned at the National Institutes of Health in the SEED office for small business development where she worked on database development. On Grounds, she has been chair of the Leadership Council for the UVA Clark Scholars Program, co-chair for community development for the UVA Engineering Student Council, and a teaching assistant in applied math.
Isaac Heath
Class of 2023
Isaac is from Dumfries, Virginia and majoring in Biomedical Engineering. During the COVID pandemic, he worked as a policy intern with the Department of Health and Human Services on topics related to medical devices and testing frameworks for emerging diseases. At UVA, he is president of the Engineering Student Council and has been a teaching assistant for introductory engineering and a class about scientific public policy analysis and leadership.
Andrea Kian
Class of 2023
Andrea is originally from Miami but moved to Leesburg, VA in 2017. At UVA, Andrea majors in Biomedical Engineering and is also a subgroup chair for Latinx Student Alliance, member of the Cultural Organization for Latin Americans and member of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Andrea recently did a summer internship related to COVID Standards of Operational Safety. She is also a research assistant in a pathology lab where she investigates gene splicing/fusion in relation to colon cancer.
Emmalyn Kim
Class of 2023
Emmalyn grew up in southern California before moving to Vienna, VA as a teenager. She is majoring in Biomedical Engineering on a pre-med track. She has represented the Korean community in her hometown and at UVA as an officer for the Korean Student Association. She enjoys snowboarding and sports, and volunteers for Adaptive Adventures through UVA’s Madison House. Emmalyn has also been a research assistant at UVA doing data image analysis for targeted drug delivery treatments.
Sin Lin
Class of 2023
Sin Lin is from Brooklyn, NY majoring in Civil Engineering on the environmental track where she explores her interest in sustainability and innovation. She is currently a research intern at UVA studying the role of hemp in thermal-acoustic panels. Sin also completed a fellowship at Columbia Water Center and an internship at Silicon Harlem working on information technology/computer science education for underserved communities in New York City.
Samantha Nicholson
Class of 2023
Samantha is mechanical engineering major from the small town of Chincoteague, VA. She has interned for several summers at NASA Wallops Island. In 2021, she interned with the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority where she updated technical documentation and worked in fluid dynamics related to the Antares rocket. At UVA, Samantha has been involved in the Society for Women Engineers and the Gizmologists where she satisfies her interest in tinkering and restoring instruments, electronics, and other gizmos.
David Tran
Class of 2023
David is from Vero Beach, FL majoring in Computer Science. At UVA, he has been a teaching assistant for two computer science classes. He also worked on Grounds as a database developer for a religious studies/history program, making a complex system relevant and easy to use for a humanities-oriented audience. Off campus, he interned with Amazon as a software development engineer.
Cameron Williams
Class of 2023
Cameron grew up in Baltimore, MD and is majoring in chemical engineering at UVA. During college, they worked as an SAT tutor and as fundraising chair of UVA Women’s Rugby. Cameron completed a summer internship with Clark Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the country. They are also active in a sorority and the student chapter of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
Questions? Comments?
Keith Williams
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Clark Scholars Faculty Director
Williams' completed my Ph.D. in materials physics at Penn State University in 2001, and undertook postdoctoral research in the Molecular Biophysics Group at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, thereafter establishing a nanophysics laboratory in the physics department at the University of Virginia.
Alicia Cowan-Brown
Clark Scholars Program Coordinator
Alicia joined the Clark Scholars Program in 2022 as the Program Coordinator. Her responsibilities include program implementation, scholar engagement, and collaborating with various partners to improve the Engineering student experience.