Congratulations to the 2024 Jengyee Prize Winner
We are delighted to announce that Emily Meng is this year’s Jengyee Prize – Leadership for a Better World winner. Established in 2010, the Jengyee Prize recognizes undergraduate students who demonstrate outstanding leadership, service, and commitment to advancing a better world. Emily exemplifies these qualities through her outstanding leadership and dedication for improving our community, society, and culture.
About this year’s winner:
Emily Meng’s journey in leadership and volunteering is driven by her love for science, puzzles, and helping others. In high school, she engaged in various engineering projects, such as designing equipment for healthcare workers and 3D-printing tennis shock absorbers. These experiences highlighted her potential to make a difference and ignited her passion for teaching.
At Berkeley, Emily serves as an ambassador for the Santa Clara Valley Society of Women Engineers, where she leads engineering workshops for elementary school girls. Her efforts have cultivated a supportive environment, resulting in several of her female students taking first place at robotics competitions. Emily also volunteers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, teaching art and science activities to patients and their families, which has deepened her sense of empathy, compassion, and advocacy.
As a student-teacher for CREATE, Emily runs an after-school program at Berkely Maynard Academy in Oakland, integrating social and emotional learning activities to help her students develop goal-setting, empathy, and gratitude skills. Additionally, she leads accessible introductory swimming lessons for children with physical disabilities through SNAPkids. By using her engineering skills, she designed 3D equipment to assist her students’ motor skills and provided them a sense of freedom in and outside of the water.
Emily Meng hopes to combine her passions for engineering and mentoring to inspire children to pursue careers in STEM. Congratulations, Emily, for being this year’s Jengyee Prize winner!
About the Award
The Jengyee prize is given in memory of Jengyee Liang, who earned a B.S. in 2005 from the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) Department in the College of Engineering, and who tragically passed away on November 10, 2008. Jengyee is remembered for her leadership, kindness, and commitment to building a better world.