The Philadelphia Section of the STLE is pleased to award a $500 scholarship to Wilkes University third-year Mechanical Engineering major Jack Perna. Perna has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA while also playing for the men’s ice hockey team. During the summers, he works as a machinist in his father’s machine shop, giving him hands-on experience with the use of lubricants.
Perna is described as always attentive in class and a willing participant in discussions. His work is meticulously completed and always submitted on time. He strives to achieve at the maximum of his potential, and this is clearly reflected in his achieven1ents, both academic and otherwise. He continually demonstrates the understanding, perseverance and ability that are needed to be a successful engineer.
Perna is unfailingly patient and courteous to the people around him. He is an active individual whose strong work ethic and desire to succeed and is a positive influence on those around him. He embraces challenges, seeking rather than avoiding them and then rises to meet them. He is happy to help others and capable of independent as well as team-oriented research. His work on developing a weighted plug to help adjust the center of mass for hockey sticks demonstrates his ability to not only take in knowledge but use that knowledge to then help solve problems large and small.