MCS Public Affairs Scholar named Outstanding Graduating Student

One of the Policy Center’s public affairs scholars, Katelyn Manzo, of Etna, Maine, has been named the Outstanding Graduating Student in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Manzo, who majored in computer science, is both a Margaret Chase Smith Public Affairs Scholar and a UMaine Presidential Scholar. Since 2016, Manzo has been a Maine Learning Assistant with the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education. Last summer, she was a software development intern with Tyler Technologies in Falmouth, Maine. On campus, Manzo has been a computer learning assistant, president of the UMaine chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery — Women in Computing, and a member of the School of Computing and Information Science Advisory Board. In her junior year, Manzo collaborated with Silvia Nittel to develop an introductory computer science course for non-majors.

Her research project for the MCS Public Affairs Scholarship has been on the topic of connecting users to resources to begin a community energy project. She has developed a website and integrated social media elements into it to provide users access to information on costs, policies, funding sources, and users’ experiences with community energy projects across the country. Her work has been advised by Dr. Silvia Nittel of the School of Computing and Information Sciences and Dr. Sharon Klein of the School of Economics.

Following graduation, Manzo will be a technology analyst with Accenture in Boston, Massachusetts.

A full Q&A with Manzo is online at  https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2018/04/25/katelyn-manzo-outstanding-graduating-student/

The Margaret Chase Smith Public Affairs Scholarship provides an undergraduate the funding to pursue a research topic of public policy relevance to Maine for an academic year. More information is on our website at https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/for-students/margaret-chase-smith-public-affairs-scholarship/