Honors Link

This spring, Tina Schnell will become one of the first Honors College students to graduate from Oregon State’s energy systems engineering program after completing her undergraduate degree at OSU – Cascades in Bend.During her two years on the Cascades campus, she has become a leader in her program and throughout the community, and she will speak at their commencement program on behalf of the Associated Students of Cascades Campus in June.

During her high school years, Tina Schnell and her father had a tradition of getting up early on Saturday mornings and going out for coffee.

“We’d talk about the world and its problems and how to solve them,” says Schnell. “We’d talk about new science and technology innovations; we’d read Scientific American and compare thoughts about the articles.”

Schnell is still interested in solving problems, graduating with an honors bachelor of science in energy systems engineering, an honors bachelor of arts in Spanish, and a minor in business entrepreneurship this June.

As the world population grows and industrialized countries look for power, energy engineers are looking for solutions. “About 60% of energy is lost between generation and when it actually is used,” says Schnell. “We need to work on fixing that. ”

Schnell appreciates the broad education the ESE degree offers OSU-Cascades students. “We have about one-third mechanical engineering classes, a third of the classes are industrial engineering, and a third business classes,” says Schnell. “So we understand how things actually work, how to make a process more efficient, and how to finance a project.”

After studying at main campus her first two years, she found the small class environment at Cascades a place where teachers and students work together and where learning is as important as grades.

Robin Feuerbacher, energy systems engineering assistant professor and program lead remembers when he first met Schnell in Corvallis. “I thought she would be one of the best ESE students, and three years later she proved my prediction to be spot on if not understated,” says Feuerbacher. “She is a pioneer with respect to MECOP internships and paving the way for future ESE students.”

She is a member of the women in engineering sorority Phi Sigma Rho, mentored freshman engineers and taught Lego robotics to middle school students during her time as a student.

Last year, Schnell participated in a Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program (MECOP) internship at Daimler Trucks in North Carolina. She worked in the corporate facilities engineering group which oversees the construction and renovation of buildings at 11 Freightliner plants in North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon and Mexico.

During the six month internship, she worked at all of the manufacturing plants, honing her project management skills under the mentorship of her work group.

“I like working with people – whether it be research and development, construction, a process improvement—watching a problem be solved from start to finish is fascinating to me,” says Schnell.

This summer, Schnell starts another MECOP internship with Portland General Electric.

Over the past year, Schnell served as the vice president of the Associated Students of Cascades Campus (ASCC). As OSU-Cascades plans for the new four-year campus, Schnell and ASCC worked with current students to make sure the student perspective was front and center.

Schnell was recently selected to receive one of the 2014 Oregon State University Women’s Center Student Leader Awards.

Watch for Schnell at commencement – she’ll be welcoming the class of 2014 on behalf of ASCC.

Story Originally published on OSU-Cascades.