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Melissa Brown Receives Order of the Engineer Outstanding Link Coordinator Award

April 27, 2021

Brown has served as the college's link liaison for the Order of the Engineer since 2013. 

Melissa Brown

Melissa Brown

Melissa Brown, student services administrative assistant for the University of Kentucky College of Engineering, has been named a recipient of the Outstanding Link Coordinator Award by the Order of the Engineer organization. Brown has served as the college's link liaison for the Order of the Engineer since 2013. 

When Kim Anderson, associate dean for administration and academic affairs, put Brown in charge of the then-annual ceremony, only a small number of students were attending. Now, approximately 50 percent of graduating students participate in the event, which has grown to where it is held in December and in May. The event has since been renamed the Induction to the Profession Ceremony to account for graduates from the Department of Computer Science. 

During the induction ceremony, students take an oath similar to the Hippocratic Oath taken by medical doctors. Each new member receives a certificate and a stainless steel ring to be worn on the little finger of the working hand or, for computer science majors, an ASCII lapel pin. Computer science majors recite “The Pledge of the Computing Professional.” Brown organizes a banquet for the graduates and their family members that follows the ceremony.

In 2020, Brown refused to allow the COVID-19 pandemic or the absence of students on campus to cancel or postpone the induction ceremony. She planned a virtual event, during which each graduate participated in the ceremonial pinning via Zoom. 

Brown will receive a plaque and will be recognized in the Order of the Engineer's next newsletter.