Basic Information

• Name: Alli Senedak, she/her (LinkedIn)
• Ambassador Cohort: 2025-2026 (pilot)
• Campus: University of Akron
• Major: Chemical Engineering
• Year: Senior (graduated May 2026)
• Fun Fact: Alli recently adopted a beta fish named Lasso.

Table of Contents

Student Ambassador Program Project Information

Project Description

Chemical Engineering students at the University of Akron participate in a repeating fall course called Project Management & Teamwork. The project-based class involves freshman through senior level students being split into even teams and presents them with a design project with the first three phases of Six Sigma (Design, Measure, and Analyze). The class has historically had issues with project clarity and streamlining the Milestone experiences and typically had little application for sustainable or innovative ideas to be implemented. My goal was to compile pieces of the EOP and present a case to the professors who conduct PMT for adding in sustainable project elements and requirements.

Project Purpose and Influences

The truth is that most Chemical Engineers coming out of college understand the basics of process design and costing, but companies are looking for students who prioritize sustainability and ethics. Adding components like this would provide UA ChemE’s with experience navigating these scenarios and give them an advantage over other applicants for industry jobs.

Key Assets/Resources

• Connections on campus and with the chemical engineering department chair allowed me to understand what the department’s sustainability goals were.
• I had a great relationship with my Fall 2025 PMT team. During my team's final feedback meeting, the focus of our discussion was on the addition of more sustainability-related components to the project structure that they wanted to see more of. Many of them brought up a desire to implement more environmental safety, business ethics, and sustainability components.
• My EOP peer group, and our peer group mentor Dr. Roneisha Worthy, assisted and guided me towards the right avenues and edited my correspondence with university staff to ensure I was being concise.

Pivotal Moments

• In Fall 2024, the subteam that usually put together a safety plan and gathered national standards and guidelines was removed from the Project Management and Teamwork course. I found this to be a disservice to students as safety is pivotal to any engineering role, and EHS is a large job field for Chemical Engineers.
• In spring 2025, I attended the Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) conference, which is where I first learned about Engineering for One Planet via a session on the Student Ambassador Program. I was immediately driven to make a change in PMT.
• I completed the Landscape Assessment Worksheet at the beginning of Fall 2025 and realized that my school was a bit behind in terms of sustainability curriculum beyond Chemical Engineering.
• In fall 2025, I selected sections of the EOP Framework to suggest to the PMT facilitators.
• In spring 2026, I sent a long email detailing my experience in the job market, with EOP, and what I thought could add value to PMT.