The goal of the Prof. Robert A. Peura Founder Scholarship in Biomedical Engineering is to provide recognition and reward to a student majoring in BME at WPI at the junior or senior level who has achieved truly outstanding academic credentials. Preferably, the awardee shall also be a well-rounded student who has graduated from a high school in Worcester County or New England, has distinguished himself/herself in at least one university student activity and has provided exemplary service to the BME Department, the University or the community, and possesses outstanding potential for professional success as a biomedical engineer. This year’s recipients are Sarah Boermeester ’21 and Jessica Brewster ’20. The BME Department thanks the Potvin and Peura Families for their generosity to endow these scholarships.
Sarah Boermeester (’21) is a rising junior from Dracut, MA. She is a lab assistant in the Biomanufacturing and Training Lab (BETC) at WPI where she helps to prepare labs and train participants from biotechnology and biopharmaceutical firms on specialized machinery. As part of her BME degree, Boermeester’s goal is to concentrate in tissue engineering. This year, she began to realize that goal by taking Biomechanics with Prof. Billiar and Introduction to Bioprocessing with Prof. Coburn, two courses which she greatly enjoyed. In addition to her love for engineering, Boermeester has a love for art, specifically oil painting. In 2016, she was 1 of only 9 young artists from Massachusetts to win the Congressional Art Competition and had her painting displayed in Washington D.C. under the U.S. Capitol Building.
Jessica Brewster (‘20) is a rising senior from Manchester, NH. Last year, she conducted cell culture research in Prof. Jeannine Coburn’s Functional Biomaterials Lab. Brewster is now working in Research and Development on an 8-month co-op at Boston Scientific where she is part of a team developing a therapeutic endoscope. She is passionate about her accomplishments in Namibia, this past A term, where she completed her IQP on Incorporating Assistments (a math teaching software) into the curriculum at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, exercising and spending time with friends and family. Moreover, she is a leader at WPI as the President of the undergraduate chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society and a Peer Advisor at the Career Development Center (CDC).