Emily Sarver, of Richmond, Va., a mining and minerals engineering major in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has won a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship worth more than $30,000 annually.

Named to the College of Engineering's Dean's List every semester since entering Virginia Tech in 1999, Sarver is at the top of her graduating class in the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering and is among the top 5 percent of graduates in the College of Engineering and Virginia Tech. She also was named the College of Engineering's Outstanding Senior for 2003-2004.

Sarver was the first Virginia Tech student ever to receive the highly competitive Wendt Memorial Scholarship awarded by the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, and the second student at the university to receive the Copper Club Scholarship, an international award of $10,000 for junior and senior year studies.

She has received eight other scholarships while at Virginia Tech, including the Klimpel Scholarship from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, and the International Society of Explosive Engineers Scholarship.

Sarver spent her junior year as one of three Virginia Tech students in the European Mining Course, a study-abroad program offering classes at universities in England, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands. During her summers as an undergraduate, she has worked as an engineering intern for Luck Stone Corp. in Goochland, Va.; TransAlta Centralia Mining Co. in Centralia, Wash.; and Phelps Dodge Process Technology Center in Morenci, Ariz.

"Emily's practical work experience in the mining industry is significant, even for a mining and minerals engineering major," said Greg Adel, professor and assistant head of Mining and Minerals Engineering. "She has worked in industries ranging from aggregates to coal to copper and has done everything from heavy equipment operation to highly technical computer modeling and simulation."

Sarver is president of Mining and Minerals Engineering's student professional organization, the Burkhart Mining Society, which has more than 100 members and is responsible for fund raising in excess of $40,000. She also often serves as the department's spokeswoman for recruiting undergraduate students who visit campus.

Sarver has been active in a variety of campus and community organizations -- the Virginia Tech Residence Hall Council, Women in Engineering Support Team, Student Engineers' Council, First LEGO League of Virginia Competition, Take Back the Night at Virginia Tech, and the Montgomery County Humane Society.

In addition, Adel said, Sarver's work as a mentor to female freshman engineering students has helped Mining in Minerals Engineering attain the highest female undergraduate enrollment of any mining engineering program in the nation. Sarver also led the effort to establish the department's student chapter of Women in Mining and has been a leader in Mining and Minerals Engineering's GEM program, which teaches public school students about the affect of mining and minerals on society.

"In terms of the broader impacts that she has had on this department and this institution, I have known no other student comparable to Emily," Adel said. "She is the most well-rounded and outstanding student I have known in my 22 years at Virginia Tech."

Sarver will use her three-year National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship to pursue a doctorate in mining and minerals engineering at Virginia Tech. Graduate fellows are selected on the basis of a number of criteria, including academic merit, proven ability to conduct research, and future academic and research goals.

Sarver is the daughter of Stephen and Pat Sarver of Richmond, Va.,

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 5,600 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 2,000 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 5,600 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 2,000 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

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