The CAUSE seminar allowed undergraduate Kristy Fruit to take her liberal arts education and "smash
it together with the technical stuff," she says.
Fruit isn’t your typical engineering student, and not just because she sports bright pink nail
polish and a pixie-like hairstyle. She’s studying philosophy and economics for her general arts
and sciences degree while simultaneously learning physics, calculus, and geology for a degree in
geo-environmental engineering. It will take her more than four years to graduate from Penn State
with the coursework she’s mapped out, but that doesn’t bother Fruit. "I want to learn anything
that will help me function in the real world," she says.
Fruit first heard of the CAUSE 2000 seminar from an engineering classmate. "It sounded cool,"
she says. Fruit knew this was an opportunity to "exercise both sides of my brain." The CAUSE
experience couldn’t have come at a better time in Fruit’s educational career. Her draining
schedule of 20-some-credit semesters was taking a toll. "I was getting really sick of school,"
she says.
CAUSE 2000 revitalized Fruit. Most college courses don’t include field trips, especially a
two-week cross-country excursion with professors and classmates. "Without the trip, I wouldn’t
have gotten as much out of it," Fruit admits. "I’ve been and seen more places than most people
see in a lifetime," she adds excitedly. What impressed her most was the zest and passion of
the scientists and engineers that she met during the CAUSE trip. Their enthusiasm for their
professions inspired her to continue her educational quest. .
In Spring 2000, Fruit was accepted for a summer internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
in Tennessee, to work on a project implementing renewable sources of energy in developing
countries. "I talked about CAUSE in my application," says Fruit. The CAUSE seminar, she
adds, allowed her to bring an understanding of energy use to the table. "I’ve learned more
and have gotten more direction from CAUSE than from any other class," she adds.
Fruit returned to Penn State in Fall 2000 to continue working on her two degrees and to
take part in the second semester of CAUSE 2000. "Now I’m using some of what I learned at
my internship in class," she says proudly.
