Of the seven packaging engineering students attending the New Jersey Packaging Engineering Club Hall of Dinner last night, three of them were awarded prestigious packaging scholarships. Matthew Fong and Michelle Frondelli received the NJPEC Scholarship, while Erica Parriott, a sophomore studying civil engineering, received the Kathleen Brady-Zito Scholarship.
NJPEC was founded in 1962 as a way to represent packaging professionals across all industries and offer scholarship to packaging engineering students.
Frondelli is a part the packaging engineering program at Rutgers. Originally set on cancer research and pharmaceutical development, Frondelli has now shifted her career goals to packaging development. She said, “My roommate first told me about the packaging program. We’ve both had an interest in art and design so when we found out that packaging could combine that with engineering there was really no turning back.” "When designing a package, half the concern is about how to keep the product safe," said Frondelli, "while the other half is really about aesthetics and persuading the customer that its appearance is worth their purchase. In biomedical engineering there are more limitations to what you can and cannot do to perform functions. You can’t design your own device. In packaging there are more chances to be aesthetic in your engineering approach," she said.
Matthew Fong, who also received the NJPEC scholarship, aspires to use his engineering skills in the packaging world as well. His career goals are to develop packaging designs by working at a packaging firm that allows for originality and creativity. "I want to create something innovative and new," he said. With the scholarship money, he hopes to advance his engineering education to one day enter the packaging community as a professional.
By: Andrea Morocoima