2019 - 2021 FMA Magazine

AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
PARTH
RANCHHOD
INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING SENIOR EARNS
FRANK VANDEGRIFT AWARD
Parth Ranchhod, an industrial and systems
engineering senior, has received the 2020 Frank
Vandegrift Co-Op Student of the Year Award.
Established in honor of Frank Vandegrift, a former director
of the Cooperative Education Program at Auburn University,
the award is given each year as a testament to an outstanding
engineering co-op student.
Ranchhod fulfilled his co-op at Cox Communications
and completed an internship with Truist Securities, both
headquartered in Atlanta.
Spending two rotations with Cox Communications, the largest
private telecom company in America, Ranchhod developed the
“Customer Service Ecosystem” dashboard.
SHAWN
METZGAR
Shawn Metzgar is no stranger to hard
work. A senior from Decatur, AL, Shawn
joined ROTC at Auburn because of his
love of country and his desire to nurture
and develop leadership skills and selfdiscipline.
His four-year involvement
in ROTC has been marked by one
accomplishment after another. Most
recently, Shawn was named the recipient
of the William Nichols Award, the
designation given to the most outstanding
44 FMA 2019-2021 MAGAZINE
cadet in Auburn’s ROTC program. As
evidenced through his impressive career
while at Auburn, Shawn is always striving
to find ways to set himself apart as a
leader. After a rigorous, merit-based
national selection process, Shawn was
accepted into the Sapper Leader Course –
a 28-day leadership development program
for combat engineers that teaches
advanced Army techniques. The training
includes troop leading procedures,
demolitions, and mountaineering
operations and culminates in an intense,
7-day field training exercise that tests
the leadership skills required to earn the
coveted Sapper tab. Shawn doesn’t plan
to stop there, however. Upon completion
of the Sapper Leader Course, Shawn has
goals of graduating Ranger School and,
eventually, earning his MBA and starting
a business of his own. Thank you for your
service - we are so proud of you, Shawn.