Contact: Abby Barber
A Mississippi State University engineering student is among a select group chosen to study this spring at Hong Kong University.
Senior Mary-Hall Dale of Columbus is one of only three United States women receiving 2003 scholarships from the Global Engineering Education Exchange, a program of the nonprofit Institute for International Education and ABB Inc., an international power and automation technology group based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Among other goals, GEEE seeks to develop a pool of "global engineers" with foreign language abilities, cross-cultural skills and international experience. Since 2001, the program has enabled more than 700 students from 17 countries to take courses overseas for credit at their home institutions while receiving practical training to live and work in other countries.
Dale, a senior mechanical engineering major, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Dale and a 2000 graduate of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. At MSU, she is a National Merit Scholarship finalist and a President's Scholar, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society.
She previously held a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology and, upon her return, will work with Eaton Aerospace in Jackson through MSU's cooperative education program.
Dale said the semester-long scholarship is a boost for her long-term career goals. "Studying abroad has proved a great way to learn more about the Chinese culture, language and customs, as well as providing a great opportunity to prepare for my future engineering career, which I hope will take place on an international level," she explained.
Mississippi State is one of 28 American universities participating in the exchange program.