By Kelsey Kendall
When Marjorie Cenese started at 㴫ý four years ago, she wanted to get the most out of her college experience. She had already missed several high school milestones because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so finding a community on campus was a top priority for her as she worked toward a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
As she gets ready for graduation in May, Cenese is still active in the numerous clubs and organizations she has joined at 㴫ý. When she first started, she saw many students who would go to class, do their work and then leave without connecting with their peers.
“I thought that would not really unlock the true potential of the college experience,” Cenese said. “So I said, ‘I want to see what’s the easiest way to create a community.’”
That was when she started looking at the clubs, some of which needed a boost when students returned to campus after the pandemic, and social events. This included the CIVIC Scholars Program, through which she gained leadership and networking experience. She also is a part of the Society of Women Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Engineering Honors Society and amateur radio club.
She took every opportunity and ran with it. She served as president of IEEE for two years. In April, the organization received the IEEE Region 3 Exemplary Student Branch Award, which recognizes the work done to foster community and share professional and academic development — something Cenese said makes her incredibly proud. She also serves as president of Tau Beta Pi Virginia Gamma Chapter, an engineering honor society.
Recently, Cenese was honored by the Batten College of Engineering and Technology with the J. Harold Lampe Award for Overall Excellence in Engineering, the highest accolade presented by the college to engineering students. Student Enrollment, Engagement and Services also presented her with the Maggi Curry-Williams Quiet Influence Award for her leadership within the engineering community.
The Hampton Roads native may have been drawn to engineering as a career just like her father and brother — also an 㴫ý graduate), who are both engineers, but she also has a passion for poetry that she tries to share with those around her.
Cenese is a former Hampton Roads Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador, a joint program with Teens with a Purpose and Hampton Roads Youth Poets. She has performed her poetry for Pharrell Williams’ Mighty Dream Forum and other regional events.
Throughout her time at 㴫ý, she helped organize events to encourage STEM students in partnership with the Young Poets in the Community program to exercise the right side of their brains, too. One of her favorite parts of these events is seeing her peers get excited about trying their hand at the written word and about their poetry.
She had felt like the odd one out for her interest in poetry as a STEM student, but once there were opportunities to share that passion, she felt that she wasn’t alone.
“I felt as an engineering student like, ‘Why am I the only one interested in the arts?’” Cenese said. “I wanted to see if that was really true, and that’s why I had the poetry event, where I encouraged people to write poetry, truly investigate themselves.”
Now her friends come up to her sometimes to share what they have been working on, and she gets to see the connections people have made because they have been able to share their art and see new perspectives.
That first day on campus four years ago, Cenese looked around campus and imagined herself walking across the seal on Kaufman Mall — but she didn’t imagine anyone with her. Now after all the time, effort and commitment she has shown 㴫ý community, she can perfectly imagine her friends smiling and dancing across the seal with her as they prepare for the next chapter. For Cenese, that means starting the next leg of her academic journey, which she will embark on once again at Old Dominion to earn her master’s in electrical engineering.