Melbourne Beach Resident Named Outstanding Junior; Outstanding Senior Is Moroccan
MELBOURNE, FLA.—At Florida Institute of Technology’s recent annual Honors Convocation, Brittany Rainbow of Melbourne Beach, Fla., was named Outstanding Junior and Adam Hanafi of Agadir, Morocco, was named Outstanding Senior. They were chosen by a faculty committee from among those earning Outstanding Junior and Outstanding Senior designations within each academic area.
Rainbow, an ecology major, has maintained excellence academically and participated in a variety of extracurricular activities in her three years at Florida Tech. She has been a member of the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and the Tri Beta Biology National Honor Society; played on the Panther women’s soccer and, track and field teams; and, for Tri Beta, was a team captain in the Relay for Life event to fight cancer.
Her honors include national semifinalist for NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer; inclusion on the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll and Dean’s List and she is a Distinguished Student Scholar.
Rainbow’s research experiences include work as an intern at the Barrier Island Center for sea turtle nesting research and a volunteer dolphin researcher at the Hubbs Sea World Research Institute for Duke University. At Hubbs, she helps with dolphin radio tracking.
Rainbow has contributed to her local community as a lector and Eucharistic minister at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and as a group leader at Chapel by the Sea Vacation Bible School.
Hanafi, an electrical engineering major who holds a near-perfect grade point average, is in the university’s Fast Track program to earn a master’s degree in systems engineering when he graduates with his bachelor’s degree.
He has held a variety of positions in Florida Tech campus organizations and programs and has been Student Government secretary for two consecutive years. He has served as Homecoming chairman and president of the student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is a member of the honor societies Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Societies.
Hanafi has earned recognition as a Rising Star Student Leader of the Year and has received a variety of academic grants, including the Florida Tech Academic Scholarship for four years and been on the Dean’s List.
His community service includes volunteering for road and beach clean-ups and raising funds for organizations such as the American Red Cross, American Cancer Society and Scott Center for Autism Research. He was also captain of a Relay for Life team.
Hanafi has conducted research and earned placements in his field at international businesses with offices near the university. He currently works on the JPL Systems engineering modeling project for the electrical system of a spacecraft and helped design a robot for the IEEE Southeast Conference. He just completed a co-op experience at General Electric Energy Services and has started a summer internship in the Harris Corp. Systems Engineering Department.
CUTLINE: President Anthony J. Catanese congratulates outstanding students.
