Industrial Engineering Seniors Earn Scholarships from National Honor Society

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From left, Shantal Sarmiento, Natalia Sandhu and Coleman Warren.

Three industrial engineering seniors have earned national scholarships from Alpha Pi Mu, the industrial engineering honor society.

Senior Natalia Sandhu received the 2021-22 Paul E. Givens Diversity Scholarship. Ann Elizabeth Givens established this scholarship in 2013 in memory of her late husband, Paul Givens. Givens contributed much to the profession of industrial engineering over his lengthy career and was a pioneer in new models for graduate education. Givens served Alpha Pi Mu with distinction as president, vice president and longtime member of the executive council.

Sandhu is currently serving as the 2021-2022 president of the U of A chapter of Alpha Pi Mu. She is also the director of membership for Women Impacting Supply Chain Excellence and is a member of the Honors College, Society of Women Engineers Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineering, Order of Omega Honor Society and Delta Gamma sorority. During the school year, she also works as a peer mentor for the First-Year Engineering Program, and for community outreach, she is a member of our campus's Habitat for Humanity ReStore volunteering program.

Senior Shantal Sarmiento also received a scholarship from Alpha Pi Mu: the 2021-22 John L. Imhoff Globalization Scholarship. Lois Imhoff established this scholarship in memory of her husband, John L. Imhoff. Imhoff is recognized as one of the pioneers of modern industrial engineering education and the first department head of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the U of A. Imhoff was a believer in the contributions industrial engineering could make around the globe and was also a strong supporter of Alpha Pi Mu.

A native of Chiriqui, Panama, Sarmiento has served as an officer for the Society of Women Engineers for three years and is completing her second year as vice president. Her service extends to other student organizations including Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineering, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Honors College, New Student & Family Programs and the International Culture Team. Sarmiento has been a resident assistant for University Housing for two years, helping freshman students as they transition to college life. She has also worked as an intern in the Market & Portfolio Optimization Department of Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation in Little Rock during the summer.

Coleman Warren received the 2021-22 Alpha Pi Mu Scholarship. Warren is the current Associated Student Government president. He is an honors student pursuing two degrees — one in industrial engineering and one in political science. Throughout his academic career at the U of A, he has also been engaged actively in campus and in community service.

As an incoming freshman, he received the Arkansas Governor's Distinguished Scholarship, and he is also the recipient of the Industrial Engineering Sophomore Scholar Award, an Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineers Scholarship and the Gold President's Volunteer Service Award. Coleman was selected as a 2021 Harry S. Truman Scholar and plans to use the scholarship to study public policy. In November, Warren was named a 2022 Rhodes Scholar for graduate study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

After his freshman year, Warren served as an AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associate for the Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha, Nebraska. While there he developed the idea to create a small business to serve as a revenue source to benefit Northwest Arkansas nonprofits working to alleviate food insecurity in children. Upon returning home, he created Simple + Sweet, an artisanal ice cream business that has so far donated over $10,000 to local nonprofits.

In addition, he founded Simply Feeding, a nonprofit that aims to help rural students sell ice cream to benefit their communities while also gaining valuable entrepreneurial knowledge. Warren says he plans a career focused on helping to alleviate childhood food insecurity in Arkansas, and he eventually hopes to run for U.S. Congress.