Levenia Adom Graduate Memorial Award

This award will be given to provide some assistance to a graduate student who has demonstrated excellence and a passion for weather and climate forecasting and communications. The award was established in memory of graduate student, Levenia Adom, who passed away from cancer just a few months before finishing her M.S. degree in January 2007. Through the efforts of many in the Department, her degree was awarded posthumously in May 2007. The award was established in January 2009 through the philanthropy of Levenia's family, friends, and colleagues.

In January 2007, the Department of Meteorology lost a very special graduate student to cancer. Levenia Adom was quiet and reserved, but passionate about pursuing her M.S. degree in weather forecasting and communications. During the fall semester of 2006, she worked for Jon Nese as a teaching assistant for Meteorology 201. Levenia was just 25 years old and within a semester of graduating when she passed away. She was awarded her M.S. degree posthumously in May 2007.

Most of the Department had no idea that Levenia was waging a courageous battle with cancer in addition to focusing on her studies. Her passing came as quite a surprise and left everyone with a heavy heart - but it also left several people wondering how they could honor Levenia’s memory.

Among faculty and graduate students who were particularly fond of Levenia, a consensus evolved that the best way was to establish an endowment that would provide summer funding for a graduate student who shared Levenia’s passion for weather forecasting and communications. Graduate students with this research interest are somewhat rare and that makes this endowment particularly special. The endowment will bear Levenia’s name in perpetuity, and that also makes it special to her family and friends.

If you’d like to contribute to The Levenia Adom Memorial Graduate Award, you may write a check, made payable to The Pennsylvania State University, with a notation in the reference area that it is for the Levenia Adom Graduate Memorial Award, and mail it to:

Sue Powell
Office of Development and Alumni Relations
Penn State, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
204 Deike Building
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802.

Please also include a note (can be handwritten) that the gift is to be designated for the Levenia Adom Graduate Memorial Award in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science.