Lyon College Alum John Pruden receives graduate fellowship
Lyon College alum John Pruden, ‘21, from Allen, Texas, was recently awarded the Alpha Lambda Delta Dr. Warner Moore Graduate Fellowship.
Alpha Lambda Delta is an honor society that recognizes students’ academic success in their first year at college or university.
“As a member of Dr. Dwaipayan Chakraborty’s lab, I research applying various machine learning frameworks, to assist with materials discovery for non-volatile devices. After graduate school, I hope to continue studying machine learning and to pursue a career in intellectual property,” Pruden stated.
Pruden said that the biggest thing Lyon had instilled in him was the ability to accept and embrace change.
“I expected everything at Lyon when I matriculated to be the same when I graduated, and that’s honestly unrealistic, and if it was the same then the college wouldn’t be improving! I changed my major a few times, changed my priorities a few times, and learned how to improvise and adapt. ‘Perseverance conquers all, God willing.’ is really true,” said Pruden.
Pruden embraces liberal arts approach for postgrad plans
When John Pruden, ’21, was deciding what to do after college, he realized he didn’t want to be too specialized in any one field.
He had started Lyon College with an interest in patent law… Pruden prefers the liberal arts approach of combining different disciplines and interests.
“I realized the parts of chemistry I like aren’t the chemistry itself,” Pruden said. “It’s applying physics and scientific understanding to a problem.”
Two Lyon Students Receive Alpha Chi Scholarships
A double major in chemistry and French, he submitted his work on optical deficiencies using an industrial optical bench to Alpha Chi.
“Optics is the study of light,” Pruden said. “I looked at how light passes through materials. I wanted to focus on optical aberrations, which is a fancy way of saying how lenses differ from ideality.”
He is interested in becoming a patent attorney because he enjoys learning about a lot of different fields.
“That’s what brought me to a liberal arts institution,” Pruden said. “I like when I get to use knowledge from many different fields, and I feel like patent law and intellectual property law in general falls right there.”
TKE Top Scholarships & Named Scholarships Recipients (2019-2020) (2020-2021)
”Before I joined TKE, I had no sense of guidance. I was an incredibly anxious, ambitious, and scared freshman. I knew that I wanted to have a successful career, but even wanting to go to college was a big change in my personal mindset, so I had no clue where to go after orientation was over. After becoming a brother, I felt a sense of purpose and comradery; I was with a group of guys who all believed in self-betterment, yet, I still didn’t have a sense of internal guidance. Midway through sophomore year, I was in a bad car accident, and while I was not hurt, it was a devastating financial issue for me. Through the support of my brothers, I was able to come back from it. After this, I had a lot of time for self-reflectance, and I realized that when you look at your life and identify what brings love, you get that inner sense of guidance not through external validation, but rather through understanding yourself.”
TKE perseveres through pandemic, raises funds for St. Jude.
Junior John Pruden, the philanthropy chair of TKE, said TKE Week is “a week of daily, campus-wide philanthropy events.” These events range from a musical chairs competition to a cornhole tournament, and participating students have the chance to win glory, keepsakes and cash prizes.
One of the biggest lessons he has learned through his role as philanthropy chair for TKE is that “volunteering for a cause you believe in is genuinely good for the soul.”
Pruden concluded, “My brothers and I feel a much closer bond when we are working hard at work worth doing.”
Lyon students teach French, broaden horizons for middle schoolers
Lyon College French Club members started a French enrichment class at Southside Middle School during the 2020 spring semester. Katie Cruse, John Pruden, and Wilson Borkowski presented nine weekly lessons to a group of 20 students.
“I was surprised to find that most of the students felt like they couldn’t afford a college education,” said Pruden. “That drove home how lucky I am to have the scholarship that I do.”
Pruden practices industrial chemistry, philanthropy this summer
“Jody Smotherman, ‘93, vice president of community engagement at White River Health System, served as an alumni judge at the SEF. He said all of the students represented Lyon and their work in impressive fashion, but Pruden stood out because of his professionalism and presentation skills.
“He was articulate in his presentation, professional in his demeanor, and demonstrated passion for his topic and work,” Smotherman said. “John’s ability to communicate a complex topic in simple and brief terms was particularly impressive.””
Upperclassmen share career passions with peers, win scholarships
“This year, the Career Center was able to increase the prize money thanks to a generous donation. The first place “Dean’s Prize” winner, John Pruden, received $1,000 for his presentation on his internship at Hexion in the Dallas [sic] area.”
Honors Fellows go behind the scenes in Boston
“It never felt like were were fetishizing other cultures on the trip,” Pruden said. “It was very respectful. I felt like we talked about history that mattered. In doing that, you’re going to get diversity because diverse perspectives matter.”
Having the freedom to explore the city helped the students learn to be more adaptable, he said. “I enjoyed the freedom we had because if I had stuck to a rigid guideline I never would have experienced some things, like visiting an Irish Pub and talking about what made art meaningful with another fellow.”
“It showed me life isn’t as rigid as you think it is. When you take these things in stride, you can get a new perspective.”
John Pruden 