Graduation to Vocation: Impacting Lives through Process Engineering

Lindsay Leonard’s experience in NC State’s Paper Science and Engineering (PSE) program has led her to many experiences in the pulp and paper industry, and a career that values leadership, sustainability and community.

After graduation, she will be headed to Hartsville, SC to be a process engineer for Sonoco.

How has the College of Natural Resources impacted you and prepared you for your future?

The relationships I’ve formed and the experiences I’ve had as a part of the College of Natural Resources have been invaluable in my personal and professional development throughout my time at NC State. The people I met (peers AND faculty) in the PSE department saw something in me that I simply could not see in myself – and they spent the next four-and-a-half years challenging me intellectually and personally, all while supporting me and continuing to believe in me. I’ve learned a lot about myself, my community, our world, and my place in it. I’ll be leaving NC State with the knowledge and experience to add value in my new job, a network of close-knit friends and mentors to rely on, and a new-found confidence in myself and my ability to make a difference.

What’s your favorite memory or class from your time at the College of Natural Resources? Why?

I honestly loved all of my classes in the PSE program, but one of my favorites was Dr. Pal’s PSE 472 class – more commonly known as the senior paper machine class. It was really fun to get our hands dirty on the Wolfpack Baby, and it was a great experience to be in the class with people you’ve spent the past four years becoming friends with.

What kind of research or other hands-on/in-the-field learning did you participate in?

I spent a summer at Georgia Tech in the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics researching methodologies to quantify the chemistries and physical geometries of natural structures for use in sustainable civil engineering applications for hazard mitigation. I spent another summer working for EDT, an enzyme supplier based in Norcross, GA, as a field service engineering intern. At EDT, I traveled overseas for the first time as a part of a trial team in Sweden, and I spent the rest of the summer doing lab work at the corporate headquarters or working on multiple trials in Tennessee.

I took a fall co-op with Kimberly-Clark in Beech Island, SC, where I worked as a project engineering intern. I helped lead capital projects and mill special runs and also worked on some optimization-based projects. I spent a summer with WestRock in West Point, VA, as a process engineering intern in the pulp mill and bleach plant, and I worked on six sigma projects and a pulp production increase project. I spent my final summer working with Sonoco in Hartsville, SC, as a process engineering intern across the entire facility. I worked on data analysis, report generation and water tracking across the powerhouse.

What motivated you to pursue your work?

Like many of my peers at NC State, I applied as a chemical engineering intent and found myself in PSE via some enthusiastic student recruiters and a Pulp and Paper Foundation scholarship. Despite my hesitations, I joined the program and ended up falling in love with an industry that I cannot wait to spend my career in. I love putting on my steel-toed boots and ending the day covered in stock, talking to operators in the control room, analyzing Excel data in high-pressure situations, and relaying it via memos and presentations. However, one of my favorite things about the pulp and paper industry is the sense of community that exists within it. I am drawn to a field that values servant leadership, sustainability, safety, and community, and the pulp and paper industry easily checks each of those boxes.