Jane Yates, a senior in environmental engineering from Knob Noster, Missouri, has been named Missouri S&T’s Renaissance Student for 2026. Yates received the award, which included a $1,300 prize, on Tuesday, May 5, at a ceremony hosted by the arts, languages, and philosophy department.

This award is presented each year to a senior student who exhibits the qualities of a “Renaissance” person — someone who excels in multiple intellectual or artistic disciplines. The most famous example is Leonardo Da Vinci, who was a painter, sculptor, musician, mathematician, inventor and writer.

“Upon arriving on campus as a freshman, she took advantage of the many opportunities Missouri S&T offers and immediately involved herself in numerous student teams and organizations,” says Lorie Francis, award selection committee chair and a teaching professor of music at S&T.

Yates is minoring in sustainability and music. She has served as president of S&T’s Society of Women Engineers and is currently serving as president of Missouri S&T’s Engineers Without Borders. For several years she has served as a mentor for children in the Rolla community by participating in the local organization Mentoring Makes a Difference. She is also currently a student ambassador for Missouri S&T, and plays club volleyball, basketball, and pickleball. She is a member of both chamber and jazz choir, the Miner Key acapella group, and the Concrete Canoe Design Team. She is also a member of Chi Epsilon, the International Civil Engineering Honor Society.

In 2025, Yates earned the Undergraduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. The society’s Division of Environmental Chemistry presents the award each year to recognize the accomplishments of full-time undergraduate students in chemistry, environmental engineering and related programs.

“Upon graduating this semester, she is considering graduate school, but isn’t decided yet,” says Francis. “One thing that is for sure, however, is that she wants to help people, by working with people, to make the world a better place. Her involvement, her creativity, and her leadership within these spaces at Missouri S&T, as well as her academic success, means that Jane is well-deserving of this year’s Renaissance Student Award.”

The runner-up Renaissance Student is Lauren Vitale, a senior in mechanical engineering from St. Louis. She received a certificate of recognition and $700.

Vitale has been a member of the Miner Key acappella group all four years, including being the music co-director for three. She is also a member of the Miner Theater Guild and S&T’s Society of Women Engineers, and she consistently earns a place on the Dean’s List.

“Lauren is passionate about both engineering and the arts, and her time at Missouri S&T demonstrates this,” says Francis. “Even with so much of her time spent on the arts here on campus, Lauren still excels academically.”

The awards are co-sponsored by S&T’s College of Arts, Sciences, and Education; the College of Engineering and Computing; and the arts, languages, and philosophy department.

Other awards given out that night included music and foreign language distinctions, including the 2026 American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) Annual Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate which was earned by Mason Brown, a senior in physics from St. Louis.

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.