Initially torn between ABE (Agricultural and Biological Engineering) or choosing a different major, Olivia reached out to her resident assistant in the Women in Engineering Learning Community, former IE student Rachael Snow. Olivia realized she didn’t enjoy certain classes as much as she once thought, and Rachael introduced Olivia to industrial engineering coursework. In Olivia’s words: “The plan of study was much more appealing and less chemistry was a plus.” Only eight minutes before the submission deadline, Olivia resubmitted her T2M (Transition to Major) paperwork and was on her way to becoming an industrial engineer. 

Sophomore year went a little differently than she expected, however. After spending freshman year in a community of women dedicated to helping each other through difficult engineering coursework, Olivia says she struggled as one of the only industrial engineering students in her sorority. “I didn’t feel prepared to do things on my own,” she says. “Two to three weeks into the semester, courses started picking up, and I felt so overwhelmed.” After the first round of midterms, Olivia received disappointing grades despite her devotion to studying. “I thought, there’s no future for me here, I’m not smart enough for this.” 

Olivia says joining IISE (Purdue’s chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers) helped her regain her footing. “Being in a leadership role in IISE made me rethink my habits for success,” she says. “I had to relearn how to learn.” In her second semester of sophomore year, Olivia got her grade back from a physics midterm while at a Purdue basketball game with her friends. “I got an 100%. I was starting to figure it out, and I thought, okay, I’ve finally got this.”

Getting through the hurdles of imposter syndrome, negative self talk, and self-doubt helped Olivia to find solid ground in IE. She was Vice President of Internal Operations for IISE before becoming President her junior year. She served as the TA for the IE 200 seminar class, began exploring classes outside of engineering, and even added on a Philosophy minor and certificates in Systems and Applications in Data Science. Now, after completing the coursework for her minor, she finds herself returning to audit philosophy classes in her free time.

Olivia has achieved incredible accomplishments during her time in IE, but she has also gone through periods of self-doubt and experienced bouts of imposter syndrome, as is common for many engineering students. Knowing this, Olivia’s advice for incoming students is crucial. “The biggest piece of advice I have is this: don’t talk to yourself like you wouldn’t talk to a friend. I am still working on it, but I used to have a lot of negative self-talk. I would tell myself that I wasn’t smart enough and that everyone around me was more prepared than I was. You would never tell a friend that, so why would you tell yourself that? It takes a lot of conscious rerouting, but ever since I’ve stopped thinking that way, I’ve been much happier and more confident.

“My second piece of advice is to find a mentor or someone to look up to. I have done that pretty much all my life, and I’ve had those people to guide me as a freshman, sophomore, and still to this day. Just find those people you can ask questions to and have open dialogue with.” 

Great advice, Olivia! 

As Olivia finishes out her last semester at Purdue, we know plenty of younger students will be looking to her for this much-needed advice. Now that she has overcome many difficulties in her path to graduation, Olivia looks forward to joining the crew at United Airlines as part of the Network Planning Team. We are so proud of you, Olivia, and we know you will make a wonderful mentor for future generations of engineers!