Academic Advisor Maeve Brewer Leads Students with Animal Support
The Purdue School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering (SEE) is the first program of its kind to combine sustainability engineering and environmental engineering, taking bold leaps every day to meet urgent industry demand for technically skilled talent.
SEE supports industrial partners as they minimize environmental impacts across the entire life cycle of products and processes.
The furry companions behind the SEE team help make these giant leaps possible, and support SEE staff like Maeve Brewer in leading students to find their paths to success.
Maeve serves in a joint appointment as academic advisor for SEE and the Purdue School of Nuclear Engineering. Maeve’s pets do a lot to keep her busy and yet on task.
“We have one dog named Bear,” Maeve shared. “She is an Irish Setter-Golden Retriever mix.”
“We also have one axolotl named Rory, a slew of tiny fish and shrimp, and for funsies, we have a sour dough starter; not your typical pet but it is alive and we do have to feed it.”
Maeve laughed and said that the latter is a joke in her household.
“My daughter has been asking for a pet of her own. So, I deemed the sour dough starter her pet and when she shows me that she can take care of that without reminder, then she is that much closer to getting a real pet.”
Maeve said that advising students in SEE is very rewarding, and that a positive challenge in her role is that there is so much to learn about what SEE engineers can do.
“There are numerous different paths they can follow. The most rewarding is working with the students and building relationships. Learning about them and what their goals are. What drives them and what direction they want to go.”
Maeve is currently working to become even better equipped to have discussions with students about what jobs they can get in the future.
Cuddles from Bear and the unique personality traits from her pets keep Maeve grounded.
“I like to joke that raising Bear has been more work than either of my kids ever were. She eats everything that she can get in her mouth…We once had a cat and used to keep the cat’s food dish on top of our piano. One day, I was home alone and suddenly, I heard the piano. I looked and there was Bear, all four paws on the piano keys eating the cat food… [But] Bear is very smart and loves attention. We put a bell on our backdoor as a signal for her to let us know she has to go out and within two days, she was using it as we had hoped…Rory is very social. Any time she sees us come near the tank, she will come out of hiding to watch us.”
Maeve believes that SEE is important because our environment is essential to our lives.
“We need people who are passionate about it and who know to create things that will be better for our environment. We need people who can remediate what damage has already been done.”
To learn more about the Purdue School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering (SEE), visit: https://engineering.purdue.edu/SEE.