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Joy’s Quotes #18

[261-269] So, it is kind discouraging to feel like I’m not good at this, and how am I going to make it through engineering? How am I going to make it once I get into the real world if, even when I get A’s and things, I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing? So, it is really encouraging to talk to engineers and say, basically that, “Yes, your classes set you up with a foundation, but that’s not necessarily what you’re going to be doing. You’re not going to be applying the second law of thermodynamics, necessarily, on every single day of your life. You don’t have to have that memorized and understood perfectly and be able to implement every equation you ever learned in that class. Because, girl, you know you’re not even going into something that requires you to use that class.

[270-273] Or, I mean, differential equations. You’re not going to be using differential equations every day. It’s just like a foundation. And, because we live in a world with technology, and you can Google things, and you have mentor, senior engineers around you, you don’t have to have all this stuff memorized. It’s all about learning.”

[274-289] I think the process of having this internship and just the number of times that I went through designing and implementing small projects just made me realize that’s where I was. I would go to the senior engineers and be like, “I’m not sure how to solve this.” And they were like, “Yeah. Me neither. That’s why we asked you to do it.” We don’t all have the answers. The whole point of engineering is not that you go to a textbook and suddenly have the answers. That you figure it out. It’s made me realize I enjoy figuring things out. Whereas, academically, it’s not really about figuring it out. It’s about, you better know this on the exam and be able to regurgitate everything, and perfectly. Whereas, in industry, you’re able to make mistakes. Hopefully not big ones. But, make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes. So, it just gave me confidence in the ability to be an engineer. I think the people that I intern with said that they would love to have me back next summer, or even hire me while in term. And so, I was like, “Wow.” It was a success, and I was like, “Okay.” Engineering is not necessarily what college makes it out to be. And so, it’s just a nice reset button on my thinking of what engineering is.

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Joy’s Quotes #19

[305-311] As for the classroom, I feel that I know my professors better and they know me better. They’re able to tailor the classes better to how they know us. And just that trusting, like if we have a question, we’re going to raise our hand, we’re not going to just sit there and be confused. If we ask for an extension, they know which students don’t do the work and are just asking cause they’re lazy and which people genuinely try.

[312-317] So, I guess the respect and just the mentorship. As a freshmen, you don’t really know your professors all that well. Even at a small school, you don’t really know them. And as a junior now, I definitely think that it’s more personalized in the way that I can go to their office hours and, yeah, I don’t know, talk to them on both mentorship level, like asking them what I should do for an internship or career related questions as well as helping on a heat transfer exam or material science stuff.

[318-330] So, separate from the professors themselves, as for the classes, I think I’ve finally gotten used to the workload. And so, in class, I’m not as stressed about writing down every single word that they say. And it’s more of just learning the material and less scrambling. I realize that I’m going to understand this. So, I guess, not as fear-driven. I still have the same number of labs and projects and stuff, because, the way my program works. They want freshmen through seniors to work on projects on a regular basis. And so, I really don’t have any more labs. As for the lecture style, it’s still pretty much the same as freshman and sophomore year, just based on the class. I don’t have any engineering labs this semester. I’m taking chemistry, which is a piece of cake, because it’s freshman chemistry and I’m a junior. But it’s one of my gen-ed classes that I have to take. I guess I would say it’s interesting to have only lecture classes instead of lab classes for my engineering classes.

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Joy’s Quotes #20

[335-341] In my heat transfer class this semester, it’s [the professor’s] second year teaching. And last year, for example, he taught a class, and it was huge. It was very difficult. Because he didn’t know any of us, and so, trying to talk to him about homework or, basically anything, was impossible, because he just … Yeah, I don’t know. He was just kind of scared of the whole teaching experience and not confident in his abilities, necessarily, and felt like he didn’t think that we liked him, and it was just a struggle.

[342-348] Whereas, this semester, not only has he been in industry making air conditioning units and heating units for the past 30 years of his life, so, heat transfer is his thing. It’s, let’s see … I’m trying to think of a specific example. I guess he calls on us more in class, almost like in high school. He knows each person’s name and what they struggle with and what they’re good at, necessarily. And so, engaging us in class, specifically saying, “Joy, do you know this example,” or, “Eric,” whoever. It’s like asking them, “What is the answer to this?” Or, “Why is this the way it is?”

[349-359] Also, he applies the lesson to what we want to do in our lives. And so, he will be like, “Hey, so, for mechanical engineers, we can look at heat transfer through this perspective. “But he’d also relate it to the electrical engineer. “Each one of the substances that the heat is flowing through can be represented as a resistor. You can make a circuit that is analogous to the system that we have.”

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Joy’s Quotes #21

[383-389] The professor for material science is actually brand new. He has never taught. He has been in industry for the past 20 years. And so, this is his first time teaching, at my institution or anywhere. I really like that class, because I’m going into mechanical engineering. So, his teaching style, it’s kind of like starting over, because he doesn’t know us. But he’s actually done an incredible job of relating this to the real world and to our specific areas of study as well. We were talking about strain and stress and field strength and how things break, under either tension or compression or tension … I forget. Anyway.

[390-395] So, we talked about real life examples of where this was a problem with the Titanic or the shuttle that went down upon re-entry. So, they went up, I forgot what that was called, and then, when they came back down, it exploded. And just a number of other examples. He worked in aerospace, so that’s why he uses those examples. So, a lot of his examples have to do with spaceships and planes and that kind of stuff. Spaceships, sorry, shuttles and those kinds of things. Spaceships are not real. But, anyway.

[396-404] So, he’ll bring up an example of how that happened in real life. Then, we get to ask questions about that and go into detail of, okay, so, what is the exact process of why this failed. Because he’s worked in industry for so long, he’s done a great job of relating what we’re learning in our textbook to real world examples. And that’s something we have definitely been looking for, because it’s really hard to learn about things over and over again. It doesn’t feel useless, but it’s just hard to apply it when you have not been in industry. And it’s nice to know that these things do have real world applications for like when we will use this later on.

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Joy’s Quotes #22

[580-581; 495-504] Overall, this year has been really great in my journey to becoming an engineer. I guess, just not being bothered by grades, and putting more of my identity in, I don’t know, just being confident in myself, and not putting my identity in my grades. That was the big thing. I’m like, “I am done putting my identity in my grades and I’m focusing more on myself and the relationships I have with people in my life who’ve influenced me to be better.”

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Joy’s Quotes #23

[6-12] Starting in December, that was the end of that fall semester and it was going pretty well. As usual, it was kind of like life becomes more stressful as you get closer to finals. And finals went well. That was probably the best semester that I’ve had grade wise and mental health wise and enjoyment from my engineering classes. I had one main professor that semester because our engineering department at our school is still growing since freshman year when three of our six engineering professors left. So, it’s been interesting getting used to new professors every single semester.

[57-78] During the fall, I think that I was taking heat transfer and then strengthened materials and machine design. Classes went really smooth for me and I’ve noticed that I don’t really worry about not being able to figure things out anymore. That’s more of a time commitment. Whereas freshman and sophomore years it felt more like I was […]. Like, when I would go into a homework assignment, it was whether or not I could do it, not whether or not I had the time to figure it out. Whereas now it’s like it’s a mindset. The mindset finally clicked that I know how to problem solve and I know if I don’t, I know how to get from point A to point B regardless of if I have experience in this area, which is kind of encouraging.

So, I think the best part about that semester was that it finally clicked that I could do this and I wasn’t really doubting my ability to do engineering. Also, it was a good semester because I’ve been practicing time management skills for a while, then I already knew how to schedule my time properly, which made […]. Basically it wasn’t stressful. It was enjoyable to go to school every day because I genuinely was learning, and I loved problem solving. And so, not when it’s easy, but that I guess I wasn’t scared I guess. So, instead of doubting myself I was more confident that I was going to be able to make it through this semester just fine, which reflected into my grades. I think I was still taking 17 credits and yeah. That was the weird thing. I was taking 17 credits and working 20 hours a week and I had a social life outside of my classes, which was new and yeah. So, life was very well rounded last semester and I appreciated that.

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Joy’s Quotes #24

[13-22] Then going into Christmas break was pretty good. Then January term I didn’t take any engineering classes. I went abroad and that was one of the highlights of my life. It was amazing. It just so happened that two of my fellow engineering students, junior engineering students, were also on that trip. And we got to talk to engineers about their hopes and dreams for that country. So, it was really interesting to be able to apply some of the engineering stuff that I learned abroad. We didn’t get to do a whole lot. Also, in their culture was that women are not allowed to do these kinds of role, engineering type of roles. So, I wasn’t allowed to do much but I was still able to watch. It was pretty interesting.

[209-221] In their culture, when the youngest son gets married, his wife moves in and she is in charge of taking care of the in-laws, hand and foot type, bowing to them sometimes, until they pass away. And that takes out a number of the women, which means they cannot do anything. But I mean they’re literally just cooking and taking care of children all the time. Of course, they have many children in their families usually, so that’s not all the women. But in general, women do all of the cooking and cleaning and housework, but at the same time they don’t mean it to be demeaning. They just think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. You’re not required to wear skirts or anything like that, but one of their other cultural things is the youngest woman is in charge of pouring the tea for everyone. And they drink a lot of tea and their meals lasts for four hours. And so if you have meal prep of one to two hours and then a meal that lasts three to four hours and you do that two times a day, that basically fills up all of your time. So, there’s not as much room for women to pursue careers aside from taking care of their household.

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Joy’s Quotes #25

[222-227] But they were impressed, I guess they were impressed that I was an engineer. Then again, they think and most of the children specifically don’t really understand that America is just a country. They kind of feel like it’s this magical place. And I showed them pictures, so I’m like, “Literally your city looks like my city. Your city actually looks cooler than my city I live in. I don’t even live in a big city.” So, they were kind of confused when I would talk about the things that I would make with my male engineering cohorts.

[228-247] However, I think I found a couple women who are in computer science, but I didn’t find any studying engineering. They talked about learning programming in their high school. But when I talked to them about what they were going to do after that they’re like, “Oh well I’m going to be a parent and I’m going to do…” Which I mean, I plan on being a parent too, so I understand that. But they didn’t really think about technology at all in their future. They think that you just go to school, you get this degree for honor, for respect, and then you don’t really do anything with it.

I didn’t meet anyone who has graduated from college, any women in technology. Most of the college students I was talking with couldn’t speak super well. So it’s hard to have deeper conversations about about how they felt their role was as a woman in their culture. Because it’s such an honor, shame culture. They don’t feel any shame about the way they’re being treated. And honestly it didn’t feel degrading at all. It’s like you are praised for doing the stuff that you do. Just like the guys are praised for being mechanics and all of that. It’s a very loving place. They like their roles and they don’t really want to change. While I was abroad, they said, “Hey just make sure you’re aware. Do not try to do any manual labor because you are not allowed.” And I was coming in with a fight or flight instinct. “I’m going to prove that I’m capable.” And then I get there, it didn’t feel mean at all. They were thrilled that I could pour tea or they were thrilled that I could do anything.

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Joy’s Quotes #26

[248-256] Also, I talked to some male engineers and they were […]. I guess women don’t usually talk to men, you’re not supposed to make eye contact otherwise it’s considered flirty. I had to be careful with that, because when I would talk to male engineering students, they were getting the wrong idea about, because there was one of the three engineers was a guy. So, the other two of us were women. And so both of us we are trying to have to kind of balance that with having conversations while not conveying the wrong idea. This is purely a technical conversation, this is not meant to be, I’m flirting with you or something like that. But they didn’t seem ashamed of the fact that we were engineers. They were mostly just impressed because it was unheard of.

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Joy’s Quotes #27

[23-30] Coming back from [short] term, I was having a hard time adjusting back to being in America. Both time zone wise because it was 11 hours difference, which means I had just flipped my schedule 180 starting at the end of the beginning of January and then flipped it back at the end of January, which was a lot of change. And jumping with the 11 hour time difference, jet lag, going from jet lag to straight classes was really hard this semester. And this time I had another new professor and she’s not quite as good at teaching.

[262-296] This professor just graduated with her PhD. And I don’t fully understand this, but I think it was while she’s getting her masters, she was teaching eighth grade math or science or something. And so, her teaching style is currently, it’s been so long since she’s been an undergrad that she kind of forgets how difficult it’s supposed to be. And so sometimes she goes over our heads, but at the same time it’s basically she just doesn’t know what level we’re at. And so, she will explain how to convert from gigawatts to kilowatts over a span of five minutes and then just zoom past a brand new concept that we’ve never heard of. I’m like, “Okay, I know how to multiply by powers of 10. You didn’t need to explain that.” And then also just assigning homework on a daily basis, like assigning each problem on a daily basis as opposed to letting you solve them. It basically feels like she’s running it as an eighth grade classroom where she has to control every step of the process. And the goal of engineering is not to have people babysit you through every single step. As undergrads, we’re trying to learn these things on our own. So, it’s a little frustrating.

So it’s been a little frustrating because we go to class and we don’t really learn anything, because it takes an hour to get through one simple concept or one practice problem. Yeah, I don’t know. She didn’t really need to go into their practice problem or just any question we ask, she gets nervous about answering it. And so, if we question, we say, “Hey, I think you missed a step here, or this is a calculation error.” She’s like, “Oh.” She freaks out, and then goes all the way back to square one and thinks that all of her notes that she made for this lecture are wrong. Which is really hard because I’m like, “No, we’re not questioning your entire intelligence. You can pause, think about the question, answer the question, and then keep going.” So, that’s been very time consuming.

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