[11-13; 152-155; 158-162; 165-167] The spring semester started in January. Since I needed to apply for a lot of summer internships, I spent a lot of time writing cover letters and editing my resume, which required me to concentrate less on school. The school has a career service where they can review your resume and will help you with improving your resume. I went there a couple times, which also took time from my calendar, but I think it’s worth it. Then, right after the session in career services, I fixed what they told me to fix, and then I sent the revised resume to the company. Usually the company calls back and asked to schedule an interview or request additional information such as grades. Yeah. And then, I needed to find some time in my calendar where I could have the interview with the company. I prepared for the interview by viewing their website and reading information about the company such as their goals, what they’re doing, so I would be prepared and know something about the company before talking with them.
Tag: co-curricular support
[299-302] Managing engineering and soccer requires a lot of time management. I don’t have as much free time as other student I’d say. But it makes me very productive when I have some time to do homework and making sure that I’m really focusing on doing it as quickly as you can.
[333-337] The faculty are very helpful. For example, right now, when we worked on the ankle brace, then in those long projects I was talking about. Even though one professor that signs for that specific class, all the professor around us are very helpful. So maybe the material professor, even though we didn’t don’t have him this year, he’s still very willing to help us to figure out what kind of material we should order.
[158-160] I will say though this last fall it did falter a little bit because I was having some trouble in classes and I started to question whether or not I should be here if I’m not able to succeed in this class.
[202-211] I went to some professors and multiple people told me, “You can breeze through this class.” One professor actually told me, “I wouldn’t care if you got a 2.5 in this class and just passed it barely because as long as you get the concept and applied them later, it’s not about whether you can pass it with flying colors.” I went with that mindset and continued. The homework format changed and the tests ended up being super simple compared to some of the homework problems and some of the things we were doing in class. So, I realized a high grade isn’t the only grade you can get. I also realized it’s a culmination of concepts, but as long as I get the ones that I’m there to master, that’s what the program was focused on teaching me at that time.
[160-161] I ended up getting the help that I needed and I ended up getting a four in the class.
[345-348] Also, I think I definitely have a good routine. I’m a very organized person in how I organize the things in my house and also how I organize my life. I’m very timeline oriented, I have Google calendar and I do put a lot of my things on there. That’s something that I’ve kind of always prided myself on, is knowing when I can do something.
[358-362] You kind of get a feel for what each assignment is going to take time wise. It’s about deciding how much time I’m willing to spend at once. So it works good for me, I know a lot of people have issues with their time management and I try to give recommendations where it’s due but it’s definitely manageable. I mean, I still have free time even being involved in the five or six organizations I’m involved in.
[317-335] During winter break, I went home for Christmas, and was able to see my family. I felt happy with that. Then I was starting in a new job. The interesting thing about this job, last summer when I got my internship, I had applied to probably 20 or so places. That was the one place that gave me an offer. It wasn’t like my last choice. It ended up being really the perfect choice for me, it just fell into place. But this time around I knew I wanted to stay on campus. That limited my search to somewhere within 20 miles so that I didn’t want to commute very long every day from campus. I waited probably almost halfway through the semester just looking at places, thinking, “Would this be a good match? What do I want to do?” Then an opportunity opened up at a company that I knew about, but I forget what I thought they did. But it didn’t sound interesting. Then I was like, “Well, now I’m interested.”
I kind of put all my eggs in one basket. If at any point there’s a disclaimer you can put in, I would say, I don’t recommend that people do that. It’s very risky and I probably wouldn’t do it again. But I reached out to the company, I had contacts who were alumni. I went the extra mile and I wrote a cover letter, I got letters of recommendation if I needed them. I applied for only that job because it was the only job I wanted and it’s the job I got. I got really lucky there. Well, I guess not lucky, I guess, I earned what I got in my opinion. But that’s I think important as well.
[339-361] A professor that just retired from our school was actually an employee at the company at one point. I reached out to her and she gave me some tips and tricks, and she was happy for me. I had the people in the alumni department that hooked me up with someone in the company that would put in a good word for me. Those connections were good too. I think those resources were crucial in getting me in, getting my interview, and securing the position that I really wanted.
[396-421] Although I had an internship this semester, I originally planned to participate in student senate, but I found out that my work schedule would put me coming home right when the meetings were starting every week. I have a position that needs to be there at least 30 to 45 minutes before the meeting. I decided to step down because I could’ve made it work. I could have asked my friends to cover for me and they offered to cover for me before I even asked them. But I felt that the position should be given to somebody who has the time to put in, because they’re going to be more passionate and they’re going to be a better asset to the team.
Even though I didn’t do that though, I still know everyone in the organization pretty much. I’ve gone to a few of their events. I showed up to their meeting one day when I got off of work a little early and I stayed in touch with them. But they are also kind of in cooperation with our campus activities board. I have continued my involvement with them. I still do their … You have to work an event every month. Which isn’t a problem because I usually do the trivia night, which is Friday, around 8:00. It’s way after work, I can still do what I need to do and then enjoy my evening. I did that. I’m trying to think if there was anything else. I mean, I still talk to the alumni department. I’m not part of that organization anymore, but I still support it, I guess as a third party. If that’s the correct way to phrase it.
I mentioned in one interview that I was a part of a thing called road crew. I wasn’t in that this year because I had my internship and I had to be available for that. But their last stop was in downtown near the school where I was living and it was right when everybody came back to school. I went there and I was able to talk to all my friends and support the organization and support my school. We have what’s called the Day of Giving. Where it’s how the college makes its money because our college is not for profit. I participated in that by donating some money, which is typically something that they ask people who are in the organization or have been in the organization. I donated and did a few other things. I showed up to an event across campus one day just to support them and say, “I’m here.” I have even begun talking to them about coming back to the organization next year when I have more time. I don’t think there’s anything else though. I think those are the only things that I’ve been able to maintain with the time that I had leftover in my day.
[264-267; 270-312] The professor for principles of engineering is actually the chair of the engineering department and he was actually my boss for the satellite project that just got launched into outer space actually last week. Since I had had him as a boss before I felt like I could talk to him one a more personal level than my other professors, and sort of say like, “Hey, are the sophomore classes not doing well? We are very concerned about this class that you’re teaching now.” Because the former professor that taught both circuits and this principle of engineering class, the group of them has left and so that’s why we had new professors for each. The chair of the engineering department was not the one that taught the class last semester. So, they split it up.
Anyway, so he said, “Well, don’t worry about that all.” And he’s like, “From what you’ve probably heard about me I’m an excellent professor.” He’s like, “I’m not trying to boost myself up and make myself look good, but I haven’t had bad reports come back from students. They all like the way that I teach.”
And I knew that I shouldn’t be worried because he was an excellent boss and very lenient. Very good at his skills towards explaining things and engaging his students I knew was really good. Yeah, so the semester started, and he addressed the class on the first day and he said, “We’re just going to talk about, the first lecture we’re going to start out easy. We’re going to go over what you think you know from last semester and we’ll make a list of the things that you think you know, and the things that you were supposed to know from last semester. And we’ll talk about…” He’s like, “I’ll give you a little bit of an intro on myself. Sort of my life story and you can ask whatever questions, and doubts that you have about the semester.” Either in his class or any other class. And that made us all trust him a lot more, and that just set up the semester for success.
Since then he’s done an excellent job of having engaging lectures where he asks questions on a regular basis. If anyone looks confused, he calls them out and he’s like, “Hey, you look confused. What can I do to explain this?” And if he can’t fix it in a couple minutes then he says, “Come to my office hours.” And labs go pretty well too. He’s excellent at answering questions and providing adequate instructions. As the semester goes on the goal of this class is to develop your mind into thinking like an engineer so he gives you, instead of giving you step by step instructions like he did for the first lab it’s more of you have a drone. So, this is our final project. We have a drone and we are supposed to make a thrust measurement system.
[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.
[312-325; 334-340] I got my faculty adviser last semester. He is an actual professor in mechanical engineering, so I can talk to him about related issues. He was actually interested in me, which is a lot harder to say for the people in the Central Advising Office. I’m actually going to talk to him in a couple of hours to talk about my next semester. I’m excited for that. I really should go to more office hours, but I’m nervous to talk to my professors. And I’m looking into joining a club in the Engineering College, so I can get more interaction with friends and faculty. I don’t interact much with peers in engineering field, but I’m looking for more. I’m in clubs that are not related to engineering. I was only in a club last semester and we didn’t get much things done. Because a lot of our members were seniors and they were dealing with senior design
[58-115; 302-309] At the end of spring, I failed chemistry class since I wasn’t really interested. I’ve been having a hard time getting through the Gen Eds just because I don’t have the passion for it. I did well on the rest of my classes. That was pretty low for me, but overall I went up. The summer was very nice. I adopted a pigeon. I don’t feel like it’s necessary to censor that. I went back home. I went on vacation, getting ready for my new summer job. I was a camp counselor and a camp instructor. It was fun to interact with a lot of other STEM majors and with a lot of interested young adults. It makes me feel better self-confidence and eye-opening. I went to several tours of places related to engineering. I really want to internship with one of them, so I’m going to contact them privately. I taught soldering, 3-D modeling, SolidWorks, and Rhinoceros 6. Summer was the highest point because that job was very fulfilling. I started to lower down as the summer job ended. I was ready for starting a new semester. Being at home is kind of suffocating just because there’s not much for me to do that is engaging and enriching for my brain. I got a new e-board position. I became the president of a club. That has been a good hobby to get me off of worrying about classes. Lately for the past few weeks, I’ve been on the decline just because I’m retaking Physics 2 for the third time. It is a problem that I still don’t have a plan or the energy to get through them now, so I’m struggling. Another huge problem was that I didn’t have a creative outlet anymore. All of my class are math-based and have nothing to engage me on a creative side, so I started looking to music. I try to do that when I can because it also takes me away from the math monotony. I feel more hopeful that I have been in the past few weeks, and the antidepressants started working. I felt happy to finally feel that way. Overall, it’s expected to be generally lower during the degree because I know for a fact the degree is hard. But going through this experience will be worth it in the long run. I don’t mind a little low point as long as at the end of tunnel I get a fulfilling job and a fulfilling paycheck.
[144-163] For counseling, because each week we had a different camp, we actually had several camps that people could go to. It was called Engineering Careers and was focused on various skills that an engineer should have. We took a tour of Engineering Building in my school. We saw multiple rooms that I haven’t even seen before. We saw various testing labs and huge workshop facilities. The next week, I counseled for games and puzzles. We were off campus to a forest preserve retreat by our school. The camp was all focused-on games and puzzles. A lot of creative thinking instead of strictly like math and engineering such as how to create and them. They had to create their own escape room, the one with the middle schoolers. By interacting with them, it was very nice to see just the development of their ideas. It reminded me of my youngest sister who just started high school.
[164-189] The next week I was an instructor. I instructed for the 3-D design camp. We gave them various challenges, and we tasked them with assembling each Lego into SolidWorks. They had digital helpers to measure everything. Eventually, we could 3-D print the model, so we could do a compare and contrast. The next project was like a key chain project we used Rhinoceros 6. You can do a lot in SolidWorks for assembly and for making precise components, but for Rhinoceros 6 it’s a lot easier to do artistic things. The last project, it was kind of rough. It was making a USB casing with old USB drives that are just lying around. They give out just for free. The project was to design it so you could put the USB drive and its internal components into a 3-D printed case. So we combined some aspects from Rhinoceros 6 with SolidWorks in order for us to actually make something both artistic and practical. The next week, I taught Product Design, which was basically teaching something basic things like woodworking, soldering, and 3-D modeling. I spent a day on each of those aspects and then for the rest of the week they had to design their own product. They had to think of their own unique product that they could eventually sell, theoretically. They were really creative and inspirational kids at some points, really annoying at some points too, but I didn’t mind.
[49-54] Aside from stress from work, extracurriculars, and school impact my mental health. Overall, my mental health has been getting better since last year. Overall, I think I just need to lower my workload with extracurriculars. Work is kind of unavoidable because I want to be in an apartment next school semester, so work is one thing. Extracurriculars, I feel I can fall back on. Maybe in a year I’ll be out of the extracurriculars. Then school, I still need to […] finding a good habit for school work is still something that I think I actively avoid. It’s a problem for me, so I need to find that for myself.
[193-198] I think one of the main reasons why I went into extracurricular activities was so I could stress out about something else other than school. I mean, other than seeing friends and feeling like I’m a part of something, other than those feelings, a lot of that was finding something else to stress out about other than school and actually working on myself for academic work. I should put more focus on my academics, as much as I don’t want to, as much as I want to just take these classes and get by, that’s not going to happen very well for my next classes coming up.
[203-207] I’m currently the president of an E-Sports Club, which is the biggest sports club on campus. This is my only curricular activity for this semester, for this school year actually. Last school year I was a part of three big organizations, and it was bad then. I thought it would be better now that it would only be one, but I took on a presidency instead of a different role, so it’s still a lot. There’s a lot of promises that I made to myself about the club that I want to achieve, and I guess I was putting a lot of that pressure on myself, so I just ended up getting over-stressed or overwhelmed