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josh quotes

Josh’s Quotes #9

(230; 501-502; 506) So I still don’t have a co-op. I actually have an interview today at 1:30, a phone interview at 1:30. I didn’t include it on the journey map, I forgot to. But part of that last up curve I’d say was procuring the phone interview I have today. Slightly nervous, very confident.

(259-262; 264-267) So with this one, this company that I am interviewing with today, they design and manufacture pipe fittings. And my dad was a sprinkler fitter for 35 years. And when I told him that I applied at this company, that they want to interview me, he said that he worked with their products. So that’s one thing that I will plan to be using as an “in” into the company, to say hey, I know your products are good, I have primary source knowledge of this, and I want to be a part of that process.

(106-111) I definitely am not ready to go into the workforce as an engineer. I would say I’m getting closer. This summer I’ll be going through my first co-op internship. So I think once that happens I’ll feel a lot closer because I’ll start to get work experience in. I feel very confident in my problem solving skills and my ability to work on a team. So in that sense of an engineer, I feel very confident.

(476-480) I was not very involved before I came to college. I never considered myself a leader. I considered myself a follower. But since I’ve come to school I think I’ve developed the leadership and communication skills necessary, not only to succeed in my field, but also to move forward in life and be able to interact with the people I meet in my daily life and in my professional life in a way that we can collaborate efficiently and cohesively.

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josh quotes

Josh’s Quotes #11

[75-132] Then classes started. I was feeling little down because I missed the experience over the summer. The second week of school, I found out there is the sophomore year award. It’s awarded by highest GPA. Over the summer, they have allocated $500 to me. After that it was a pretty even point for two weeks. Then everything started to get harder. Because of all the stress, my first exam was on the down curve. However, I did well on the exam. I had so much work to do. It was hard to stay motivated. I have to give up my leisure activities. Two weeks ago. I was supposed to be taking an exam, but I didn’t understand the material. I was overwhelmed. There was one day I spent 12 hours working on lab reports. I was trying to find new habits and working with friends to find new ways to achieve goal. I had the second machine design exam during fall break, and I did very well. Hopefully I can maintain it for the rest of the semester.

[239-373; 430-439; 467-489; 526-539] This semester has been the hardest I have ever had in my life. I never had a mentally challenging experience. I wouldn’t be here without my professors. I get enough amount individualized of help that allows me to be successful. I have five lectures and two labs. I have a thermodynamics lab or a fluids lab which builds on the thermo class last semester. I also have a microprocessors lab for my degree. Machine design is the longest class. Professor has a notepad. Everyone in the room knows each other fairly well because it’s not a huge program. He keeps us engaged by making jokes.

For system modeling and analysis, we’re modeling a system, predicting its performance and optimize it. It’s been a difficult class because the professor is new. It was a big transition for her. She was just out of grad school. She was expecting us to know a lot of things that we didn’t learn before. There’s homework that’s due every week. With the thermo lab, the first week we do a demo with machine we’re working with. Then we have supplemental activity to do with the data on our own. The lab report is on an A3 size piece of paper. It’s printed out as poster. It definitely teaches me have to simplify after getting complicated results. We had a class learning how to use programs. It’s a supplemental. The memo format is a one-page summary report which most people had anywhere from eight to 12 pages.

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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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