Tag: why engineering?

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Amanda’s Family & Childhood

[2-6] So I am from [European country]. Then I wanted to come to the U.S. to start playing soccer at the same time, in high school in [European country]you can choose what track you want to do, if you want to more towards engineering or economics and stuff, so I chose to do engineering because I like math. And then when I got here, I got into to school mostly because of the soccer team and I just wanted to do something that was involving math because I kind of like to think.

[14-16] I looked what kind of courses every track offered, and that’s why I chose to do the engineering part, because it’s more like calculations and stuff, and that was the courses I liked in elementary school.

[22-25] Yeah, like my whole family, they are kinda interested and good at more like the math part than like, drawing and stuff. So then I think I was able to get a lot of help from home, and therefore, I kinda got good at math and I think you start to like stuff that you’re good at.

[71-77] I think it’s just probably moving this far and not having family close makes it more self independent. Of course, I have developed my English skills enough, but it’s like a deeper personal experience and development than if I had just stayed home and studied. You feel like you’re moving away from all the safety you had, like you don’t know anyone and figure out everything myself. From living at home and having your parents there to support you to not having them. It has developed me a lot as a person. I think it’s worth it. I want to try new things I think it just makes me grow.

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Amanda’s Quotes #1

[83-86] So then I picked engineering because I was good at math, like of course I could pick something easier when I got here, it doesn’t matter what I picked in high school. But I felt like I just wanted to keep going, because I felt like I kinda knew what I was doing.

[137-139] And since we do one more year in [European country] high school I had already taken some engineering classes which I hadn’t gotten credit for here, I had done a lot of what we did my first year.

[89-95] And at home if you want to do engineering it’s five years, here it’s four years. Even felt really comparable, I just heard of math engineering and physics, like here it sounds like math and physics. So I started and after one week I realized it was going to be a lot of space classes, space school like an aeronautical school and that’s not really what I wanted to do. Then when I was here I started to look into other majors and I pick the broadest one which is called mechanical engineering.

[98-102] It was more I knew what I didn’t want to do, like I didn’t want to do space, so therefore a lot of the engineering majors here at school was not an option. So there was more between mechanical and civil. I knew I didn’t want to do the standard engineering stuff like rolls and pitches and stuff, so then mechanical was the only one left.

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Josh’s Family & Childhood

[11-15] I come from a middle class family, and I’m an only child. My father went to vocational school for construction, sprinkler fitting, and that was the maximum amount of education he had. My mother went to college. She’s a nurse, and she recently got her master’s. I have a big family; I have some people who have gone to college and some people who haven’t.

[101-112] My parents never really told me what to do. They were always kind of in the mindset of, “Do what you want, do what makes you happy, we’ll support you.” Whatever I decide is fine, so I never really had a reason to go anywhere because of them. I think from the beginning, my mind was pretty set on a science field so it didn’t take a lot of encouragement to pursue that.

[19-24] When I was in middle school, I changed my desires to reflect more programming and computer based design, I was looking at game design and stuff like that. It wasn’t until I got in high school and I started taking the programming courses that I decided to go to computer science. And then when it came down to time to choose my major, I had gotten sick of the programming but I still liked the problem solving and working hands on.

[101-112] One big influence that I did have was my cousin. The way high school in my district worked was when you pick your classes for your freshman year of high school, you decide whether or not you want to go to the vocational school half day and then, after that first year, you can decide to go full day or still half day. My cousin, who is three or four years older than me, went to the same district I did. He went to the vocational school for computer design. He originally wanted to be a roller coaster engineer and I remember growing up and seeing all the things he was doing and I was like, “That’s really cool.”

[115-121] So, he was definitely one of the people who got me interested in the computer aided part of engineering, and he’s definitely the one who I think got me really interested in the design aspect and kept me centralized around that area. But otherwise, it wasn’t really people telling me to go here or go there. I had this idea from the get go and people would kind of just positively reinforce. If they asked what I wanted to do, I’d say engineering or computer science and they’d be like, “That’s a good profession.” Or, “I think you’d succeed there.” Or something like that.

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Josh’s Quotes #1

[25-31] So, I came back to engineering and I chose mechanical because of my like to be hands on and to have an end product to hold in my hand. My family was definitely very supportive of everything I did, and they’re the reason that I’m able to come to school today. But I definitely think it was my own interest and desires that led me to engineering. I think it was a lot of deliberation on what each profession means and what’s involved in it, and I found that engineering was the one that fit the bill for most of the things I enjoyed doing.

[146-151] I was like, “I want to design things because I know how things work, I enjoy doing math, I feel like I could succeed.” So, this is why I decided I wanted to be an engineer, and then I looked at schools. I found my university because I found schools based on location. I wanted to be independent from my family but I wanted to be close enough that if I needed to be there, or I needed to be with them, the opportunity was available.

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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’s Quotes #14

[628-648; 729-742] There’s only so much self-repair you can do when you get knocked back down. It’s just the general feeling of anxiety in academics. If I don’t get this done, I’m going to work much harder later. The best way I can describe it is notice change and recognizing the change in behavior was how I get through difficulties.

The past four months have definitely been some of the biggest areas of growth that I’ve personally had in my life. I gained a lot of experience from the real world. I’ve had 12 jobs since 14, but none of them were engineering jobs. Having an engineering job allowed me to be used to professional. That taught me even if the concepts don’t apply, there is a baser reasoning to what I’m doing. I can look at a problem now and solve it without any help. If zero is not an engineer and 10 is an engineer, I put myself at six or seven. Purely because I don’t think getting out of school and getting an engineer job makes me an engineer. There’s an additional component that can only be found with experience and time. Getting the degree put me up from six or seven to an eight.

This afternoon, I’m updating my resume and choose where I want to go. As long as it fits their requirements that they lay out before me with time. My professor had to come visit the company I worked out for over the summer to see that I’m doing meaningful work and they’re taking care of me. I am still looking for an internship. Because my school is so involved in community, I can find a position that get me experiences that I need to achieve before I graduate.

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Josh’s Quotes #27

[536-547] Overall, I think the internship was crucial and it’s definitely a big stepping stone in my professional development, but I’m definitely not ready to step out into the engineering world yet. It’s helped me to narrow down what I desire from an employer and from a workplace culture. It’s also shown me what things I don’t want to deal with. If I do deal with them, how I want to deal with them. But it’s also shown me that there are a lot of things I have to learn. In any field that I go into, there’s going to be nuances and little things that’ll take years to learn. I mean, there are people at this place that are still learning new components and they’ve been there for 30, 40 years. It’s taught me to really value my education and to not be afraid to ask questions. Because learning more really only helps me. Because even if it’s not something that applies directly, maybe it’s a skill I learned that I can use elsewhere. I think it’s just been a significant stepping stone. Not the final stepping stone, but just a significant stepping stone towards that degree in my hand and a future on the road. Which my current plan, which is new as of a few months ago, I’m intending to look at PhD programs out of college.

[583-607] Something that I’ve always felt in school is, I enjoy helping others or teaching others. I’m not sure what the best word to choose would be. I don’t always understand things quickly, but I can generally get a base idea of things in class. Once I understand something, I usually find it pretty easy to explain because I feel like if I can understand it, I should be able to explain it. Because of that, it’s brought the thought in my head. I’ve never really thought of being in education. I just said, I was like, “I don’t really like teaching people all the time.” I enjoy helping them occasionally, but I don’t think I have the patience to do it all the time. But that doesn’t change the fact that I enjoy what I’m doing at school. I thought, “Well, maybe it’s just education that I like. Maybe I just like learning.” Yeah, helping people is great in general sense. I’m sure anyone gets joy from that. But it made it difficult because I really didn’t want to go into teaching. I was like, “I don’t want to be a teacher. I just don’t see that being a future I enjoy.” Other than the social aspects, I just think it’d be too stressful. Then I started questioning, “Well, what do I really want to do after school?” I’ve always felt that if I stop going to school, I’m not going back. Because I feel like it’s a rolling stone, I’m going and if I stop, it’s going to stop. I guess if I take a break, I’m not going to want to go back. I’m going to get lazy and I’m just going to want to stay inside all day. I’d rather just bite the bullet and get education done so I can coast the rest of my life. I had always consider doing a masters. That had always been my next step.

Honestly, the change really happened when I talked to my friend. I had mentioned I went to the last road crew pit stop in January. That’s where I had the conversation with this peer of mine. It really was, right there, he said it. He said that’s what he was doing, why he was doing it. It kind of just set off a light bulb in my brain. Kind of it just felt right. I was like, “That sounds exactly like what I need.” I didn’t know it before, but it feels right. I thought about it more and more, and I came to the conclusion that I think that’s what I want to do. I don’t necessarily want to go into education, but if I get the doctorate, I think it allows me the opportunity on top of opening a lot of other doors that might be interesting.

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Joy’s Childhood and Family

[3-4; 5-8; 18-24; 49-50; 58-59; 67-68] So my mom is a teacher and I was originally going to be public schooled, but at the age of four I asked my mom to teach me how to read. So, she ended up teaching me how to read and then one thing led to another and then I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school. When I first became interested in engineering when I was younger, I would help my dad with projects around the house and enjoyed hands on learning. I was in sports from age 10 through 14 and then at 14 I joined robotics and was in that all the time. And then in high school I joined a robotics team, a FIRST Robotics Team. I learned about FIRST Robotics through one of my homeschool friend’s mom. She was heavily involved in it as a volunteer. I joined because my best friend was also on the team.

[74-80] I started out of on the woodworking team because I knew that I wanted to do hands on things but working with wood is more forgivable and safer than working with metal. And it is not as expensive either. They had me working with things like drills, hand tools, calipers, and tape measurers. After my first year, I switched over to the mechanical sub-team where I was working on CNC machinery and metal, steel, acrylics, and Polycarp net.

[97-121] When it was time to apply for colleges, I visited a ‘midwestern university’. Originally, I said, “No, this is too expensive, and their engineering program is not what I want. I want something more like another ‘midwestern university’.” Then, I visited a few other smaller schools, but I chose my current ‘midwestern university’ based on a price comparison between the two schools. I believe that the other ‘midwestern university’ would have made the best mechanical engineer or environmental engineer, but I wanted to a general engineering degree and to be close to my family. Also, the professor to student ratio is 1:20. The professors are willing to help outside of class and get to know you on a personal level. I also found that their graduates actually get jobs.

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Joy on Choosing Engineering

[25-31; 32-39] The build season for robotics is six weeks from the first week of January to the second week in February. You have six weeks to construct an industry-grade robot that will complete a challenge. For example, one year we build our robot to play soccer and another year we built the robot to shoot frisbees and climb a pyramid made from piping in the center of the field. These robots are five feet tall and one hundred and twenty pounds. The design process involved reading through the manual that NASA and FIRST distributed to each team. We had to engineer everything. We made CAD models of it, built a prototype, and programmed it.

[37-39; 43-47] During my junior year of high school, I was able to take off two months of schooling because I was homeschooled and moved it to June through August. When I was in build season, I put in a hundred hours a week, for six weeks, in robotics. And we ended up making it to the world competition that year. It paid off and I learned so much from my mentors (engineers and computer scientists) and just like my other peers and like working in the engineering process from like start to finish. It’s amazing. Going through it five times, definitely helped me now in college. But, yeah. So, I accredit my ability to engage in robotics that much to being home schooled.

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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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