Engineering Career Progression

They challenged my capabilities, and made me overcome some of my worst fears. Excellence can come from breaking barriers, but it can also come from just chipping those barriers, or even nudging them. My four years in JROTC has taught me that as long as you are making progress towards your dreams, you are striving in excellence and self dedication. And even though your path may get rough, and have more obstacles in the way than ever before, I have learned to never give up hope and to continue to strive in motivation and

I am writing to you in order to further express my elation towards your career choice. I know that your love of science, math and reading will aid you very much in engineering. Now I know that many an individual has criticized your decision by not only putting you down but by stating preposterous claims as to you being an engineer. These voices state that traditional roles are to be followed and they desire to stifle your love. I would undoubtably hate you if you were to let these irrationalities crush and keep you from your own happiness. Although this is a career typically sought by the opposing gender you should not let sexist comments cloud your judgement. We both know that you have never been much for proprieties regarding gender roles

I learned that my passions and skills have a place in this world and cannot be dismissed with a puff of smoke. My need to help has contributed to my dream of researching and finding ways to treat mental illnesses, as well as joining the Peace Corps after college.

It made me feel good about myself and showed me that even though I may not feel that I am not performing well, like the mentor role; my peers feel that I am. I tend to be hard on myself and meet or exceed what others may expect of me. This was truly the first time I realized how effective I am in a team environment. I honestly have shied away from group related tasks in the past, it has only been in recent years that I reached out to others and felt we could accomplish so much more as a group. The degree of how well we were doing was only measured by the completion of a task, but this has shown me an in depth view of the dynamic nature of group

I learned how to delegate tasks to different members while taking into account their past performance. I learned how to work seriously, take pride in your work, and carry your team's banner to success. I learned that sacrifices have to be made for your team, and I learned to set my bar higher than anyone else. Above all, I learned the value of hard work and

There, I would have to interact with complete strangers (something I had absolutely abhorred) and learn how to become a team with them. Together, we would learn leadership qualities and practice what we learned. We practiced our knew knowledge through acting morality plays in front of the whole class. Although this situation was not ideal, it helped me overcome some of my fear of expressing my ideas to others. This first leadership experience was my introduction into effective communication and cooperation within a group. Through other leadership experiences I would hone this

The discovery of interests in school begins at a young age, “career aspirations based on individual aptitudes, interests, and values are formulated during adolescence and shape the academic choices that lead to the STEM career pipeline” (Wang 771). Girls may discover that they are interested in science or mathematics at an early age, but they are generally compared to their male counterparts, who are given more attention at a younger age to pursue careers in this field. This time frame is critical, if attention is not given and more concentration is placed, girls may lose interest or consideration in the subject, seeing that it has nothing to offer for them. Jill Bystydzienski asserts, “little attention is paid, however to girls’ engagements with engineering during early stages of decision making” (1-2). If young females were given personal interactions with a field, they can then decide if they have a further interest in the subject. With no introduction to the field in middle school or even high school, the girls do not really understand what they can do with the profession. Some may explore options on their own, and others may just bypass the opportunities that could await them, “young girls cannot possibly consider opportunities they do not know exist” (“Why STEM”). Even when interest is expressed by girls at a young age they still do not have as many resources to opportunities to learn more about the

This experience showed me that you cannot be lackadaisical in life and expect things to be handed to you on a silver platter. Instead, you must work for the goals you aspire to achieve. This changed me as a person for the better, and I now believe I am a much more dedicated person who will persevere through any challenge to achieve my personal

It’s been a whole academic year being an engineering major at Drexel University. The variety of experiences, skills, and late nights under my belt have accumulated and become a set of values to represent the life of a student in STEM. A simple way to get a glimpse of this life is to understand the inner workings of the classes I took with my fellow engineering students.

During my undergraduate studies at Belmont, I took Dr. Hawley’s “Physics for Audio Engineering” course. Before that course, I had never fully considered the role that room acoustics and system optimization play in sculpting the sound of a space and had never considered career options outside of mixing. But, in Dr. Hawley’s course, something clicked and I couldn't get enough. In addition to reading the course textbook several times, I found myself absorbed by the class research project, and even added on a personal project designing a home theater for a friend. I went on to build this theater by myself in two months of work staying within a budget of $40,000. The project turned out even better than I could have hoped, helped invigorate my passion for creating great sounding spaces, and opened up new career possibilities to me. To further pursue acoustics, I tried to work in a physics minor (though it was too late to change my minor), added an unneeded calculus class to my schedule, and began searching for graduate programs in acoustics. Unfortunately, since all of the schools I came across were heavy on the “architectural” side, I knew these were a bit out of my wheelhouse. Belmont’s program was just getting off the ground

Challenges: I could have gone down a path of community service, but that would not really help me attain my future goals of being an engineer. Probably my biggest challenge was

After having the overall summer bridge experience I know that I am better prepared as a student for the college level work. I have grown both mentally and physically. I have learned about my emotional health, discovered my own personal learning style, and have learned what motivates me as a student. I learned to never make any rash or important decisions while experiencing strong emotions because those emotions can take over me and lead me into drastic consequences. I learned that I am a creative innovator thinker that likes to do more than the usual person. I have also learned that having self-confidence results in what I do and having self-respect results of how I do it. Always being consciously aware about the commitments that I keep by knowing that my agreement is important,

It hurt to be knocked down, but I needed a kick in the pants. I needed to realize that I am not going to be handed anything. That I am not going to get away with slacking off. I worked hard my next two semesters and managed to land on Dean’s list for both semesters. I got involved with the Robotics Team here at NIU and learned a huge amount from senior members. NIU made me grow up. It wasn’t until I was challenged that I realized that I needed to change what I was doing, that I needed to work hard if I wanted to make something of value. Why sharpen a blade if you have only ever cut butter? I feel that the challenge is actually a personal support. It is a way of improving yourself and forming a work ethic. In Paying for the Party Alyssa described her ex-fiancé as such:

The Experiences and Imagery of Women in Engineering. Carolyn Jagacinski conducted a survey to compare the background and career characteristics of men and women in

A person must be creative and mathematically headed to work as a mechanical engineer. He has to be creative enough to come up with solutions to new and pressing problems in their field. He has to be able to work out plans and manufacture never-before-seen devices to solve new challenges presented by innovation. The schooling for mechanical engineering is mainly focused on science and math principles. The University of Texas at Austin offers a great program to train mechanical engineers in the tools, technology, skills, and duties of their profession.