The most important thing I learned throughout freshman year was how important it is to have friends and family. School brings on a lot of stress, especially to an incoming high school student. School doesn’t cause stress purely from an academic side, but also from a social and emotional stand point. I found myself becoming much closer to my roommates, who I went to high school with. My roommates started providing the emotional support and encouragement that my parents provided throughout my upbringing. My relationship with my roommates strengthened, but I managed to make new friends through my learning community. My learning community became my academic support group. We started doing all our assignments together and studied for our calculus tests together. The long hours studying helped us for a unique bond as a group. I went to my learning community for all the academic questions I had, because having friends to ask for help calms any student’s nerves. The third area I went to for support was Theta Tau. I rushed Theta Tau in the spring and found a community of intelligent, inspiring, and loving engineers. The older brothers in Theta Tau give fantastic advice regarding COOP. The other source of stress unique to UC is finding a COOP. Cooperative education is a fantastic concept and program but coupled with classes and job hunting the process becomes a source of stress for many students. Theta Tau is filled with students who have already been through a few COOP rotations so they give just the advice and support I need.
This upcoming year I want to continue to build meaningful relationships with fellow students, and also the faculty at UC. The old saying goes, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” As my freshman year progressed I noticed the importance of that statement. I want to grow my relationships not just for my professional development, but in addition to my personal development. It is important to me to continue building up my personal support system as my course work becomes more challenging. I will look into joining additional community service clubs to build my relationships with the community beyond the University of Cincinnati. I hope that through honors I’m able join with more like minded individuals to be able to positively impact UC and the neighboring community. Freshman year was an experience I will never forget, and I learned so much from the university, and my peers.
2nd Year
During my second year, I got halfway through my academic curriculum, completed my first COOP, and discovered a new passion. Academics went well throughout my second year and I'm as passionate as ever about my future endeavors in engineering. Throughout my first COOP at KineticVision I realigned my goals for my future career and started seeking additional options for future COOPs. I evaluated my options and accepted a job with GE Aviation. The job searching process taught me a lot about how to conduct myself professionally as well as improving my interviewing and networking skills. The summer semester after my COOP I decided to branch out and take a photography class. The photography class quickly became an escape from my other responsibilities, and photography became a passion. Photographs have the ability to capture a moment in time that will never be seen again, some of these moments in time are spectacular to the point of taking my breath away. I found that capturing my own moments in time is a great way for me to reflect on the world. The most important thing I learned during my 2nd year is that I need to have interdisciplinary passions to develop myself in the most well rounded way possible. Below is some of my photographs from the past couple of months.
Third Year
The fall semester of my third year was spent as a design coop for the mechanical systems team for the LEAP engine program at GE Aviation. The experience I gained working within a design team was invaluable. My role was mostly a support role on the team and I assisted in multiple data collection experiments and different tooling projects. My spring semester was incredibly hectic as it was the hardest academic semester I’ve had to date. I took 17 credits which were all engineering curriculum courses. Outside of class I focused on my involvement in iPals and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, as well as preparing for my service trip in May and moving to North Carolina for my summer Co-op. My summer coop is a manufacturing role for GE Aviation’s plant in Wilmington, North Carolina. My job consists of tracking parts and working with a team to ensure that the production numbers are met.
My honors experience to Nepal was a great way to cap off the semester. The trip was so much more than I could have ever imagined. I grew much closer to my some of my fraternity brothers. I learned so much about another part of the world, but more importantly, I learned a lot about myself. I’ve realized how important travel and full cultural immersion is for reflection and personal growth. I’ve grown so thankful for what I’ve grown accustomed to by seeing the way others live their lives. I also managed increase my photography skillset by having to take pictures on the move and in harsh conditions. After the fact I improved my editing abilities as well by following online tutorials.
Over the course of the last year the biggest thing I learned was how to improve my time management. The spring semester took a toll on me but learning how to manage my time was crucial for my success. The time management tools and habits are helping me be as productive as possible on coop while ensuring that I have the time to take care of myself. The importance of my own physical, mental, and spiritual health became apparent during finals week when it felt like everything was going to come crashing down.
My main goal going into my 4th year is to continue getting involved on campus at UC and to make a difference wherever I go. I’m looking to use the lessons I learn on Co-op more this year than in any previous year.
Fourth Year
This past fall I started playing rugby again and that was certainly one of the highlights of my fourth year. Rugby was one of my passions for a long time, and I grew away when I went to UC because I wanted to focus more on my academics. I realized during the summer of my third year that I had let my physical health fall to the way side, so rugby was a familiar way for me to get back in shape. This year I am going to continue playing rugby for the UC men’s team since the rugby bug has bitten me again.
Class wise the past fall was another difficult semester, but proper time management helped me maintain a healthy life balance. The mechatronics class, which is predominantly a lab based class, definitely challenged me the most. The lab reports were lengthy and proper documentation was key. I started to get into a healthy routine of treating class and homework like a traditional 8 AM to 5 PM work week, which left me with plenty of free time to pursue more of what I wanted.
I started my last co-op rotation in the spring and the rotation runs through the summer. I am still working at GE Aviation, this time on the engineering side of the business on the LEAP Thermal Systems Design and Analytics team. I have been working mostly on the analytics part of the team. I publish data visualizations which the engineers can view to make estimations about the operating health of the engines within the fleet. The role has been challenging because the technical problems I’m presented with are far different than what I have seen in classes. I have to collaborate with teams across multiple disciplines since data management and analytics is a multidisciplinary function of the business. This coop has been very rewarding since I can immediately see how the tools I’ve developed empower the rest of my team to make important data driven decisions. As I head into my 5th year my hope is that I can continue furthering my education, as well as continue building meaningful relationships with the students around me. This year I plan to make the most of all the things I have available as a student. A part of me doesn’t want to leave school, but at the same time I am looking forward to graduating and starting my career.