Hello welcome everyone. It looks like everyone is logging into our web and R. This is very exciting. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us this afternoon. I'm just going to pause for a few seconds here to make sure that everyone gets logged in successfully.
Hudson, so we have folks joining us from Cala Rado in California so far, which is awesome. So high welcome.
Yes, I will just take a few seconds here before we get started officially, um, great yeah, more people popping in this is awesome. So my name is Jackie Gold Ring, an eye service. The manager for undergraduate recruitment programs in the Walter Scott Junior College of engineering at Colorado State University.
Who that is a mouthful, but essentially what it means is, I'm here point person so I can be your bridge to campus, and especially for those of you starting in fall 20, let me know how I can help. My email is on this slide here an I'll be sure to drop it in the chat before we wrap up today, but just know any questions or concerns or anxieties that you're feeling. Please let me know how I can help. So let's go ahead and get kicked of- so this session today is all about.
How to get involved in engineering as a student at CSU and so I'll do a presentation and then go into some information not only about how to get involved but also about our majors here in the College of engineering. So kind of doing a really big overview. I am going to share a lot of information today, so do you. Make sure that if you have questions you can actually add those today so there's a chat feature so anyone can put a question in there and then at the end of the presentation were going to open it up for a Q&A session.
And so we'll be joined by current engineering students as well as glad. Yeah Hernandez, who is our equity and outreach coordinator. And so we're going to be able to help answer those questions that you have so you can enter those questions now, or hold them until later. So I think we're good to go ahead and get started.
So to get us going, I really want to start thinking about engineering over also kind of a holistic approach to engineering and what it means to be an engineer and it's really exciting because as an engineer you truly have the capacity to change the world because the way that you're thinking is all centered on problem solving. So you're looking at things in our world, how they work or how they don't work. And then thinking about hey, what can I do as an engineer to make this better?
Make this run more efficiently, better search society and the environment around us, which is truly incredible and I'm always inspired by her students at CSU and the work that they're committed to doing. And so at CSU we have a really large focus on the grand challenges of engineering. And so if you have not heard of the grand challenges of engineering before, definitely look him up. It's really interesting. So those grand challenges are everything from clean water and food production to cyber security.
So there's a broad range of issues that we're facing in our world today and it surely is down to engineers to come up to solutions for these challenges in a really innovative and collaborative and creative way, and so that is what we are centered on at CSU in our teaching an in our methodology and so collaboration is a huge piece of that, as is working on teams because engineering truly is a team sport, so our focus at CSU is definitely working together not only in your major but across the different majors, an.
Disciplines within engineering so engineering is definitely interdisciplinary. And really, the more people that come together to come up with a solution, the better that solution is going to be overall and a lot of ways that you see this teamwork and collaborative solution process take place is through working on projects, and so it's really great at Csus. You actually start in your intro to engineering class and your very first semester, so if you're a mechanical engineer you're going to start an engineering mech 103, which is your intro to mechanical engineering course.
And within that course, you're gonna do projects in that first semester is that's a really great way to apply your knowledge. So not only are you going to have your lectures and have your theoretical foundation in place, you're also going to have that applied knowledge there. And that really helps to embed knowledge so that you can make it your own so that you are prepared to truly advance the field, which is an exciting Endeavour. And so teamwork shows up in a lot of different ways throughout your whole degree. And some of the great ways that it shows that this actually near last year so.
As a senior, all engineers are required to complete a senior design project and this is like a senior capstone and you spend an entire year working on one really big project with an awesome team and so usually these problems are brought to us either by industry or they're really research focused and so some of the senior design challenges that we've seen in the past are things like Ecocar. So we participate in the Ecocar Challenge, which is actually sponsored by GM, and they donate a car to us every couple of years or so.
And what we do is we sign a senior design team to really take care of that car. They got the whole thing and redesign it to run at zero emissions, which is really exciting. And then they get the chance to raise it at a national level and we compete against the other institutions that participate in go Kart talent and so on. That team you're going to find Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Computer Engineers, Chemical, Biological engineers and everybody is bringing their expert knowledge on to the table and onto the team to make it the best project possible.
So that's kind of the heart of what we do I see is when it comes to engineering. So now I'm going to talk a little bit about each of our majors. So buckle up everyone. I'm going to throw a lot of information that you super fast. I'm Please note that you can always ask questions as well once we get to the Q&A if you want to know more about any one of these majors in particular. So to get us kicked off, let's talk about bio medical engineering. So this is a unique program 'cause we're the only institution across the nation to have in a bag credited program that is a dual degree in biomedical engineering.
So I said a lot of things there. The first thing I want to talk about is a bit, so a bet is our accreditation board and it's really important that no matter where you end up for your engineering education, make sure that your program is a bad credit. If this ensures that your meeting core competencies to ensure that you enter into the workforce in Aceh fashion, and so the accreditation board comes, they review all of the curriculum at institutions they look at everything from exams to homework assignments to project, and they sit in on lectures. They look at everything to assess whether or not students are completing a degree that prepares them.
Or the industry of their chosen discipline and engineering. So we just had our accreditation in 2019. And then we'll have another one in the next six years. So the other thing I said is a dual degree. So that means you get 2 degrees so you get one degree in biomedical engineering, and then you pick up partner major. And the reason that you do this is because Biomedical Engineering is Super Broad. There are so many different areas that you can go into and really, in order to be competitive in the field, you have to have an area of expertise and that's why we've paired it with a partner.
Major, and so there are three different partner majors that you can choose from at CS go and the first one I want to talk about is electrical engineering. So if you're thinking about electrical engineering in relation to biomedical engineering, you may be focused on things like imaging and scanning and medical diagnostics. Also, developing medical devices as well that might be implanted into human or animal bodies like pacemakers. How can you make a pacemaker run better? 'cause if you get a pacemaker implanted, you don't want to have to replace that on a regular basis, you want something that is.
Save causes less harm. It has to be replaced less often as well. So thinking through those processes, then the second partner major you could choose from is mechanical engineering and so mechanical engineering of course is thinking about how things move, right? Thinking about machinery, helpings operating that flow of energy in our bodies, an animals. I mean, that's a pretty cool machine to study, and so students in this discipline are really thinking through how to replicate that movement. So maybe making things like prosthetics.
Or could go into bio mechanics and biomaterials is well. And then the third partner. Make sure that you could choose from is chemical and biological engineering and so this is really if you have a focus, maybe in Pharmaceuticals and you want to go into tissue engineering and research and you're really thinking at that very cellular level is well when you're thinking about human or animal life.
So next time I would have chemical and biological engineering at CSU, this is a super unique program. We're actually one of two institutions across the states to offer chemical and biological engineering in won a bet accredited degree which is really awesome. So you are still going to be super quick if you want to go in traditional chemical engineering fields like oil and gas. However, once you add that biological component, you're really opening up all of your opportunities for employment. So you could go into such diverse fields.
As material science, pollution control cosmetics, food engineering, which is massive, I don't know. Did any of you happen to try the Unicorn frappuccino when it came out at Starbucks?
I did, I'm very guilty. I did try it once, it was terrible. It was sweet, it was sour, it was sticky, it was pinkish. Purple is all different colors. However, I survived. I'm here and even though I ingested probably a ton of chemicals there, it's really down to that food engineer who created a recipe that could be replicated at a large level that folks are able to ingest and not cause any harm. And the short-term.
But also thinking about process engineering, so think about any manufacturing line is going to have a process engineer heading that up. So you want to be able to create something on large scale. So at the end of the day, really chemical and biological engineering is about understanding how to put components separate ingredients. Maybe you could say into a system and then think about your outcome. So really cool thing to mention here in Fort Collins. In particular is we are home to New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins. So that was started here. That was one of the first Micro Breweries in the entire United States.
And so we actually have a coop program set up where our students in chemical and biological engineering can do a yearlong coop with New Belgium brewery. So this means you stop out of school and you actually get to work for them full time and cycle through all of their different units so you can actually see hands on how your degree will apply in the real world, which is super exciting.
So Next up, I want to talk about civil and environmental engineering, so this is one Department, but two separate degrees. So you're either a civil or environmental engineer, really with civil engineering, you're thinking through super large scale projects so roads, bridges, tunnels, waterways in big infrastructure and then with our environmental engineering program, your focus is probably going to be heavy in water. So thinking about site remediation water resources so you think about water treatment, water contamination is well.
I'm also pollution controls is a bit of that too, and it's worth noting that this Department, right now civil and environmental engineering, is ranked #7 in the entire world and a lot of that is really due to our water resources program.
So next time I wanna talk about electrical and Computer Engineering, so again, this is like one Department but two separate degrees. So you're either an electrical or computer engineer within this Department is worth noting, there's very high placement rate, so that means that students who graduated this program goes straight into jobs or advanced degrees. That placement rate is 100%, and that just goes to show you the demand for electrical and computer engineers in this nation. And I'm really across the world. Think about the ways that we interface with computers on a daily basis and how much it has changed. Even the last 20 years.
So everything we touch pretty much our phones are watches or laptops or houses are cars. Everything has to do with either, you know computer or and or electrical engineering, and so when you're thinking in the realm of being electrical engineer, you're really heavily focused on the hardware side. So you're thinking about electrical components, products and systems. Then when you're looking at a computer engineering, it's really happy balance between electrical engineering. So the hardware side as well as computer science, which is more that software. So you sit right in the middle there, so you play in both worlds, which is very exciting.
So you can still go into things like software engineering or embedded systems, and either of those degrees, electrical or computer engineering set you up for success in robotics or aerospace, so there's a ton of different industries that you can enter into.
So next time I will talk about mechanical engineering, so this is definitely our largest program within the College of engineering for undergraduate students. So 1/3 of our undergrad students are in mechanical engineering, so again, you're thinking about how things move and within this program. What's really cool is like I talked about at the beginning. You're in your intro classes from day one, so you're taking Mac 103 at first semester, so you're starting to build up your foundation, and it's a broad foundation when you look at mechanical engineering. And then as you progress your degree, you get to pick out technical electives.
And it's those technical electives that really hone in on your expert field. So as you progress through the program, you might say, hey, I'm really interested in engines or aerospace or material science, and you can start to pick out courses that will fulfill your technical elective requirements that really focus and give you that expert knowledge so that you're going to be competitive for things like internships, Co, OPS in jobs as well. So there's a number of different industries that you can go into here. So like we talked about engines.
Automotive controls material science robotics also huge at CSU thinking about sustainable renewable energy sources. So Mechanical Engineers have access to a really cool space, as do all engineers. 'cause it's interdisciplinary, but we have a space called our powerhouse Enerji Campus. And this is where a ton of research happens that centered around sustainability. So thinking about how can we be more energy efficient not just in Colorado but across the world. So some of the projects that go on there include are micro grids.
We also have an engine's lab and the purpose of the Ingens Lab is to rebuild large, large engines to get them to run more efficiently and more green. Also, we worked on a cookstove project that was able to do a lot of research and build out different cook stoves to send out at a low cost to place is just around the world as well so that they are able to burn fuel in a more Safeway that doesn't come cause as much risk to human life. So smoke inhalation is a huge cause of death around the world.
So how to mitigate those kinds of problems? That's research that you could be involved in even in your first year.
OK so I just rely information about majors to you so it's a bit overwhelming. But if you are coming into the College of engineering at CSU and you're like, hey, I don't know exactly what I want to do. Well, guess what you could come in as an engineering open option student and this means that you come in. You are still admitted to the College of engineering, but you don't have to decide on one specific discipline yet. And so that first semester you take into 101, which is known as the grand challenges, which sounds familiar now and you go through all those grand challenges we talked about and you think about how each kind of engineer would have.
Approach that problem solving process. So if you're looking at clean water, what would you do? Is mechanical engineer versus a chemical and biological engineer, so it's really an exciting dynamic class. And then typically you'll declare your major at the end of the first semester.
Alright, let's shift gears here, so our focus today is on ways to get involved. And guess what? There's a ton of ways to get involved, and once we open up for questions will be sure that our students all share the ways that they are currently involved, not only in the college but across campus at CSU. So these are just a few ideas and will go more in depth through each of these subjects as well. So get involved by joining our engineering, residential learning community or the key community is well. Join one of our student diversity organizations in.
Engineering join an engineering society or club then also look at becoming a tutor, a mentor, an hour, each member and ambassador. Come and work for the college. Also think about getting involved in research like I was talking about the powerhouse you can get involved in research as early as your first year. So let's get a little bit more in depth. Let's think about our engineering residential learning community, so this is the space to live in to learn with other engineers because I will say Engineering is challenging.
It has to be because when you leave CSU you will literally at times have peoples lives in your hand and so it's important that you get all of the skills and knowledge that you need in your curriculum at CSU to make sure that you do a safe job as an engineer. Once you enter into industry and on the other side of that, it's worth mentioning that CSU you are going to have a support network and community to lift you up during those hard times when you're struggling through a class, there's always somebody that you can reach out to, whether that's a faculty as stack.
Or one of your fellow students, you're gonna find people to support you and build community in your time at CSU. And that's one of the most important things that you can work towards, especially in your first year and one great way to build community is to find that where you live so the engineering residential learning community is based over an academic village, and that's a cluster of buildings. Kind of on the Westside Southwest side of campus. And so there's our engineering Hall so that specifically for all engineering students, typically first year students.
And then we also have honors housing is there as well so they have a hole. And then there's Aspen Hall which is overflow for honors and engineering as well as accommodation for second year students. There's also a dining Hall over there as well, which they have a Super Delicious Mongolian Grill. And then there's also a couple of floors over and Edwards Hall for engineering residential learning community and the Edward calls just a hop and a skip in the jump away from the academic village cluster and the housing situation over there is more community style, so you're going to be sharing a bathroom with the whole floor.
Whereas over an academic village, it's sweet style, so you're sharing just with one roommate, so some of the things work noting over in the engineering residential learning community in the engineering building you have access to peer mentoring and tutoring, and those are two things I would highly encourage you to take advantage of in your first year, and so tutoring happens Sunday to Thursday in each night is dedicated to a different discipline of engineering. So one night might be mechanical. In the next might be civil, so you go to your specific night and you can get help on your homework assignments and studying for exams and working through quizzes as well.
And those tutors have recently finished those classes and really done well, so they've excelled in that course work, and they've done so recently. Also, you'll find a lot of times that peers have a way of breaking down information that can be an easier digested and so sometimes you gota lecturing would be like what I didn't understand what the professor is saying, but then it you can have somebody else break it down for you in a different way. It might click because we all have different ways of learning, and it's really important that you understand your best way of learning as well.
Another thing that we offered is we have your resident assistant, so if you live over an academic village on your floor, you'll have a student who is a little bit further along in their engineering career, and they can also serve as a mentor as well and connect you to support and resources in that first year CS, go, then there's some resources that are really incredible. So on the 1st floor you're going to find our whole design studio, and so these are computer lab spaces that you can access and they have all of the software that you need throughout your whole engineering degree already loaded onto them.
You can also remote desktop into these computers using your personal laptop and you just use our VPN network, but this is awesome to know because you don't have to buy any software out of pocket to do your whole degree. Also we have printers over there as well. An collaborative workspaces. There's also classroom, so one of your classes might even be taught in your building where you live, so that's Super Convenient 'cause you can roll outta bed and show up on time in your pajamas even.
Next up for a living. I'm opportunity as well of place to live in to learn with other engineers is to be a part of our key communities. And so we have key academic specifically focused on engineering and within key were really focused on building up a support network to really support and connect first generation students. Students of color women in engineering because there's double barriers that students are presented with, and the sooner we get connected to campus and build that community of support, the better. And so. Doctor Anthony Marquese leaves up key community.
So not only are you living with other engineers, you also take a seminar class annuar, paired with a mentor. So this is an incredible opportunity and to get connected at a very personal level, I doctor Casey is a first generation college student himself and can really talk through a lot of those challenges that may crop up, especially in that first year and really just be a person to turn to an act and serve as a mentor as well. And it's pretty incredible to have an associate Dean's one of your mentors in your first year at CS go.
So next time I want to talk a little bit more about involvement opportunities and so there's a ton of organizations to get involved in within the College of engineering specifically. First up, I want to talk about our diversity programs in engineering, so our diversity programs in engineering are just incredible. The work that they do, so there's five different organizations that are active across campus right now. That service, specifically engineers and folks in stem, is well, and so these are really active chapters at CSU that also have national organization.
So there really great opportunities to build your network to gain professional development opportunities. Also to get leadership opportunities 'cause a lot of times you can get involved, go to meetings in your first year and maybe by that second year you decide to run as an officer for one of these organizations. And then you're going to build up your resume. You're going to connect to industry leaders as well. Often times are student diversity organizations bring in professionals to talk on a weekly basis, and they do resume workshops, professional development workshops centered around.
Interview skills and really work twords putting together our engineering career fairs is well, which is an incredible opportunity to meet with recruiters that are hiring students for Engineering Internships. Co OPS in jobs. So few of the organizations and they're all listed here and we want to talk a little bit about Nesby. That's our National Society of black engineers, and so each of these organizations, In addition to all the things we've just talked about, also have a component of outreach. So reaching out to the community to make stem.
Iaccessible is well, and that's really important because it's all about I'm lifting the future generation of Engineers and that is something that's really exciting and that we're passionate about at CSU also ship. So this is Society of Hispanic professional engineers, so shift as our resume rush right before the career fair. So this is an incredible way to have your resume review by a professional engineer before you take it and present it to these like 80 different recruiters. Also, there's Austin so out in stem.
We also have a sis which is the American Indian Society of Engineers and scientists, so they put on our powwow every year, and that's part of their fundraisers so that they can go to different conferences as well. 'cause conferences are huge way to network, so our students go to both regional and national conferences as well, and that's a great way to engage with professionals across the industry as well as current students. So you're building really great relationships. Also, it's a way to maybe connect with a mentor as well.
These are regional and National Conference is also usually have some kind of career fair associated with them, so you might even be able to connect an interview for a job whilst you go to one of these conferences and then another organization in the last one will talk about is the Society of women engineers and so this is a really great way to connect an involve yourself and find a community on campus. Go to meetings your first year. Neat students who will help guide you in mentor you as well throughout your studies at CSU.
So I can't encourage you enough to lookout for diversity organizations in engineering. Also, you can look at some of our other clubs in societies that are specific to engineering, so each kind of engineering will have their own American Society. So you have your American Society of civil engineers, your American Society, Mechanical Engineers and so on. So you can definitely join that organization. And again, those are going to provide professional development opportunities and another way to connect with in your field. Find out what best practices look like.
And it's a really great way to also supplement the knowledge that you're learning throughout your academic career as well. So definitely get involved outside of academics. Also, another way to get involved in Star Engineering College Council. There are the folks that help to organize E days, which is where we display all of our senior design projects. Also, we have an active chapter of Engineers Without Borders were called Rams Without Borders, which is really exciting. So tons of really cool projects that go on.
Another way to get involved is thinking about student employment, so there's a ton of jobs within our offices and within the whole college is, well, you can find all of these jobs listed on your ram web account. Go and have a look today. You might be able to submit an application now and look at jobs to start in August event, or maybe for the second semester of your first year. So within the college we hire mentors tutor arres known as residential assistant folks to work on our team. So were part of the outreach and recruitment team.
If you really like engaging with folks and bringing them into engineering, so thinking about all the way from kindergarten to 12th grade maybe become an outreach team member or an ambassador. You can also become a learning assistant known as an LA, so help out in class and help the professor and the TA. You would facilitate things like recitation is well and working within the college is a really great way to embed that knowledge as well. 'cause sometimes teaching somebody else how to do something really advances.
Our understanding of the same information and again get involved in things like research so little bit about our office, so these opportunities may feel like they're hard to connect with. If you ever find it challenging to get connected or involved, come and see us in the engineering success center. So that's where offices typically located. I am right now my Home Office. I'm not there, but we're in the Scott Bio Engineering Building and so we run the diversity student organizations, the engineering residential learning community, the key community.
We also have a bridge program, so this specifically serves students living in the key community or participating in our empower program, which serves under represented students with an engineering, and it's a program where you can move in a week early and establish an networking community on campus. Even before folks start the official semester. We also have all of our career resources out of our office, so if you're thinking, yeah, I want to get involved. I want to go for a research position, but I'm worried that my resume may not be up to par. Come in CSS.
Will review your resume. Will do a mock interview. Also we run the career fairs so we can help connect you to other opportunities outside the College of engineering. We also run those Co op programs like we were talking about earlier where you stop out of school and work full time for an employer and then come back and finish up your degree and internships are another great way to just get involved and get that real world experience. So it's worth noting that nearly 90% of our students have internships in engineering before they graduate and many students have multiple internships throughout their time at CSU.
So one last thing, I kinda wanna wrap up talking about. I'm not necessarily about involvement, but about money, which is super important because all of you right now are in a place where you're taking on your taking on a big, exciting opportunity that also is an investment so.
Going to school? That's a lot of resources that you're looking at when you look at your outgoing. So your time, your enerji your money. I want you to know that this is one of the best investments that you can ever make because you are investing in yourself, your future, and that has impact on your family and your community, which is incredible and working as an engineer. You truly have the capacity to create change which is truly exciting. So we try as best as we can to support and lift up that future generation of Engineers. And that includes scholarships.
So last year we granted 275 scholarships to 1st year and returning undergraduate students and that was a total of 1.2 million dollars or more. And all of these scholarships are accessible through the CSU scholarship application. It's super important that you do this every single year because as you progress through your program, you're going to become more competitive for scholarships every year. It's due on March 1st, so please don't forget that date.
And before we open up for questions, I do want you to know that this whole crew right here in this photo we're here to help you. So this is our outreach and recruitment team. So please come and see us were based in the engineering success center. If you're starting out in that first week and you don't feel like you're connected to any resources or support yet, come and see us. We are always here for you. I want you to know that from the bottom of our hearts. Also, if you don't already follow us on social media, please do so and definitely find us at CSU engineering on Instagram. We feature a lot of current student content so you can get a peek inside the life.
I have an engineering student at CSU. So without further ado, I'm gonna open up for questions. I'm gonna ask everyone on our panel to go ahead and broadcast their videos.
And we'll get started with an introduction.
Yay, this is awesome, great. Well thank you all so much for taking the time to join us on the panel today. So let's start out with some introductions. If you wouldn't mind saying Your Name, Your your your major. Uhm and then maybe talk about your involvement activities. Maybe if you talk about one in the College of engineering and then one outside the College of engineering and then we're gonna go Kylie and none yet. Katyann rap up with Audi A.
So everyone, my name is Kaylee and I'm currently a fourth year studying computer engineering. Uhm, I'm from Honolulu, HI, but right now I'm in Fort Collins.
Something or a couple of involvement that I've been wait that wasn't a sentence. Couple things that I'm involved in within the College of Engineering is that I am one, a student ambassador, but I am also the financial officer for the electrical and computer engineering outreach team, which basically caters towards getting high schoolers in middle schoolers involved in the stem field. And then I'm also president of Pacific club, so that's like my outside of the College of engineering activity and we're working on our luau right now, so that's really fun as well.
Hi everyone, my name is Ananya. I'm going into my 30 or studying chemical and biological engineering and I'm from India, but I'm in California at the moment and some of the activities that are involved in our. Obviously I'm a student ambassador, but other than that I'm also in Rams Without Borders, which is the Engineers Without Borders chapter for CSU, and I'm also a part of a ICT which is the American Institute of chemical engineers. And apart from that just outside of engineering, I like dancing a lot. So I started doing Latin dancing just.
As part of the community in Fort Collins.
Hello everyone, my name is Katie Rodriguez. I'm going into my 4th year in environmental engineering. I also have a minor in International Development. Some of the things that I've been involved with on campus I'm a member of Society of Hispanic professional engineers or ship an which we will talk a little bit about later in depth. Uhm, I have also studied abroad a couple times an outside of engineering. I play lots of intramural sports.
Hi everyone, my name is Claudia Mendez on the outreach and equity coordinator over at the Walter Scott Junior College of engineering. So I am not a student but I've worked over at the college for about six months now, so it's pretty impressive. I recently completed my Masters degree in student affairs in higher education and I graduated with my bachelors from CSU as well.
Yay, awesome, thank you all so much for being here. It's incredible to hear about all the things that you're involved in. I think it's really important to note as engineers you can get involved and it's all about time management and so do you wanna talk a little bit about the reasons why you're involved and how that really supplements your educational experience as well, and maybe offer one tip or trick to incoming students to balancing time? And I'd like to hear from all three students, so we'll go Katie and Anya and Kylie.
OK, that was a lot of questions in one, so I might need you to remind me when I'm halfway through, uhm.
I think my first year I lived in academic village engineering and so there were so many opportunities that presented themselves are always were advertising all these different involvement opportunities. So I really took advantage of that and it was definitely worth it.
They also went from doing a million different things senior year in high school to only doing school my first year. So that was a big change and I found myself kind of like OK like I went to the rec. I've been hanging out with friends like what else should I do? So that's when I started getting more involved with uhm?
I was involved with the slice office. I was apart of leadership exchange program. I represented the College of engineering my very first year and that was a trip down to the total Santos campus in Mexico. We have the CSU Campus, Mexico. If you ever get the chance to visit it, I highly recommend it.
So what was some of your other questions?
How do you think your supplements? Also what you're learning inside of the classroom is well.
Yes, so I'm definitely, um, all the things that I learned with like studying abroad and this leadership exchange program in my internships now.
Um, those life skills are not always things that you were taught like in class or in a textbook, and so that's one really unique thing about our engineering program is we have so many things that really helped build the whole person and not just engineering you. So we come out of our education experience. Very well rounded and that's one thing that industry leaders love about our CSU students is we know how to do more things than.
So the reason I got involved in a lot of the things I chose to get involved in that was really because of goals I'd set for myself, like straight out of high school. So I really didn't know that I wanted to become an engineer before whichever Courier I chose in the future, I did want to make sure that it was something where I could really make an impact, and so that is why I chose engineering and coming in from high school itself. I knew I really wanted to get involved in research, and so my first year itself, I reached out to some professors and I started working.
In research, that's more heavily on the side of biomedical engineering, and that was really helpful for me because I just really wanted to explore what Biomedical Engineering was about and everything that it entails, and so doing research is allowed me to do that, and so I really been able to learn a lot of practical skills and just gain a lot more skills that are useful for internships. And even though those are skills that I would definitely learn through labs at CSU as well, just having extra practice is always a lot more helpful too, so that's been a really great experience.
And other than that I got involved in the American Institute of chemical engineers because it was a great opportunity to be able to network with professionals in the industry. And so, whether that's a project that I needed by San, or if I just want to talk to someone, I find out what skill sets I should learn for the future as well. It's been really helpful for that, and apart from that, the Rams longboarders chapter. So the engineers top order CSU chapter has been really great because we're working on a project where we're really working on making sure that a community BNP Fallon last jobless community and El Salvador has access to clean water.
Because it's also an uphill community and so that ties and a lot of civil and environmental engineering skills, and obviously as chemical and biological engineer, I might not necessarily deal with a lot of those things, but just being able to do that project has allowed me to learn skills from different engineering disciplines and at the same time consider different things that aren't related to engineering as much like socioeconomic impacts or something like that as well. And so it's been a really great way to just diversify my interest to.
So I decided to get involved with Pacific Club, at least because I really missed home and I found that freshman year I went from having like 7 classes and going to school every day of the week from eight to three to kind of having my own schedule and not really knowing how to like structure my time. So I did I join Pacific club solely to kind of.
Find a better schedule for myself and then it sophomore year on opportunity came up to join the electrical and computer engineering outreach team and I was really excited about it. I had noticed that the few times that I've talked to recruiters, they always ask what kind of labs have you done or what projects have you been involved in. Just because there's such a great way to enhance your learning. So I was really excited to join that outreach team because.
At least within the Department of electrical and computer engineering, it's considered a senior design project, but it's for it's catered towards students who are typically like second years or 30 years. So it allows the students who don't have as much fundamental knowledge to hop onto a really big project and continue with it for their years and even choose to do it for their senior design project. If it sounds interesting enough to them. So it's really, it's really awesome opportunity because it gives you.
Um, it it introduces you to a lot of different things that you'll focus on within a project as well as team as well as like being a team member and managing your time and a budget. And all of those kinds of things. so I thought it was a really awesome opportunity. So I was really happy to join.
Awesome, thank you so much for sharing. Uhm, what about time Management? 'cause Engineering is challenging so you're going to have a lot of academic responsibilities. So how do you find time in your schedule to fit in those extracurriculars, even if they're associated with engineering? You know there are outside of your daily class schedule, lab schedule, or homework time. Let's happen, let's hear from and Anya.
What's your number one time management skill?
I really try to make sure that I set aside different times to get all my school work done, or I just try to think about what my priority is in the moment. So if my priorities like going to a club meeting, then I'll definitely do that. And then you know, even if I have less time for work, I'll just make sure I get it done in that time, because at that point, it's the decision that I made, and so I'll stick to it. But I will also say definitely setting aside like a timetable or at least deciding how much time you need for different.
Tasks is also really helpful as well.
Awesome, thank you. Did anyone else gonna happen?
I can jump on that. Um, I would say fine. What time of the day, you, um, function best? Personally for me my brain shuts off at like 5 or 6:00 PM. So I have never pulled an all nighter. I think the latest I've ever stayed up studying or doing homework is probably 10:00 PM. I just don't work start having meltdowns at that hour. It's not good so for me I would much rather wake up at 4:30 in the morning and finish my homework, then stay up late and I'm much more productive in the morning.
So then in the afternoon and evenings I feel like I have a lot more time on my hands than everyone else because I can like go participate in club meetings or Intermural Sports, 'cause they're usually in the afternoons or evenings, whereas all my other friends are still doing homework. So I feel like I have a lot more time, but definitely whatever time you function best like, capitalize on that.
That is awesome advice. Katie and I are very similar. I could have for very often to do my work.
Talk to you a little bit more about our diversity organizations within engineering. So would you like to go a little bit more in depth and also connect students on how to get involved and how to research those organizations now, even before the fall semester kicks off?
Yeah, of course. So we have five active organizations under diversity programs for engineering, and so we have nesby which is the National Society of Black Engineers us. We which is the Society of women engineers. Asus, which is our American Indian Science and Engineering Society ship which we talked about a little bit which is our Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
Ano stem, which is out in stem, and so the diversity programs for engineering the biggest way in which you can find them is we do host them on our website. So if you are interested in learning more about what they do, the officers, you can go ahead and connect via our website and I can go ahead and include the link on our chat here after I'm done talking over them. But as Jackie mentioned, there were really good opportunity to get involved and so a lot of these organizations do outreach work within our local community, and so it's engaging with middle.
Jacqueline Goldring
03:43:03 PM
You can find more information about the Diversity Programs in Engineering online, https://www.engr.colostate.edu/engineering-success-center/
School in high school age students to kind of like show what engineers really do, and that's a really cool opportunity if that's something that you're interested in doing. Also, a really big theme for a lot of our organizations is professional development, and so a lot of our organizations do attend their national conferences.
And they go to fairs. They connect with industry partners. And as Jackie mentioned, a lot of them do receive internships or even career opportunities after graduation. And so it's really a great way to connect with people in the field that our national and so that's a really cool aspect of joining RDP organizations. Also mentioning that one of the things that are organizations do focus on is community building. And so we recognize that when you first come to CSU, there might be some challenges along the way.
And so joining some of these organizations it doesn't necessarily have to be DP, it can be other organizations within the College of Engineering is a really great opportunities to start building that community and getting to know folks that are also going to be your potential colleagues in the field once you graduate.
That's awesome, thank you, Claudia. I think community is key right? Because not only are you going into a challenging academic program like it's a huge transition in that first year to college is well and really finding a sense of connectedness is important because these are folks like you will walk into Scott Bio Engineering Building or the engineering building or academic village and you will see people studying together. Really engineering is a team sport and the sooner that you find community and that since the connectedness, the better that you're going to do. Because I really think it is.
Here is that really uplifting support each other and not just at their time like at CSU, but beyond you all like cloudy is that these are your future colleagues as well. Y'all are gonna be the ones change in the world. So like get started now which is awesome. And then I dropped the link like audio is mentioning to the diversity organization. So if you want to read up on each of them has their own website as well. I'm just working mentioning that the officer roles haven't been updated just yet but will do that before the fall semester kicks off. But you can always outreach to us if you want to get connected to any organizations right now.
And then I'm Katie. Do you wanna talk a little bit more about ship? I was really excited to hear more, especially about like resume. Rush is so cool and then some of the other community events that you all work on throughout the year.
Yes, so one of our biggest events every semester is resume. Rush that, um, the week of career fair. We have industry leaders come out and review your resumes. This past semester was our most successful one yet we had every single spot filled up. These slots were high in demand for our students to have their resumes looked at by industry leaders. So it's really exciting, fast paced day every week in this past spring semester we also had industry leaders come and speak at our meetings.
And they're giving us all the tips and tricks of what it takes to like land, an interview with them and make yourself stand out. And we have a lot of corporate sponsors that look specifically for people who are involved with ship, and they'll kind of pull them right up to the top of their list sometimes. So that's really nice, um, but we have so many events. We also have things like no traditions, yes, which is an outreach program we host in the spring and.
We put on, um, a night of like engineering and learning for middle schoolers. Uhm, so we have quite a few different outreach programs within ship and lots of clear and professional development. So that's really nice.
Great, thank you so much for sharing Katie and so I want to talk a little bit about living on campus 'cause we talked about the importance of community so I kinda wanna hear from each of you about where you lived on campus and what that experience was like for you. And maybe some advice for incoming first year students about where where to live. Also I forgot to mention this earlier though, but over an academic village you don't have to live in the engineering residential learning community to access all of those resources. So as an engineer you're still going to have access to that whole space with computer labs and printers and.
Classrooms with your key card, so that's worth mentioning. You can still go to all the tutoring as well, so there's not any pressure to live in the residential learning community, but it is an opportunity, so I want to hear from each of the students about their first year living experience as well. And let's go Kylie and Anya and then Katie to wrap up on living.
Sure, so I lived in Allison Hall my freshman year, and that's definitely not in academic village. Allison Hall is a communal style residence Hall that's kind of actually in the middle of both engineering buildings on campus. It was pretty convenient, but I chose to live there specifically because it was closer to the engineering buildings and I was kind of looking to branch out from engineering. I figured that a lot of the classes that.
That I was going to take my freshman year.
I would kind of be surrounded by most stem majors if not engineering majors. Just because you have to take your math class and your general computer science class for me and your general electrical engineering class. So I kind of wanted that break from engineering every day. And so I decided to live in Allison Hall because I kind of thought of it as once I went home, I was able to take a break from engineering and go to sleep for the night. That was kind of my approach to the idea, but like Jackie said, I still had access to that first floor of engineering, so I definitely found myself.
At the engineering residence Hall, probably.
Four days a week I would say, uhm, they have tutoring in the first floor of the engineering building. Every night is a different major, so I would be there on Wednesday nights, which was really awesome an A lot of my friends did live in academic village, either in the engineering building or an honors, so it was convenient for all of us to go there to the study space on a weekend or something like that.
Yeah, that was my experience. I really loved living in Allison. It also just kind of. Depends on what your preferences are. Because Allison has a communal style which is like where everyone on the floor shares that shares a bathroom and the engineering residence halls like super nice and you actually get a see you actually have your own bathroom so it just depends for everyone.
Yeah, I uhm had different approach to clinics in the sense because I knew that I'd have a lot of my classes with engineers. I did want to live with engineers just because I felt like it would be easier to build a sense of community. And then I knew that if I ever needed help with any of my engineering homework or anything like that, I always have people around me like I would just go to my neighbors door and knock on it. And then we could work on something together and so that was really convenient. I will say I loved living in the engineering building in academic village.
And one of the main reasons why was that academic college tutoring resource on the 1st floor and that was really helpful because they did chemical and biological engineering tutoring on Sundays. And since my roommate will also doing the same majors, I was, we both would just go down every Sunday and get all of our matlab homework done for the week, which is just a really convenient way for us not to have to worry about that homework throughout the week. And so in that kind of way I will say it was definitely very convenient. But for someone looking to live on campus and just going through.
All the living like options you can really ask an engineer. You'd still be able to access all those resources in the engineering building either way. And so as Kylie was mentioning, it really does come down to what you're looking for. Maybe consider like how far away your classes are going to be from where where you're living. If you already know someone on campus like coming into CSU already, like maybe look at where they are looking to live at 7 so you know someone else around as well. Maybe you could look at where the dining halls are. Biggest food is definitely want to.
My favorite things on campus and so. Just try to consider what like your priorities are in terms of living and like financially at anything of that sort and then see what the best option it looks like for you, because no matter where you live, you'll still be able to build that sense of community.
Like a non yeah, I also wanted to live with engineers and I lived in academic village engineering. I absolutely loved it. I met some of my best friends in that whole that I still talk to every day. I found that I also like Kylie, sometimes wanted to break from engineering. So that's when I dove in within a real sports and I got involved with the slice office which is student leadership.
Involvement, community engagement. I think very long acronym we love are acronyms. Here you will find out, um so I got involved with a lot of non engineering activities because I was highly said it can be a lot living with engineers and also in all of our engineering classes. However I would not have done it any other way. I think it was perfect. It was so convenient like and Anya said walking next door and being able to ask for help on math homework instead of.
To a different dorm for tutoring or the till building. So I love my experience in academic village.
Thank you all for sharing and it's great to hear that you're still in contact with all those folks that you met in that first year as well. 'cause it truly is a time to build the community, solidify friendships because those are the things that you're gonna remember is well. When it comes time to graduate and walk across that stage, it's gonna be your whole college experience that you cherish, not just the time you spent in lab or you went to this class or built this project. It's those friends that you're going to have for a lifetime, so those are really important. Relationships are really critical to really succeeding as well on.
At University, 'cause you're gonna need to lean on each other and you're going to need to be there for each other as well. Um County, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about working on campus. I know that you had an awesome job during your undergraduate studies, and so we talk about student employment is a great way to get involved and get paid.
Yeah, of course a man, so speaking particularly on my personal experience with working on campus. Uhm, I held a job with ram events, which is our stream programming board on campus actually worked with him for three years, which was really exciting and the really cool part about a lot of our employment opportunities on campus is that they're not limited to a single major, so you could be working towards an engineering degree, but also participate in ram events or.
You could work for the slice office and so it's a really good opportunity to get involved if you want to branch outside of engineering.
Jacqueline Goldring
03:54:13 PM
If you have questions please feel free to email me at jacqui.goldring@colostate.edu. :)
So with the student programming board on campus, I was able to coordinate a lot of our guest speakers. I was the liaison to El Centro, which works a lot with our Latin ex student populations, and so I was able to coordinate and you contract ING with talent and bringing guests for our says that Chavez Awareness Week and so it was just a really good opportunity for me to get involved, and particularly with the position that I work with in now within the college, I do oversee outreach team and so outreach is a really big.
Important part of the work that we do through the Engineering Success Center, we want to make sure that we not ultimately build community at CSU between each other. But we're also building community outside with the city of Fort Collins as well as other local communities within Northern Colorado. And so we get a lot of asks from schools around the district to participate in fairs or facilitate activities. And so if you all are interested, you can participate in our outreach team, which is a group of paid students.
That go out and do these activities, informed those connections with students. A lot of the time we find that school districts are looking for mentor ship and so it's a really good mentor ship opportunity. If that's something that you want to do and get involved in that something that we run throughout the course of the academic year, an sometimes we do get some more opportunities as well.
Thank you so much for sharing cloud Yeah Alright, so we're getting close on time here so I think there's a few things really just important to wrap up is just to know that there's community, there's opportunities for engagement all around you, and if you ever feel like you don't know how to access that or how to connect, or even what questions to ask, please, no, we're all here for you. I went ahead and I drop my email into the chat box. There you can follow up any time I'm at I can connect you with our students as well.
Wanna chat more with them? 1 one and then as we start to wrap up I wanna think about insights in a device that you all have your going into. Some of your Kylie and Katie your last years and Anya going into your third year. You'll have your experts now right? Like you know what you're doing? What do you wish you had known or wish someone had told you before you started at CSU an I wanna hear from cloudy as well and so let's go Kylie and Anya Katie and wrap up with Klaudia.
Claudia Hernandez
03:56:38 PM
If you have questions about involvement or outreach please reach out to me at claudia.hernandez@colostate.edu.
Something or a piece of advice that I would offer students is probably just to know that it's OK to fail. I say it quite often, but like when I first came into college, coming from high school I saw direct reward for any effort that I put in, right? So I studied for a test and I got a good grade and in college it was really hard because it was a hard transition into your first year of college and so the first Test I took. I think I was really disappointed because I studied and I thought I was going to do well. And then I got to the test.
And I took the test and I felt really down because I knew I got a bad grade. The bad grade wasn't F. It was really bad, great.
It was hard for me to kind of pick up myself and get that self-esteem backup but I'd like to tell students that now that is OK to fail because college is hard and engineering is hard transition is hard but know that like as Jackie said there are different types of ways on campus to help you in that in that sense so if you need more help academically go to your TA or go to your professor at their office hours or get tutoring or if you need help transitioning coming from what you.
And not knowing what you're doing on the mainland, go to, go to the alessian, go find help, which is one of the reasons why I found Pacific Club as well. So that's my pizza quest.
I would say don't be afraid to reach out and just like whatever you set your mind to, just believe that you truly can accomplish it and really work towards it. Whether that's getting involved, you know your first year is really the time to get involved in a lot of activities and see what you like and don't like because then going on in your engineering career, you're just gonna keep getting busier. And so the first year is really the time to explore. And then on the other hand, in terms of reaching out I would also say definitely like go to office hours or just reach out to professors or teaching assistants or anything like that. If you ever have any.
Questions I remember. I think my first year I was really hesitant to ask questions at first because I just had like small questions and I wasn't sure if I should go to professors office hours for that because it was like a 32nd question and I was like, Oh, you know, I don't know if it's worth it, but what I found is even if you go for just a minute, the professor is really there to help you. And so whether that's professor teaching assistant, they will be resources for you. Really, get all your questions answered and so just don't be afraid to reach out and just speak up whenever you have like it out.
My biggest piece of advice is I would say really find what motivates you. Like highly said after bad test it can be easy to kind of be down in the dumps and stay there for awhile until you bounce back, but sometimes the next test isn't for a few weeks. If we don't have time for that. So definitely find what motivates you. Engineering can be hard, but it is so worth it. Like Nanya said, um, most of us are in engineering because we want to impact the world in a positive way.
So definitely find what keeps you motivated and driven. An find like minded students that also may be going for the same causes. View an really you know, find your community and stay motivated.
I think for me a big one is don't be afraid to get involved. They are. There are so many opportunities to get involved at CSU and you can always try something out and decide you don't like it later. Um, also a lot of our meeting specifically at DP will feed you so you will find that there's a lot of opportunity for food if that's something that you want to do. Whether it's in dpe or you know around campus, but make sure to get your moneys worth. You know you are here to have a really great opportunity.
And you should take advantage of it.
I love that. Thank you all so much for sharing your insights and perspectives. and I will share with you the one thing I wish I had known was about our counseling. So mental health is really important and so see if you were really lucky to have our CSU Health Network, a man with your student fees that covers 5 counseling sessions for you. I'm in the semester and so you can go and seek. You know somebody has to up to which is really, really important. I'm suggest now that there are always resources and to look after yourself. Do some self care, look after your.
Physical and mental, an emotional well being because you all are truly changing the world and that's not easy. So we commend you all with that. I want to say a huge thank you to our panelists or thank you for joining us today. And as we wrap up, I want to remind all of you incoming students that we are here for you. Please do reach out. There's anything that we can do to help and I hope the rest of this afternoon you have some time to care for yourself. Truly look after yourself. Look after your loved ones. Look after your community and we're excited to see you in fall.