My second year of college was full of change and figuring out what I want to do. Over the summer, before entering my second year, I spent three months in Spain as an au-pair for two girls. Although watching children and helping them improve their English doesn’t directly help me grow in my academic or professional careers, it really changed my overall perspective on the world and helped me learn more about myself. I had to become more independent than ever before since I was often traveling alone, and I had to figure out how to solve problems and adjust to a completely new culture and life. On top of that, I was living in a country where I didn’t speak the language and living with a family who was not always easy to communicate with due to the language barrier. I realized that the skills I gained from adapting to all the changes in Spain can help me in my professional career and has become my favorite thing to talk about in job interviews.
During the fall, I began to get into my mechanical engineering classes and continued my job search for a co-op. I landed an interview with GE Aviation at the career fair and was offered a co-op position for the spring. My co-op was up in Evendale where I worked on signal transmission instrumentation for engine tests. I was able to learn how engineering teams operate and go through the design process. I worked a lot on modeling parts in NX and creating procedures for installing instrumentation. A little over halfway into my co-op rotation, I started working remotely due to COVID-19. It was interesting to see how the company had to adjust to the unprecedented situation. Since I was working in the aviation industry, the company was really struggling from the pandemic and it was upsetting to see my co-workers stressed about losing their jobs due to a reduction in the labor force. At the end of my co-op I found out that GE would not be hiring co-ops back for the fall, so I had to begin my search for a co-op again. At the beginning of the summer, I was contacted by L3 about an open co-op position. After a phone interview, I accepted a position with them for the fall.
I have made a few adjustments to my academic path over the past year as well. During the spring, I had come to realize that I was interested in taking computer science classes, so after working with my advisor, I decided to add a minor in computer science. I am now taking my first computer science class over the summer and learning C++, but I’m not yet sure whether I will try to pivot my career path to reflect this interest more in the future.
During the fall, I began to get into my mechanical engineering classes and continued my job search for a co-op. I landed an interview with GE Aviation at the career fair and was offered a co-op position for the spring. My co-op was up in Evendale where I worked on signal transmission instrumentation for engine tests. I was able to learn how engineering teams operate and go through the design process. I worked a lot on modeling parts in NX and creating procedures for installing instrumentation. A little over halfway into my co-op rotation, I started working remotely due to COVID-19. It was interesting to see how the company had to adjust to the unprecedented situation. Since I was working in the aviation industry, the company was really struggling from the pandemic and it was upsetting to see my co-workers stressed about losing their jobs due to a reduction in the labor force. At the end of my co-op I found out that GE would not be hiring co-ops back for the fall, so I had to begin my search for a co-op again. At the beginning of the summer, I was contacted by L3 about an open co-op position. After a phone interview, I accepted a position with them for the fall.
I have made a few adjustments to my academic path over the past year as well. During the spring, I had come to realize that I was interested in taking computer science classes, so after working with my advisor, I decided to add a minor in computer science. I am now taking my first computer science class over the summer and learning C++, but I’m not yet sure whether I will try to pivot my career path to reflect this interest more in the future.
