Year 4 Review

        Throughout my life, I have always been a planner. From mapping out the classes I would take years in advance starting in middle school to keeping highly organized physical and electronic calendars to coordinating various extra-curricular activities and more, I have done my best to anticipate challenges and keep a plan. However, this year has taught me to expect the unexpected, embrace change, and live in the moment.

        In multiple settings, I was given the opportunity to step into unexpected mentorship and leadership roles. I had little experience taking on these types of roles before college, as I saw myself more as someone who enjoyed being technically deep in whatever I pursued instead of managing others. Throughout college, I had slowly taken on more responsibilities in clubs, but had never fully embraced the idea of mentoring others and chose to stick to my plan of individual achievement. My co-op employer had me retake the Clifton Strengths assessment recently, which revealed my top strength was Developer. This is a relationship-building theme that is associated with teaching, mentoring, and helping others reach their full potential. Initially, this surprised me greatly and I wished to ignore this strength so I could stick to my normal functioning. However, as multiple leadership and mentorship opportunities were presented to me, I made the choice to take a leap of faith and give it a shot. I experienced the joy of intentionally cultivating relationships in this capacity and grew in my confidence to take on these roles. I am currently mentoring several individuals at work and in student clubs, and I have found mentors to pour into me. I am learning how to best engage with my strengths to grow myself and those around me.

        Additionally, I have spent the past year completing my Master of Engineering capstone project. My original plan involved completing a mechanical engineering internship to leverage as my capstone. However, a classmate and I were presented with an opportunity to complete a project for one of our professor’s labs instead. While the proposed project sounded extremely interesting, it also seemed daunting as it required knowledge and skills outside of my wheelhouse and did not fit the type of capstone I had originally envisioned. After much consideration, my classmate and I decided to tackle this project. This process has been an exceedingly rewarding experience, pushing me to grow in my technical and collaborative skills. This spring, we were able to deliver a finished product to our professor that we were proud to show.

        One other notable experience this year was accepting an 8-month systems engineering position at STERIS. My co-op journey had been full of twists and turns, involving positions at three companies in three diverse roles. This greatly contradicted my initial plans of settling down at a company for several rotations and identifying a type of engineering role in which I could grow deep. Accepting this extended co-op position in a fourth company in a fourth role continued the trend, which made me nervous but was one of the best decisions I made. I have greatly enjoyed my time as STERIS so far, and I look forward to finishing out the position this summer. I have grown tremendously in many technical and soft skills, and I have found a new role that I am interested in pursuing in my future career.

        When beginning in UHP, my idea of a global citizen scholar was “someone who uses their education, skills, knowledge, and life circumstances for positive impact with both local and global perspective.” While this remains my personal definition of a global citizen scholar, I have grown to learn the importance of quickly adapting to our ever-changing world to continuously make a difference. If we try to adhere to our seemingly “perfect” plans, we will miss the life waiting for us.