4 years ago, I remember my 3 cousins, who are my age or younger, and I not believing my older cousin, who had just started college, how college took up most of his time and could not play on the PS4 with us. But, now that I am in college I can see how it is true, how college takes up most of my time, and how I have so little time to do things I would spend most of my free time doing.

As the semester went through I realized I cannot just go to lecture and take tests like I did in high school. I need to go to lecture, do homework, do extra practice problems, and go to the tutoring room in order to do decently well in a test. The only way to get good grades is to spend much time studying and ask for help when something does not make sense.

Being part of a college organization or a club or simply having different groups of people to hang out with makes college much more enjoyable and fun. Having a group of people with which you can study, chat, eat, party is such an essential part of college and life, that, I do not think I would be able to go though college without those groups of people.

I am member of SHPE, PREFACE, LSAMP, and STEM Scholars. And these four groups have given me many opportunities to help me success in college, from advice, to extra academic help, to networking opportunities, to social events, that make me who I am today.

DNA Origami Example found in DNA Origami Machines and Mechanisms (DOMM) OSU page

About a month and half ago, Dr. Carlos Castro came to my ENGR 1196 MEP Seminar to talk to the class really quick. After this first visit, I was really interested in Dr. Castro’s research since he mentioned how important nanotechnology was. I did some research and emailed him to see if we could talk more about his research, college experience, and life. Before we could meet, he came to my MEP Seminar to give a presentation on Tuesday, October 30th.

Dr. Carlos Castro has a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, however, he is doing research in DNA Origami and has been for the past few years. After the presentation, he offered to give us a tour around his lab. A group of 9 people including me went to his lab and his assistant showed us what they do and how they do it. All his research team is formed by graduate and undergraduate students.

Then, on Friday, November 2nd I met with him at his office. We had a long talk mainly about his research and his college experience at OSU and during PREFACE, The Pre First-Year Academic and Career Engagement Program. I also asked about how I could get more involved in his research since, nanotechnology is so fascinating to me. He told me about a project competition that might happen during spring semester and how I can get involved with his actual researching team during the next fall semester.

Something I was pleasantly surprised about myself is that I was able to keep up the conversation without there being any awkward moments. It is not that I am horrible at talking to people, but sometimes it is hard to keep a conversation with a person I have just met.

I will keep in touch with Dr. Carlos Castro in the future in case new opportunities pop up and to see if I am able to possibly join his research team next fall semester.

Photo with Chad and Madeline from Marathon Petroleum Corporation

The Engineering Expo at the Ohio State University took place in on the 25th and 26th of September. It was an engineering students-exclusive career fair where only companies offering engineering positions attended.

I attended a summer engineering program for minorities called PREFACE. During the program it was heavily expressed the importance of career fairs since students are able to get internships and co-ops through them. In order to prepare for the career fair, I attended several resume and elevator pitch workshops. I felt like I needed to get an internship because of how much I was told internships matter resulting in me going to these workshops and getting advice from to several people.

During the Engineering Expo I talked to seven different companies. 4 out of seven told me that they were not hiring freshman or Industrial Engineers. I was underwhelming seeing people having long conversations with recruiters  and laughing, while I was having 5 minutes conversations. By the time I talked to the sixth company I wanted to leave. I already had talked to all the companies I wanted to, so it did not matter if I stayed or not. But I decided to do research in one more company and go back in. I did. It actually went really well, the recruiter took my resume, wrote notes on it, and said they will consider me.

I do not think I will get an internship from this career fair. However, all the time I spent preparing for this event will help me during the spring career fair.  

During the whole process I surely felt outside my comfort zone, however, once at the career fair, I turned all the nervousness I felt into excitement. My first conversation was decent and not as bad as I though I would be. I believe that if I tell myself something many times I will start to believe. So if I told myself how nervous I was and I was not going to be able to do it. I was going to have a mediocre experience.

One thing I plan to do for future career fairs is to try and have a casual but job-related conversation with the recruiters. I saw many people doing this and their conversation would go on for more than 10 minutes. I was only following my elevator pitch, but once that was over, if the conversation even lasted that long. I did not have much to say. I do not know if all the engineering freshman went to the career fair. I think the fact that, I attended the career fair puts me ahead of those who did not, since, I know what to expect out of it.  

Even though I felt underwhelmed during the career fair, it makes me feel even more excited about the next one. I know what to work on and what to do differently to maybe get an internship next summer.