My name is Gabriela Avila, and I am a first year student from St. Louis, Missouri, who is majoring in Mechanical Engineering at The Ohio State University. I am a Morrill Scholar, and a member of the Green Engineering Scholars Program. Being a young person with quite diverse interests, my plans for my academic and professional future are a bit out of the ordinary for an engineering student. Once I earn my degree in Engineering, I hope to go on to graduate school. Depending on the direction which I choose for myself, I would like to pursue a master’s degree in either Professional Writing, and to go on to work as a technical writer, or to enter a program for Prosthetics and Orthotics, and to work in a clinical setting building custom prosthetics for pediatric patients. While I love the mechanics and the skills which are associated with engineering, I also have a deep interest in the human element which is not always talked about in this field. Therefore, in whatever I may do in my future endeavors, I hope to use my verbal and people-oriented skills to work to connect the engineering world with the outside.