The scholar Alumni who I interviewed was an Environmental Engineer named Brittnee Halpin. After graduating from OSU, she worked for a couple years and is currently in graduate school at Colorado School of Mines. In the interview, we covered what she did in her time at OSU, as well as what she does now and tips for surviving in the professional world. When talking about her time at OSU we went over topics like the ENR scholars program, classes, internships and extra curricular activities. She told me that what she remembers most from ENR scholars is the people, she made so many friends in the scholars program, still talking to some today. She even married someone she met in ENR scholars. The classes she took were mostly tied to her major, so mostly science and math courses. She took some fun classes too, an example being theatre. She also took a lot of psychology classes, some of which helped her wither career. She also had a minor in international relations, this gave her the opportunity to go to chile. She was in 2 internships during her undergraduate career. Her first internship was with Ohio UPA. Her second internship was at a consulting firm. There she did big projects and later got a job. As for extra curricular activities, she did not take part in many clubs, only the club engineering without borders. There she explored the world of engineering and even went to El Slavador. After graduation, Brittnee continued to work at a consulting firm. There she picked up valuable lessons for how to conduct yourself and navigate in the professional world. One of the biggest lessons she learned is to advocate for yourself. You are your own biggest advocate, if you want something you have to go get it. Some other advice she gave me is to take care of my mental health. Mental health is the most important thing you need in the professional career. People rely on you and trust you to do your job, if you have a poor mental health then how can you be efficient. Lastly she gave me tips and advice for interviews. She told me to make sure my personality shines through because they want to hire a colleague. It is important that they hire you for you, not for what you pretend to be. Also an interview is a 2 way street, so you must also ask them questions to make sure this company is the right fit for you. It is important to know what the company’s morals and goals are, as well as know you can be yourself with the company. This interview was very helpful to me, giving me inspiration and advice on what to do during my time in and out of college.
