I had the chance to interview my graduate TA Renan Carvalho. When I asked him if he started in his given major, Electrical and Computer Engineering, he said he had always been in it but he also looked around at other majors to make sure that he made the correct choice for his interests. The next question I asked him was when he decided on Electrical and Computer Engineering and he said that he had a gut feeling in high school that he would enjoy working with electric hardware. He later said that his gut feeling was spot on. Next, I asked him about his favorite class outside of electrical engineering. He said that it was geog 3900 which he said was a course that focused on climate change. Then I asked him what his favorite course was in his major and he said it was ECE 5021 which he said was hardware IC’s which was beyond my knowledge of electrical circuits. He then said that he was very confident that he made the right choice in major because as he told me, he is graduating from grad school this winter and has a job lined up in San Diego, California. Lastly, I asked him about the staff that helped guide him toward his success and he said that they were always easily accessible and they were in general very involved with student life.

I interviewed Renan because he was my GTA for fundamentals of engineering lab. I chose to interview him because he has over 7 years knowledge of his major and I knew he would be very willing to take time to speak with me. This interview has not influenced my decision much at all, in fact the way he talked about the major is making me even more excited to take some of the upper level courses that are ahead of me. I did not learn anything unexpected from Renan other then the things he has taught me throughout the year. Although, Renan kept reminding me to study hard and always keep the end goal in sight. One thing that I still need to learn about this major is the career I want to seek after graduation. The major exploration tool that I used the most throughout the semester was the bingo sheet for each major with a list of all of the classes that I would have to take in order to graduate. I feel that the bingo sheet gave me a reality check for the dedication that is needed to graduate.

I look forward to majoring in Biomedical engineering and Pre-medicine. So that I can become a doctor, at this point I do not know what type of doctor I want to be but I am currently leaning toward oncology. This is because I value helping others and want to see someone become healthy again because of me. Some of my educational interests include anatomy and physiology, math, and chemistry. This career would allow me to pursue my passion of helping others and fulfill my goals and values as a person.