Before my first year at The Ohio State University started, I was in PREFACE, or Pre First-Year Academic and Career Engagement Program. The program went on for the duration of a month from the end of June to the beginning of July. It covered multiple first year typical engineering courses, such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, english, and engineering graphics. The courses prepared me for the rigor of the engineering program at The Ohio State. They were structured very similarly to their counterparts offered by the college of engineering in that they had midterms, finals, projects, essays, and lab reports. The level of difficulty in each course was tantamount as well. Due to the course offered in PREFACE I was able to pre-set a study schedule and figure out what worked best for me in terms of studying in general, sleeping habits, and amount time set aside for decompressing. The transition from high school in Missouri City, TX to college in Columbus, OH was made that much easier because I knew the general vicinity of where all my classes would be, what to expect in terms of assignments and exams, as well as gaining an established support system in the college of engineering.

Besides the academic rewards to PREFACE, the program exposed me to a multitude of engineering professions and resources that are available to help me reach my career goals. During PREFACE each weekend was a new and educational experience. Places like the Football Hall of Fame, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and Tecumseh emphasized the importance of being the representation for future generations. Places like Marathon and General Electric Aviation provided access to how engineering fields translate to industry. The program clarified a lot in terms of my own self-significance as an aspiring minority in engineering and whether or not I could see myself as an engineer.

The Center of Science and Industry, or COSI, is one of Columbus, Ohio’s many organizations dedicated to increasing interest and excitement in comprehending science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts. To help achieve their mission, COSI offers the opportunity to volunteer as a teacher. Volunteering as a teacher entails demonstrating experiments such as The Science of Spin Gyro Wheel Floor Vehicle, Gumdrops, and Air Pressure Stool to explain concepts like inertia, flavor versus taste, and vacuums respectively. During my volunteer shift, I moved throughout COSI with the goal of further enthralling the kids visiting the museum with a more personal approach to the many concepts COSI exhibits.

Volunteering for COSI taught me as well. The understanding that I had to capture the kids attention immediately and hold it long enough to explain the entire concept while doing the experiment drew me to a realization. I realized that the reason for the lack of interest in pursuing STEM careers is due to the disconnect between those that teach it and those that understand it. For example, while teaching The Science of Spin Gyro Wheel Floor Vehicle I struggled to explain individual concepts like a gyroscope without quoting Newton’s laws of motion outright. It is a habit of mine to place everything in terms of math and let the resulting figures explain the concept. However, most of the kids I talked to had never seen the math, never mind applied the math to solve problems. Therefore, I was at a loss with how to truly be informative in a way that they would be able to build upon later down the road. It was watching other, slightly older kids in the groups I taught describe the experiments to the younger kids that emphasized the disconnect I was unknowingly a part of. From then on, to remove the learning barrier I had the kids tell me their initial observations and I acted more as support than a teacher so that they set the pace and the depth for their learning experience.