Whole Life of a Future Engineer

Passion
Throughout my life I have been determined to become an astronaut, a firefighter, pilot
and many other out of the ordinary careers. I have always been very good at math and I would
always hear my teachers and patents tell me Im destined to be an architect or some kind of
engineer and they were actually correct. Towards the end of my high school career I began to
settle down on becoming an engineer. I became obsessed with my creativity and imagination I
knew that would be a real asset if I was an engineer and pursuing an engineering career became
my dream.
What exactly in an engineer? I have always told people ill become one, before I even
knew what that meant. I didnt really know one hundred percent what engineers would do, or what
I would be doing. All I knew was engineers are astounding and they get paid to make things that
make the world a better place. My freshman year in high school I took a drafting class which I
found very interesting. I then went on to take drafting two, my teachers name was Mr. Gayler
who was my favorite teacher and this was by far my favorite class I took in high school. Mr.
Gayler told me I had an extraordinary imagination for problem solving and mad drawing skills.
My senior year of high school I took a introduction to engineering class again with Mr. Gayler and
ended up loving that class so much that I was determined that a career in engineering is definitely
a path that is destined for me.
My senior year in high school I was taking a writing course after school at CPCC. My
instructor, Jamie was a really inspirational person in my life even though she was just my writing
instructor. One of the assignments for that course was to write a research paper on something
that you are interested. Something like a sport, career or hobby that you want to learn about and I
chose to research and write about engineering. When Jamie saw my first draft she gave me
some very interesting feedback. She told me that Im creative and well organized based on the
way that I do my research, she went on to encourage me to pursue an engineering career and
that I would one day become a great engineer. This was perhaps one of the most inspirational
things anyone has told me about a career and hearing that just added more fuel to my desire.
A little under a year ago I got promoted to a management position at the restaurant I work
at. I experienced a paradigm shift when I got this promotion. Although I worked at a restaurant,
which has nothing to do with, engineering or math or design but this change allowed me to see
something very important. I noticed some of my skills that I have never knew that I possessed. I
noticed that I had strong leadership and a gift when it came to problem solving. These two skills
alone I consider to be perhaps two of the most valuable and useful skills in any career and any
position in society.
Most descriptions of an engineering career include something like solve problems or
innovate something, in general just a career that focuses on making the world a better place.
Whether its inventing some kind of new technology that will revolutionize the world or something
that will improve an already excising item. According to Robert Near An engineer uses math and
science to invent new solutions to old problems. (Near). Engineers have a specific set of skills
that they use to collaborate with other engineers to make the world a better place. Engineers are
some of the most creative and brilliant thinkers in the work force. My passion to use my
imagination and creativity to work on projects that will help solve problems in society and make
life easier is what drove me to pursue a career in engineering.
There is no career as out of the ordinary and as fascinating to me then engineering. My
imagination, creativity and problem solving combined with the passion to make a difference in
society is what I want to invest my life in. No matter what discipline of engineering I will end up in
or what company I will be working for Im certain that the work ill be doing will use my skills and
knowledge to solve problems and improve the world we live in.
Impact
Throughout history science has accomplished many things that nobody thought would
ever be accomplished. Nobody thought that we would be able to make something like a
helicopter or a spaceship but through science and through hard work of engineers and scientists
something that once was impossible is now possible. With the appropriate knowledge and
passion for something anything can be accomplished with the application of science, research
and innovation. Everyday there are engineers working to create alternative means of producing
energy, developing more efficient ways to use the earths resources and properly disposing waste
products and unwanted materials that pose a threat to the safety of the planet.
The burning of fossil fuels are dangerous and harmful means of producing energy. There
are plenty of alternative ways that energy can be produced, but these methods are not very cost
effective or efficient. At the rate that we are going now we will run out of fossil fuels in a few
decades and a major issue that faces the world is an energy crisis. With the burning of fossil fuels
and the affects it has on the environment it has caused a lot of alarming incentives and a lot of
actions that are focused on finding and replacing the current means of producing energy.
Solar energy is a very popular alternative method to produce energy. Taking the
tremendous energy given off by the sun and transferring it into usable energy is an alternative
and safer way to produce energy. I have done a lot of research on solar energy and there are a
lot of ways in which solar energy is a huge break through to produce clean energy that is safe to
use and comes in an unlimited supply. The only bad thing is solar energy is very expensive.
Making solar panels and installing them into households that use nuclear or other current means
of obtaining energy is very expensive. Coal and other nuclear material have been used to
produce energy for years and there are thousands of people working on making it as effective as
possible.
My passion for making the world a better place could start with improving solar energy or
just working on projects that will aid the production of energy by follies fuels and make the
production safer and more effective. There are many ways that energy can be harvested and I
believe that it is just a matter of time when we discover a new way to produce energy weather its
using fossil fuels or using the sun there are better ways to utilize the resources available to us to
provide the planet with the necessary energy without putting the health of the people or the planet
at risk.
Humans have a lot of resources that the earth has given them. However these resources
can be either exploited or used wisely. There are many ways in which these resources are not
used to their complete potential and I believe that through research and development these
resources can be used to their maximum potential and could have great benefit for the planet and
for the people living on it. Some of the resources available to us are limited, such as fuel and
developing vehicles that are more fuel efficient is very important to make the resource last. Many
conflicts are started because of things such as territory or fuel or power and all these conflicts can
be resolved with the proper initiative. Cars can get up to five times power out of the fuel they
consume than they would a few years ago. Innovation has taken transportation and the use of
fuel into a whole other direction and the use of it has become much more efficient. I believe that
there is always room to improve no matter if it comes to education or innovation. Things can
always be more efficient and that is what I would love to do with my career.
The humans are very messy creatures and together we produce tremendous amounts of
waste and byproduct that is harmful for the environment. There are constant efforts to reduce
these negative affects but its a work in progress. (Nichols). Waste management is a whole
separate industry and there are millions of tons of waste that poses a threat to the environment.
Dangerous chemicals are being dumped into lakes and streams. Waste products are being just
left in the ocean that is home to thousands of different species of plants and fish. The negative
affects of these actions are also observed in the health of our ecosystems and in the atmosphere
that is crucial to the existence of life on earth.
Knowledge, Application, Skills and Abilities
Creativity and knowledge are necessary to become a successful engineer. You can have
all the knowledge and all the experience in math or science but unless you somehow apply that
knowledge to life its pretty much useless. I still have a long way to go before ill be an engineer
there is a very long road ahead of me that I need to travel. There are a lot of subjects and a lot of
processes that I need to learn before I become an engineer. Perhaps the most important part of
becoming an engineer is getting the experience. No matter what you know observation is still the
best way to learn something. Shadowing someone or just observing his or her behavior can teach
someone a very important lesson or task.
I was always told that I should go into electrical engineering, it pays more, its easier to
get a job and all kinds of talk about how great it is. But Ive been looking into mechanical
engineering and it looks like that is something I more interested in pursuing. There are many
options available for me to turn my passion into a career but before that happens I have a lot of
work to do. Throughout my life I got used to being successful at schoolwork and it came fairly
easy to me especially math. I was usually one of the top students in my math class and I was
able to solve problems with ease. When I got to college I got hit hard with a completely new
learning environment and I was very unprepared for. Last semester I had fairly simple classes
and I had no trouble making deadlines, doing homework and making good test grades. My
second semester, on the other hand is much more demanding and now that Im taking classes
that more relevant to engineering I am starting to struggle and notice the difference between the
degree of difficulty. Ever since the beginning of my second semester I got a small taste of what
the rest of my college career will be like.
The owner of the restaurant I work at has a degree in civil engineering from UNCC and
every time I see him he asks me how my schoolwork is going. I tell him about the projects,
assignments and subjects Im going through and he always tells me his past stories of how he
made it when he was in my position. He told me that everyday after class he would get together
with his engineering friends and they would spend long hours in the library studying and working
on assignments for engineering. The more I get into the semester the more I can relate to his
stories. Just last week I spend over 20 hours on the innovation project, making a design, testing it
perfecting it and then doing the whole design package and presentation. Spending so much time
on school was one of the things I was always very afraid of going into engineering but now that
Ive had a taste of it its not as bad as I thought and especially since its something that I enjoy
doing and something that I have a passion for.
Procrastination was always one of my best friends and at the same time one of my
archenemies. I used to be able to save my assignments till the day it was do and then just before
it was time to turn it in I would just quickly know it out. I would consider that one of my skills, being
able to work under pressure and get work done right before it was due. Unfortunately I have been
noticing that this skill is starting to become on of my most vicious flaws. My life has been filled
with various distractions that always keep me from working on assignments before the last
minute. I was able to get away with it most of my life but now that im in college and especially not
that im working towards an engineering major I need to refocus my time management. One of the
habits we read in covey was putting first things first and that is something that I need to perfect if
im going to become a successful engineer. Waiting until something is due to start working on it is
no longer an option and I need to start working on assignments before I have even more work
piled on top of what I already have.
I came into college knowing that im going to pursue an engineering career. What I did not
know is how broad that was and how many options I have to choose. This into to engineering
class is one of the most helpful things that have helped me narrow down my choices to electrical
or mechanical engineering. I have a passion to innovate things and to search for solutions.
Whether its by designing some kind of parts to a machine or applying my math and science
knowledge to work at a power plant. As long as Im working on something interesting and useful
ill be more than happy to turn it into my career.
I havent taken very many classes that are directly connected to engineering but I have
took drafting classes and drawing is one of my greatest assets that will help me in an engineering
career. Taking ideas from my head and making a prototype on the computer is something that ive
done on CAD and some other computer programs. Pursuing knowledge in chemistry will be
crucial for me to become an engineer. Being able to know what is going on at the atomic level will
help me understand how I can make something more efficient or more productive. Physics is one
of my favorite subjects. Knowing the laws that bind and make the planet function is something
that I will have to master in order to work on most of my projects as an engineer. During the
innovation project we had to already know how things like friction, power and momentum work in
order to design the best vehicle and that doesnt even begin to describe the importance of
physics in engineering.
Charlotte is becoming a great city to get an engineering job especially electrical
engineering. With an electrical engineering degree most of the engineers get a starting salary of
roughly 50-60 thousand dollars a year. Electrical engineers need to have good people skills,
extraordinary problem solving skills and most importantly a superb knowledge of math and
science. Electric engineers have a very important position in society that often goes unnoticed.
Most people take electricity for granted but where would we be right now if we didnt have
engineers constantly working to maintain and improve our means of providing the planet with
energy.
Shadowing someone is the best way to learn by observing what he or she does. There is
no better way to learn what an engineer does than to observe his every move and every action he
makes. Getting an internship is one of the best extra curricular activities that teach you about a
future job and give you experience in the fiend that you are going into. Getting an internship is
almost like getting a preview of a job that you are going into. (Internships). Ultimately getting an
internship is a great way to develop skills and networking opportunities for a dream job.
Reflection and Conclusion
I have a passion to use my imagination and problem solving to create a better
environment for everyone. No matter now small or how big, my passion is to contribute to the
world around me and use my skills and talents to improve the world around us. No matter what
happens in my life I believe that having the heart to do something good is what it takes most of to
make a difference. Having the desire to do something the most important part of doing it and with
the desire and passion for engineering I will be able to accomplish immense goals in my career.
Developing a passion for a career is very important in the early stages of my education
because it gives me purpose and gives me the appropriate attitude necessary to accomplish my
goals. Getting the knowledge for a career is important but what is more important understands
what kind of knowledge you need and what to do with it. I can take every course the university
has to offer and no matter how well I do in them they are pointless unless I use them to
accomplish something. The combination of knowledge and passion is key to do something useful
in your life, or to become someone of significance.
Writing this whole life paper has made me realize that I am blessed with the opportunity
to do something great with my life. I have the opportunity to make a difference in society and no
matter what it takes it is up to me to apply myself and to express my passion in my career. This
project made me realize that I have the passion to become and engineer. The whole life concept
model is a great mold to develop a committed course of study throughout college.



Works Cited
"Internships: Career previews." Occupational Outlook Quarterly 56, no. 2 (Summer2012 2012):
22. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 28, 2014).
Near, Robert. 2009. "SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ENGINEER." Maclean's 122, no. 44: 115.
Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 27, 2014).
Nichols, S.P. Professional Responsibility: the Role of Engineering in Society. Utexas.edu.
(accessed February 28, 2014).