Minor: Math and Music

Why did you become an ambassador? Because I really like getting involved in the engineering program outside of just going to class. I also like talking to people and sharing my own experiences, especially with students who are trying to figure out if engineering or JMU is right for them. I have had a lot of different experiences here already, so I thought being an ambassador would be a good way to actually use those experiences to help other students.

Why did you choose Engineering? Because I have always liked math and physics, but I also really like being creative and actually making things. I did not want something where I was only solving problems on paper. I like being able to take an idea, figure out how it works, build it, test it, and then usually realize something needs to be changed. I am especially interested in mechanical and electromechanical systems because I like working with physical systems and seeing how all the different parts work together.

Have you had an internship, study abroad, or research experience you'd like to share? I had an internship with Saronic, a defense technology company that works with autonomous maritime systems. I worked in legal compliance, which was definitely not the internship I would have pictured myself doing as an engineering student, but that was actually one of the things I liked about it. I got to work with people across the company, including engineers, and see how engineering connects to safety, regulations, testing, and everything else that has to happen before a product can actually be used. It also made me realize that an engineering background can be useful in a lot more areas than I originally thought.