Overcoming Adversity Leads to Success

When speaking about school, lessons learned or things that need improvement. It has always been important to think ahead and plan for everything, but not for the reasons everyone might consider. When starting high school and even up to college the next four years was always daunting and inexorable, which weighed heavy on my mind. It was constantly all I could think about and worry about. Furthermore, through further analysis with the help of Landis’ “Studying Engineering,” this realization came to be.

When talking about world-class engineers and what they had to go through, it was hard to imagine that they were not also plagued with these same adversities people go through in college.

World-class engineers got where they need to be by learning the basics they needed in college and a special lifestyle that is effective because it is applicable to anyone. So with the help of Landis and things, I have learned it is possible to look at what made these engineers so successful and efficient and use it to draw similarities or differences to my own life, so I can better my chances of excelling like a world-class engineer can, by not just paying attention, or studying, but in learning the basics to become successful in any aspect of my future endeavors.

In this class, we learn about many things but one thing that is most prevalent is what can we do to become better or what process needs to be taken in order to become a world-class engineering student.

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Learning to not just take charge of their learning but being more keen and enthusiastic in their approach to learning. In order for any student to go from a “regular” student to a “world-class” engineering student, assiduity, patience, and most importantly a clean slate is needed.

Likewise, in order for me to transition to a world-class engineering student, I will have come to terms with where I stand on goal setting, community building, academic development, and personal development. Further where a world-class engineering student would be in each of those areas, and finally what I have to do in order for this transition to world-class engineering student take place. Goals give you something to measure yourself against and give you direction. When conversing about what a world-class engineering student would do, it is seen that they often also choose objectives and take primacy in what goals they have, doing what needs to get done in order to get where they want to be. Applying this to every aspect they are faced with for foreseeable goals and future goals. When speaking about myself I feel like this is prevalent, but there are always things I could change to make the net gain positive.

Currently, my main goal is to graduate from Richland College with an Associate’s of Science in engineering, then transfer into the University of North Texas where I will continue my studies to get my bachelor’s degree. The anticipated time until graduation is at the end of this fall semester, which is just a few weeks away, with a GPA of about a 3.4. Beyond getting my Associates of Science in engineering at Richland College, I would like to continue in my academic career and get my Doctorates Degree in Mechanical Engineering at a University that offers my degree plan. In order to complete my goals and make them actually happen, I will have to work more meticulously to remain on my scheduled path. Additionally, some more goals that I have set for myself are to complete more lecture assignments as well as more homework assignments when they are due or before they are due, and doing well in my classes for the rest of this semester. Some other objectives I have for the future are graduating with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, getting a position as an engineer for some type of company, and somehow bring change by being progressive in my community.

While I can set goals, no matter the importance, sometimes there can be more pressing goals that are more predominate and need more attention than other goals. Thus leads into why it is important for the transition to a world-class engineering student that I do this strengthening and commitment to these more pressing goals because a world-class engineering student would be on top of things like this. It is important to find, analyze, clarify, and strengthen the commitment to our goals because when it is done, it is easier to find and highlight the steps to completing these goals that hold importance to us as students, thus facilitating the process to complete them. In order to clarify my goals and strengthen my commitment, I have to realize that this all has a reason. These goals are significant for a reason and that reason is to become an engineer and having a job to go with it. Additionally, going past the fact that if I am successful at being an engineer, it will help me more than it hurts, and the risk is very much worth the reward because of the possibility of becoming very successful. A world-class engineer student would be very rigor with understanding this from the start and would cement their commitment to these goals right when they create them.

As for myself, I would say that in order for me to get to where I want to be, I need to cement my commitment to my goals and really dig at the roots of why I am doing this and enumerate the reasons for trying to reach my goals Great engineering students know that connections can get you far, beyond just their skills. Relationships with not only the professors and fellow peers but also with those in the field who have first-hand experience. As for myself, I feel like I have done a great job building these connections and rapport with certain people critical to my engineering career and more importantly maintaining them beyond the classroom, especially with other students. Working together with other students to with the more mundane and intensive things, like studying for tests or a lab, helped everyone retain more information and have more fun than studying by yourself. Any world class engineering student would most certainly make connections anywhere they could, especially if they wanted to be successful because this gain comes more facilitated if there are healthy relationships that provide a net gain and when there are the possibility of peers being able to be used more frequently.

While a world-class engineer has duties to get where they want to go and a job to do and willing to learn constantly, they definitely have partaken in extra-curricular or co-curricular activities on the side. When speaking about the topic I feel like in order to elevate myself to the “world-class” level I need to participate in more activities that would benefit me in the long run. Sports, Greek life, jazz band are fun but a world-class engineer would do anything to possibly further themselves in their academic careers, but still, enjoy themselves. As of now, I’m in some clubs like chess, but a world-class student would be in more major specific clubs. In the future, when I transfer to the University of North Texas, I hope to commit to more clubs that would help me in my engineering endeavor while simultaneously interesting me. This would help me tremendously by making engineering much more tolerable. Adjusting and adapting to college life is difficult for everyone that comes into it with no prior knowledge. This struggle might come from professors teaching styles being different from high school teachers to simpler things like actually being accountable for your college career. It is definitely a culture shock for anyone that has not gone through it before, especially at college, in my experience learning has been an evergoing effort because while professors can help you, they won’t bother you if they do not have any reason to, notably if you do not show them you care, they will not care about you to an extent

One of the key things to becoming a world-class engineer is Academic Development or being able to navigate school systems or websites, resources, and academic advisors as well as other things like understanding teaching and learning styles. I would say that a world-class engineering student would have this all figured out and mastered and should be able to utilize school systems and understand what they are used for and be able to talk to academic advisors about questions or concerns about any of their classes they are taking. I feel pretty confident about this aspect of becoming a world-class engineering student because I do freely speak to an advisor about school and classes and I use school given resources every chance I can, and I am adept with navigating through the DCCCD systems provided. When speaking about learning styles and teaching styles it is very apparent that there are many different teaching styles and every professor is different.

Everyone learns differently and every professor lectures differently, but that does not mean that anything has to change when approaching our goals. A great world-class engineering student would know what learning style is best for them and be able to tell what professor lectures in a certain style, but would be also able to understand, be critical, and adapt to different teaching styles, and other people with different and varying learning styles being able to work efficiently and with ease. When speaking about myself, I know that I need some work with this, especially with understanding other people’s learning styles and not too much on adapting to different teaching styles because of myself not having too much of a problem with that. However, in the same way, in order to be a world-class engineer I need to improve this aspect of learning or being able to understand other people and what they can bring to the table with their style of learning.

In order to improve my learning style, I need to be more open and experimental with my own learning style understanding all it has to offer me, but being able to change it if I feel like it is not producing the yield I need to be successful. Adversity is a big dilemma when first starting college. From personal experience, it can be very hard to get accustomed to the college life or even finding the paths you need to reach the next level in your career. Adversity is one of those things that is never going away especially because of the fact that it is college and this stage of life separates all of us and determines if we do make it to the next level or not, so knowing that, it begs the question of what does a world-class engineering student do when faced with adversity? For myself, I would say that I am pretty well versed in adversity when it comes to personal things as well as school-related problems, but there is always room for improvement. I would say the largest obstacle to overcome when faced with adversity is breaking old habits and being more conscious of others opinions while still backing your own.

When reading “Studying Engineering,” Gray shares a book The Common Denominator of Success and quotes, “The secret of every person who has ever been successful – lies in the fact that they formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do” (Gray, 4367). This resonated with me because of the fact that it is true. In order to become better, successful, and gravitating, we have to rise above the things other people do not want to do. To be successful in our own lives, it is essential to accept that while these habits are inhibiting us from going where we want to go. A world-class engineer has mastered this and they understand all of this and are able to work with this and achieve what they want to accomplish. In order to get to where I need to be academically, I need to take more classes. Right now I am taking a few classes including University Physics and other classes that will help me get my associates degree. However, I need to take multiple math classes including Calculus 2 and 3 and science classes like PHYS-2526 if I want to continue on this ladder of success I am on. “Ethics” is a term is brought up most frequently in the world of engineering. Even though engineering is not philosophy, future engineers like me, need to care about ethics and the possibilities of having an impact on something or someone.

If I delve into more subjects that employ ethics, then it could help me know what is right from wrong when working on a project. Right now, I would say that I excel somewhat with ethics, but I would not mind taking an ethics class in the near future to better my knowledge. I would like to know more about ethics since it is such a big part in engineering and it could affect a future career. Ethics is an important topic to discuss with an engineer in any field of expertise because of its importance when thinking about starting a new project. A master world-class engineer would definitely have a focus on ethics and any ethical implications they might have to do to the things they are involved in. In Conclusion, as my final semester at Richland comes to an end and more semesters begin to arise, it is invigorating to say that I am on the right track towards not only my Mechanical Engineering degree but on track to becoming something more than a student taking some hard math and science classes in school. Adversity will be one of the more important things that I will have to deal with if I do want to become a world-class mechanical engineer.

I have made many goals as I started this next chapter in my life. Some of them being me working to get my Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at a university, to stay on track with my degree plan, getting a position for a company as a mechanical engineer, and be able to bring change to my community by being progressive. I want to be a successful mechanical engineer and I want to be able to reach the goals I have planned out for myself. I know that if I keep with my diligent work and effort that I will become a world-class engineering student and if I put my mind to it, I know that I will get my Doctorates in Mechanical Engineering. In addition, to the job, I want to get when I am done with school. I think that I am definitely on the right ladder to the next level and that I will continue to get to where I need to go if I keep putting effort into what I do.