Khuong Nguyen's Freshman Time Capsule Reflection Essay

The two classes that came as the greatest revelation or surprise to me were my ENES100: Introduction to Engineering Design and ENEE140: Introduction to Programming Concepts for Engineers. ENES100 gave me my first real taste of hands-on engineering in a course. The course is project based as my team and I spent the whole semester creating an Over-Terrain Vehicle that we would test to complete our assigned mission. ENEE140 introduced me to programming and gave me a good taste of how much harder college classes are in comparison to high school classes. As an electrical engineering major, I am required to take these two courses and they have shown me how fun but also difficult college courses can be. Incoming students should make sure to check out the schedule of classes on Testudo to discover courses that may be interesting. My greatest success in developing mentoring relationships with faculty came with my time when I interned at the Combustion Laboratory here on campus. Being an intern here, I got to work with graduate research students but also professors. The greatest obstacle in achieving this was firstly acquiring the position but also completing many tasks and doing a lot of work. I recommend incoming students take advantage of information the university provides regarding ways to find internships. How can next year’s freshmen make the best use of their connections with their peers? I have developed great relationships with many of my fellow students, a lot of whom are also in the Science and Global Change program. These relationships that I have made has helped me with the stress that comes with university. The greatest obstacles in pursuing these relationships come if you're too anxious or nervous when talking to people but that is how you create these relationships in the first place, so you just must put yourself out there. Next year freshmen can make the best use out of their connections with their peers by registering for clubs and activities together to create more relationships and connections. I was least prepared for responsibility and freedom that comes with university life and living on campus. Freedom is a double-edged sword that you need to wield with responsibility or else it could hurt you. Having to be responsible and self-sufficient, there is no one to tell me what to do and I just must do it myself. I recommend incoming freshmen prepare to be more independent and learn things yourselves however, you should ask questions and ask for help when needed.

Last modified: 10 May 2023