Civil Engineering
College Park Scholars-Science and Global Change Program
Email: rvemula2@terpmail.umd.edu
One of my greatest revelations was from my Static Mechanics class. Before I took this class I had been considering switching my major. I didn’t enjoy my course work at all last semester, I felt deeply unfulfilled. The classes I had last semester destroyed my self confidence. Especially after seeing my final exam grades, which were affected by the death of a family member, my confidence plummeted. However, after I began my Mechanics class, it made me realize that civil engineering is right for me. I enjoyed it, and I was doing fairly well in the class. Even though most people do well in that class, I still felt accomplished because of my achievements. What I learnt from this experience was that you should refrain from basing your self worth on your grades. I recommend that future students focus on moving forward instead of dwelling on your past failures.
I unfortunately didn’t develop any noteworthy mentoring relationships with my professors. My anxiety got the better of me whenever I tried to talk to them. I’m not charismatic so whenever mustered up the courage to talk to my professors, I weirded them out. In reality they probably don’t even remember the one time I embarrassed myself, but I couldn’t get past it. In my second semester, I didn’t even attempt to make connections with my professors. I regret this because I admired a lot of my professors, but my social anxiety held me back from making connections with them. I recommend incoming students to ignore their social anxiety and put themselves out there as much as possible. This is much easier said than done, seeing as I failed at it, but that’s the best advice I can give about this.
The friends I’ve made this year have helped me cope with adjusting to university. Especially after one of my family members died, the only people that were there to comfort me were my friends. Whenever I was stressed I would hang out with my friends and I would feel better. My parents recommended that I don’t put too much value in friends, but as a queer person I can’t help but care deeply about them. I know that my blood family isn’t a permanent fixture in my life, so I view my close friends as family. Some of my new friends have become family to me. I would recommend that future SGC scholars put themselves out there as much as possible, but also know your worth. Don’t pander to people that are essentially in the same position as you. If they don’t view you as being on their level, that’s a problem with their perception of you, not an actual evaluation of your value as a friend. It is completely valid to cut people off if they don’t value your time.
I was least prepared for the level of commitment college requires. I had mostly coasted through high school so I was caught off guard by the amount of work I had to do in my first semester. I would recommend that future Scholars expect to have to study and do homework in the first week of classes, at least in preparation for the future.