Howdy! I am a senior at Texas A&M pursuing an aerospace engineering degree with minors in electrical engineering and mathematics. I am currently involved in the University Honors program and will be serving as Director for the TAMU Sounding Rocketry Team in the 2022-23 school year. I will also be getting involved in undergraduate research in the Fall of '22 in order to learn more about different specializations within aerospace engineering. After graduating college I plan to work for NASA or for a commercial space company, eventually moving to a project management role once I gain some experience in the research and design process.
In my freshman and sophomore years, I was most involved in BUILD and the Honors Living Learning Community. BUILD is a service organization that converts steel shipping containers into mobile medical clinics to be stationed in underdeveloped areas of the world. I started on its Command Team in the spring of my freshman year to get more involved in the design and management of the project, and was also a Sophomore Advisor for the Honors LLC as a sophomore. In my junior year, I was a part of the Electronics and Payload subteam on the Sounding Rocketry Team, which combined my expertise in aerospace and electrical engineering. For the summers of 2021 and 2022, I interned at Dynetics, where I applied the knowledge I gained in both aerospace and electrical engineering classes in order to contribute to different engineering projects.
With the recent pandemic being a significant focus of the last few years, the impact of BUILD could not be more relevant. In fact, one of the medical clinics constructed in the fall of 2019 was temporarily stationed in Houston to help treat those affected by the virus. Being a Sophomore Advisor also allowed me to help incoming freshmen develop good habits and better adjust to college life. As director of the Sounding Rocketry Team, I want to share my passion for rocketry with others and seek out experiences that will help the team (myself included) learn and be extremely competent in all our responsibilities.
In my life, I want to apply engineering knowledge to help people by solving problems that they encounter. The organizations that I have been involved in will help with this by making me better at working with others toward a common goal. For example, BUILD is currently giving me a better idea of what it takes to be in a project management role, and being in the Sophomore Advisor position also enabled me to help freshmen deal with any issues that come up in their first semesters. The Sounding Rocketry Team has also given me project experience, but is even more valuable because it is more focused on the types of projects that I want to be a part of upon graduating and starting my career. Internships have also given me a better perspective and expectation for what a career in engineering will be like post-graduation. Serving as the Director of the team is something I consider to be a service to the project managers that I am overseeing. As director, it is my job to eliminate roadblocks that they encounter and ensure the team operates smoothly and efficiently.