Why did you choose to study at WPI? 

WPI wasn't on my radar for a while until I decided to start looking at colleges outside of New York state. Once I found WPI, I was pretty hooked. The tour only served to seal the deal even further. When I came here for Accepted Students Day, it just felt right. It's the perfect distance from home to feel far enough away but not too far that I couldn't go back if I needed to. It has one of the best engineering programs out of all the colleges on my list. It really checked all the boxes for me.

How are you involved with the WPI community? 

I'm pretty involved in the music scene at WPI. I'm the front ensemble director for WPI’s Winter Percussion and I'm a member of Humanities & Arts Teaching Professor Pieter Struyk's percussion ensemble. I'm also in the Green House Club, as well as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Winter Percussion has been one of the most rewarding parts of my time here at WPI. It's been incredible seeing us progressively learn and improve our music and then get to compete and show off all our hard work. Music has always been a part of my life, so I knew I had to keep that going in college. ASME has really helped me find other people in my major and exposed me to a bunch of opportunities. Green House Club is great because who doesn't like plants?

What’s your favorite thing about WPI? 

I love the size of WPI. It feels like the perfect size because you aren't just a number to the professors. It's also not so small that it's just high school all over again. This also lends itself to the size of the campus. It doesn't feel like hiking half a mile to make it to the lecture hall. I also think that a lot of the people who come to WPI are really great¾professors and students alike. I have rarely had a bad experience with someone on campus.

Do you have a faculty or staff mentor? 

Someone who has been very influential to me is Jason Lusignan, the supervisor of Mail Services. Jay makes my time working in mail services so much better. He's incredibly helpful, kind, and a great person to work for. Having a nice, consistent place to come to work with great leaders really helped make the transition from high school to college effortless. Two professors who have fueled my interest in learning have been Professors Alireza Nejad and David Ibbet. They are both such personable and invested people that I always looked forward to class with them. 

How has WPI’s project-based learning influenced your education? 

Project-based learning has really helped me get a grasp on the concepts talked about in class and I feel like I'm actively participating in learning the topics. Classes like ME1800, where you learn about machining and CAM practices and then actively go and put those to use in a lab, have been very rewarding. Music Composition was another class that I wouldn't have wanted any other way than project-based. Each week had micro-compositions that helped flesh out skills as a composer and develop a musical style. The big midterm and final projects were really rewarding. I had the opportunity to create something musical and share it with everyone else instead of just being quizzed on the best practices.