Why did you choose to study at WPI? 

I wanted to study at WPI because of its project-based curriculum and the term schedule. I tend to get bored easily, so having faster moving classes helps me stay engaged with my courses. Choosing a project-based school was important to me as an engineer to get practical experience, and I really liked the idea of the Interactive Qualifying Projects (IQPs) and Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs) offered at WPI. I wanted to be able to work on projects that feel like they matter and have an impact on people, which come integrated into WPI’s curriculum.

How are you involved with the WPI community? 

In my freshman year, I joined the SCOPE (Student Consultants Optimizing Pedagogical Excellence) team as a founding member. The program connects professors with trained consultants to review and adapt ongoing courses to improve the student experience, which has been very rewarding work. Additionally, I am a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), WPI’s chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and am applying to be a Community Advisor (CA) in the coming year. I chose SWE and AIAA to get more involved with my community and my chosen field and have an interest in becoming a CA to help future first-years with their transition into college through the Insight Program.

What’s your favorite thing about WPI? 

I think my favorite thing about WPI is how involved the campus feels. Everyone has so many projects going on and everyone is involved in so many different things. There’s a lot of opportunities to develop new interests and ideas on campus and it's easy to get involved.

Do you have a faculty or staff mentor? 

Professors Thomas Noviello and Jielong Cai have been very influential in my WPI career. I had Professor Noviello for my electricity and magnetism course in Physics for B-term (second Fall term) of my first year and he made campus feel very welcoming. He was a kind and engaging lecturer, which helped with understanding course concepts. Then, in A-term (first Fall term) of my second year, I was introduced to Professor Cai through my work with SCOPE. Getting to see the planning stages behind his senior-level courses helped me to improve my mindset with my aerospace studies. Then, I had him in B-term for a course on incompressible fluid dynamics. Although the work could be challenging at times, he helped me develop a more engineering mindset, which will benefit me in my future studies and career.

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

Having project-based learning rather than the traditional lecture-only approach feels natural to me in a STEM field. On a smaller scale, being able to physically interact with the concepts that I’m learning in my classes has been invaluable to my education. I’ve always been a more tactile learner, so being able to construct and test theories is very appealing to me. On a large scale, major projects, like the IQP and MQP, not only provide great work experience but also feel impactful and important. I enjoy feeling like the work I do matters outside the classroom and WPI provides that.