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VCU
As you start your college career, what is your primary goal as a student and how have you prepared to meet this goal, how do you plan to succeed, how do you feel you will do at VCU?
As a VCU student my goal is to satisfy my academic curiosity, gain new experiences, and learn more about engineering.
Throughout my high school career I have challenged myself with a heavy course load of science, math, engineering, and technology classes. I took AP and honors classes in both science and math. I am fortunate that my high school offers a variety of STEM classes. Also, I have been given the opportunity to attend classes in the Chantilly Academy including, Girls Exploring Engineering, Engineering Systems II, and Engineering Math. The Chantilly Academy is a Governor's STEM Academy offering classes in Engineering & Scientific Technology and Health & Human Services for students throughout the area. I feel these classes have prepared me very well for my future college engineering classes. My willingness to learn, curiosity, and enthusiasm toward engineering will help me achieve my goal.
I have been and plan to continue to improve my study habits by managing my time better and making sure I understand the material. I am able to work well with others for class projects, homework, and studying. In most of my classes I have started using study groups to help prepare for upcoming tests.
I believe I will thrive at VCU and I believe I am a great match for VCU because the engineering program fulfils my love for engineering. I am very curious of how things work and are made. I have a strong willingness to learn and solid problem solving skills. I feel I will be able to apply what I have learned so far and learn even more at VCU.
Describe a challenging situation you've faced. Briefly state the situation, how you responded and why, would you have done anything differently, has it affected or shaped who you are today?
My junior year I took a Girls Exploring Engineering. The class is the same as a Systems Engineering I class, but only for girls interested in engineering. The class included a mentorship program of female engineers working in various industries. We were grouped with mentors, and would meet regularly to discuss engineering careers and what it takes to be a female engineer. Later in the year we each picked our engineering discipline and were divided into groups to do a project. I chose the Mechanical Engineering team. We decided to design, create, and study rockets. The mentors were to help us, but the project planning was our responsibility. I found that our group was the largest, and organization and communication became difficult. Everyone had great ideas, but we were having difficulty getting our thoughts organized and tasks assigned. Some members were not contributing. Other members of the group wanted to contact the mentorship organizer to have those not contributing leave the group or split up the group.
I felt we could find a way to have everyone work together and contribute. I suggested we meet regularly to ensure all members could communicate. Also, I helped break down the tasks we had to complete into categories, make sure everyone had a job, and that no one person was overwhelmed by too much work. Our group was able to successfully design, create, and launch our own rockets, and create a presentation. We had found that most other groups had similar problems even though they had fewer members.
Given the same situation I would not do much differently, only I would try to get organized sooner so we would not have to rush and have more time for testing.
This situation has given me better organization skills I plan on using the future.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
