After a couple months of interning, I was happy with my decision—-the experience I was having was incomparable to anything I had ever done. I was learning what an engineer does day to day, and I was interested and enthusiastic about the projects I was working on and the people I was working with. When I started, I knew I would put forth my best effort to succeed at the work I was given, and as my time there went on, I began to see results of my efforts. When it came time to time to interview for a permanent position with the company, I felt pride in my experience at OU in combination with the professional experience that my internship offered.

Beginning in July, I will start my first job out of school working for Abbott Laboratories in Chicago. The job I accepted is a position in their Manufacturing Professional Development Program, which is a two-year program for college graduates, working four six-month rotations in different positions in different divisions’ supply chains ranging from project-specific engineering roles to supervisory positions. I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity, and I am glad I had the encouragement and support to make the decision to leave and co-op last year, or else I’m not sure if I’d be in the same position today.

The first time we met (at one of the awesome group project rooms in the new engineering building) one guy had already started the project and had quite a bit done without consulting the rest of us. I thought this was cool, less work for the rest of us. Then as the week progressed the same guy would work with us less and less and eventually tried to delete our files of the project so he could complete it all by himself. The sad truth is that you’ll encounter someone like this out of school as well. He wasn’t trying to be a jerk but just wanted to finish the project so bad he forgot it was a team project.

This is exactly why teachers are assigning more team projects now, so we can become familiar with how a team works. Also, so we can see how we work in a team and see if we need to change a few things before we show up to a job and get thrown into a team project.

The house is at 34 Shafer Street, which is close to West Green and Stocker/ARC.

To save on clean up and repair costs we have had two work days at the house to remove wallpaper, appliances, and any other messes. This week our Housing Committee Alumni are coming down to inspect the house and make more decisions on how to fix up the place. We will also be holding a cookout and a classy yard party to christen the house.

The house will only be available for rent to Theta Tau members. This palatial abode is just one more reason to join the oldest engineering organization, in addition to a wide network of engineers that spans all majors.

Again, yes we do have some pretty famous parties that do get a tad out of hand now and then but those are just two weekends out of the year, and mostly due to out-of-towners. In the end we’re like any other college when it comes to partying. The point is that partying is some people's only reason for choosing Ohio University and I can tell you right now that if that’s why you’re coming here you won’t last a year. There are many reasons to choose Ohio University, the academics, the campus, the atmosphere, and so many more. So choose Ohio University but don’t just expect a party school.

Oddly enough, as much as I want to graduate, I don’t really want to be an adult either. I now have to worry about things like health care, insurance, finding a place to live, using a relator, how to move across the country instead of across town, buying real furniture. It doesn’t seem scary, but annoying! I know that I am very capable of completing these tasks, but they are incredibly mundane.

It’s nice to take some time this year to look back at my college life and see the growth in myself, the changes in my priorities, and the changes in my attitude in these four years. So while the future seems slow in comparison, I’m interested to see what changes in the next four years.

I still have a lot to do in the meantime, though. Next weekend is the spring Tau Beta Pi induction, and since I am an officer, I get to help induct the new initiates. Tau Beta Pi is the engineering honor society, and we are getting ready to start some pretty fun stuff for next year, like volunteer work, tutoring sessions, and even some fun social activities.

I’ve also been doing a lot to get ready to go to graduate school. I already started research on my first grad school project, and I am registered to present my project at an American Institute of Chemical Engineers conference in the fall. All in all, it has been a busy but fun quarter, and I have a lot to look forward to as I get ready for graduation and moving on to grad school.

Even though it has been tough, I’ve learned a lot about writing in this class. I’ve been putting my nose to the grindstone and so far my grades have been good. All of my friends have done well in English so I have to make sure that I do as well as them. In a few short weeks I will be done with English and I’ll have my math and engineering classes comforting me again.

The Cutler Scholars program has suddenly become very relevant to the Russ College of Engineering and Technology; this year, the program is proud to announce a new scholarship designated exclusively for an outstanding student who has already been accepted by the Russ College of Engineering and who intends to pursue an engineering degree. The administration at Russ College has worked closely with those at Cutler Scholars (it’s cool to see my jobs overlap!) to nominate students, collect and filter applicants, select and interview finalists, and then to finally choose the new scholar.

The Robe/Russ Legacy-Cutler Scholarship is named after two incredible families in recognition of their service and support to the college of engineering.

Dick Robe was dean of the engineering college for 16 years, spent more than 40 years in academia, and lists one of his major accomplishments as participating in the education of more than 10,000 students in his time at OU! Robe has been unfailingly dedicated not only to engineering, but also to the education of new engineers. Though he is retired from academia, his support (and that of his wife, Ellie) continues through endowments which fund scholarships like this one.

You probably recognize the name “Russ”, since it’s the name of our college! Dr. Fritz Russ graduated from the College of Engineering in 1942 and with his wife, Dolores, they began their own company, Systems Research Laboratories, which became extremely successful and very influential among research firms. With that success, the Russes contributed more than $124 million to the Russ College--a gift that is the largest donation given to any public college of engineering in the United States.

On Thursday morning we first visited Kenworth in Chillicothe. It is a large semi-truck assembly plant that assembles semi-truck to order. Now its capability is around 150 trucks per day, with more than a thousand employees working in the plant. There are more than 10 assembly groups with more than 50 assembly lines in the plant. It makes highly personalized semi-trucks according to customers’ requirements.

That afternoon, we went to GE Lighting in Circleville. That is one of the biggest GE lighting plant in the US. They make more than 30,000 of every kind of light bulbs per day. The production lines are highly automated, so the employees in the plant are mostly engineers and technicians. They work to monitor the machines and the products’ qualities, as well as some R&D stuff.

At night, we went to Cincinnati and had a wonderful dinner at Buca di Beppo.

On Friday, we had breakfast with Catherine Anbil, a very nice woman who set up her own business on system and software. She introduced her experience on her business and with her partner, and her early life.

After the enjoyable breakfast, we continued our trip to the last destination: GE Aviation. This was a long tour. We visited 4 different locations. Generally, we visited the labs that test the materials in different plane engines and we also got a chance to see how an engine was assembled, and how an engine works on a plane.

This trip was really an enjoyable trip that expands my horizon and lets me get to know more about the manufacturing in the US.

Considering that I had never swung a golf club prior to taking this class, it has easily become one of my favorite classes. At first, I could hardly hit a ball 100 yards without it hooking wide right or left, but now I consider myself not too shabby. Golf now has become a hobby of mine and now I look forward to this class during the week. On a sunny day, nothing seems more relaxing than just hitting golf balls into the green.