Growing up, at some point almost everyone wanted to work for Disney or Lego, unless I was just weird and happened to have all weird friends. The thing is, I never truly outgrew that. My favorite Disney World park is Epcot, because of the Imagineers center as well as the countries. The structure of the park itself is amazing in the replicas of the countries of the world and how they truly capture the essence of the culture of the individual countries. Other areas of the different parks also succeed in creating a feeling of being in a particular area and era. I want to design a “street” in one of the parks: the buildings, the street itself, the decorations, and whatever else can be incorporated into it. Even on a more realistic and obtainable level, my interest is in designing communities or other largely populated areas such as malls, stations for public transportation, or something along that line of thought.
To reach this goal, I have already thought about taking a minor in Environment Design, Policy and Planning to add onto my Civil Engineering major. The courses that this minor offers would help me to understand planning for a town and its needs. I am also considering graduate school in Architecture or Architectural Engineering if I choose to pursue a career in working on individual structures, which is another interest of mine.
One course which I think would be important to take in order to reach this goal is ARH 205, introduction to architecture, which I plan on taking as a technical elective in the spring. In taking this course, I feel that I will at least get a sense on if I would like to pursue a career more focused on individual structures. Other classes I will be taking which seem incredibly useful are ESG 217, 316, 440, and 441, which deal with design and design-planning methods. ESM 212(Introduction to Environmental Materials Engineering) is another course I plan on taking as a technical elective. This class deals with the use sustainable building materials as they pertain to different areas of the structure, along with ‘green’ manufacturing and pollution prevention. For my third technical elective, as of now I plan on taking EST 330, Natural Disasters: Societal Impacts and Technological Solutions. This course focuses on planning structures and towns in a way so as to reduce destruction due to disasters, along with developing strategies for effective post-disaster assistance through case studies of previous disasters.
Built Environment I and II (EDP 301 and 302) are also courses which sound like I would benefit from taking them. They deal with systems in towns, such as public transportation, water, and electricity, and how to plan for building structures and construction sites while being conscience of the people out and about through their daily activities. Both of these courses are required in order to complete the Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning minor. SBC 200 (Human Settlement History and Future) is also required for completion of this minor. This course focuses on the history of development and growth of cities so as to better understand how growth might occur in the future. From looking into past and current trends, one can find patterns in growth and what is common amongst start-up towns.
Other courses offered at Stony Brook which could be useful to me in the future which are not offered as a part of my major or interested minor are EHI 322 and SBC 354, Human Ecology and Drawing for Design, respectively. Human Ecology focuses on how people interact with nature and their environment by looking at individuals, communities and traditional societies. In Drawing for Design, CAD software is used with relevance to architectural drawing, including introducing new tools needed for such purposes. This course would be especially useful if I do choose a career in architecture, as I would be working with such programs in order to complete projects. Even if I do not choose such profession, I still feel that it would be important to be able to read such designs when working with architects so as to better understand their ideas.
Aside from education, an internship would better help me to understand in full the design process and the steps needed to complete such designs. This experience would also better show the design process as a team effort, an idea talked about but I feel really isn’t represented in full until senior design. Internships aside, having a job during school shows the ability to balance many activities, as well as gaining experience in a professional workplace. My job on campus gives me that, as well as my jobs at home over winter and summer break. Experience wise, I am also a participant in the LEAD/GOLD program on campus, which is a leadership opportunity sponsored by the Center for Leadership Development in H-Quad. My time in the program, though I am only half way through it, has enabled me to be more confident as an individual and gain the skills I needed to become a better leader, whether it be on or off campus.
Since as of right now I think that I am going to be staying on campus for the first half of summer to take ESE 271 and CHE 133, I can ask for an internship at local companies or firms , or the borough management itself if there are any available for the second half of the summer. Since anyone taking me in for a half of the summer seems unlikely, I know that the career center has an internship program with Disney World, so that is something to look further into for the summer going into my senior year.
For the moment I feel like I have planned my schedule accordingly for the next years here at Stony Brook, but everything would get shuffled around if I add the Environmental Design, Policy and Planning minor. I think that it would also be in my benefit to substitute SBC 354 in as a technical elective, possible instead of EST 330, if I can get the course approved to count as a technical elective. With those things changed, I am confident in learning everything education wise that would help me to reach my goal for what I want to have accomplished in my life.
I decided on adding the minor of Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning. Although I still plan to take ARH 205 as a technical elective, I am in process for trying for EDP 301 and 302 to count as my other two, which will allow a little more freedom in my schedule planning.
I have almost completed the LEAD/GOLD program. Commencement is tomorrow (Dec.2nd) and I am so excited to have been selected to present at commencement on my job shadowing experience with my mentor Paige Carbone from the Career Center.
I am also happy to announce that I have an internship back home for the second half of summer with a Civil Engineering company focused in traffic engineering!! This year has been great so far and I can't wait to talk about how things keep moving onward!
Another update.
EDP minor is going okay, I've only been able to take two classes for it so far because of scheduling and all that. I have gotten EDP 200, 301, and 302 to all count for technical electives, so hopefully I can graduate on time. Still having trouble with ESG 201 as it is the same time as ESG 316. LEAD/GOLD went well, check it out in the other tab up top, same with my internship. Last day of classes today for the semester!
Wow, it's already half way through my first semester of senior year. Time flies. My EDP minor will be finished after this semester, and my only classes for the core of my engineering major are the second half of senior design and manufacturing engineering. I'll still need two other classes to be a full time student, and I plan on taking technical electives (I need at least one more). I will also be TAing for ESG 316 next semester, which I'm pretty excited about.