Each of us will have a unique experience in college, but these women offer lots of valuable advice. Congratulations to all of our graduating SWENext members! We wish you all the best in your future endeavors, and we hope you can find a local SWE section to support you along the way!
What Surprised You Most About Your College Experiences?
Bridget LaFollette
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Kansas
Master of Business Administration, The University of Texas at Austin
Distributor Business Manager, ExxonMobil
I was surprised when I finally realized that I needed to start asking for help. I struggled academically for the first time as a freshman, and I realized that I needed to get help from my teachers and classmates. It was humbling but incredibly helpful in life. Go to office hours if you have questions. That’s what they’re for!
Natalie White
B.S. in Math and Computer Science, Texas Christian University
Enterprise Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services
The size and scale of college was unlike anything I had experienced in my K-12 school years, and I went to a relatively small university. There are so many people in every field of study, every dorm, every extracurricular group–it was much easier to find a place to fit in than the small groups people formed in grade school. Don’t give in to the temptation to sit in your dorm room or apartment online all day. Get out, meet up with new people in person (once it’s safe, of course), and make connections! I still keep in touch with many of my friends from my college days and going through the different stages of life together has been really fun.
Agnes Wozniak
M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland
Certification and Airworthiness Engineer, The Boeing Company
What surprised me most about college was how quickly time went by. I remember, sitting through my graduation, wondering where all the time went. I wish I’d taken more classes not traditionally associated with engineering. The other thing that surprised me, and I was all too slow to realize it, was that I was surrounded by people who wanted to help me. I expected to have to be self-sufficient, so I didn’t seek out the help I needed.
Do you have a question for our women engineers at SWE? We’d love to hear from you! Send your questions to swenext@swe.org. We’ll answer you directly, or your question may become a future SWEet Wisdom column!
To see more responses to this question, check out our YouTube channel!
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