Environmental Engineering - Interview with Regina Galvan Rumayor

Let's explore the world of environmental engineering - applying engineering concepts from other fields like mechanical, computer science, and civil engineering to solve the problems facing our environment. Current student, Regina Galvan Rumayor helps us understand what it is like to study the field here at Cornell and tells her story of being an international transfer student. We also get to meet another friendly face from our admissions office, Amanda Augustyn who helps us understand her roll in communications for the office, and finally we chat with Scott Campbell to hear more about our academic requirements and our unique leadership program! 

https://www.cee.cornell.edu/cee
https://cals.cornell.edu/environmental-engineering
https://visit.engineering.cornell.edu/
https://leadership.engineering.cornell.edu/

Transcript

Episode Intro:

Teri:

Hi, I'm Teri Carey and welcome to VIEW, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. Are you interested in math and science? Are you curious about the world? Are you an engineer? Well, maybe you don't know yet! The world of engineering is huge and we want girls to be included in the future of it. So grab a cup of coffee, get your curiosity going and listen in as we talk to real women studying engineering at Cornell.

We hope you enjoy our view.

Introduction Segment: 

Hi everyone! Welcome to VIEW, I’m your host Teri Carey.  Have you ever seen the movie, Wall-E? If you haven’t it takes place in the future when Earth has been overrun with garbage, pollution, and basically life can no longer exist on the planet so people leave and live on a spaceship orbiting the galaxy. And while they are out there orbiting this big corporation promises to have solutions to the problem by creating these adorable little robots Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class (WALL-Es) that find garbage, condense it, and make little squares that can be put aside to clean up the whole planet. There is also another robot that is sent to Earth to scan and find organic life - which is a a sign that people can return to Earth. There is a whole plot line about the robots falling in love, trying to save humanity from an evil computer taking over the ship, and rogue robots - but the main point here is this film is a great introduction to Environmental Engineering. Environmental Engineering takes principals from other engineering fields like Computer Science, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and many more, and applies them to solving problems in the environment. And those applications come down to two very simple things. Environmental engineering is trying to help protect people from the environment, and protect the environment from people, all while trying to improve the overall quality of the world. And believe it or not, environmental engineering has been around for a really long time, even if we didn’t always call it environmental engineering. Ancient civilizations realized that water was really important to life, and even more so clean water. They needed to be sure that waste and removal of sewage was done safely to keep their water sources clean and protected. They created aqueducts, irrigation systems, sewage collection systems, all of this was environmental engineering! Today, these engineers are tackling tough problems like how to make sustainable products, reusable energy, and yeah, we are still trying to figure out how to get everyone on this planet access to clean water. 

So let’s look at Wall-E, Computer science and mechanical engineering came together to build this robot that finds garbage to clean up the planet. It is taking those fields and bringing them together to find solutions to problems affecting our environment. And while Wall-E was a made up robot for a movie, the principals and ideas behind it are steeped in truth. There are many people bringing fields together to clean up our planet in many different ways. For example, there is a woman in Kenya named Nzambi Matee who founded a company that takes used plastic waste, adds sand to it, and then processes it to make a low cost constructive material which is used as a paving brick. She is applying Chemical engineering, and materials science, and mechanical engineering, all together to tackle a gigantic problem - what to do with plastic waste, and turning it into a new, useful, lightweight, and affordable materials for building. Her ability to bring engineering skills and processes together is making a huge impact.

Another woman who made an impact was Rachel Carson. She had a very famous book called “Silent Spring” that she wrote in 1962. She took action when she saw what the pesticide DDT was doing to the environment and especially animals that were being sprayed with it. Her book had a great impact on bringing awareness to these chemicals and how dangerous they were. Her ability to utilize biological and chemical engineering applications to study this pesticide helped with getting government regulation to protect people and animals from DDT.

    Noise pollution is even a part of environmental engineering. Ever noticed those walls on the sides of highways? Those help block noise for those who live near the highway, that all started with a woman named Mary Walton in the 1880s when she realized while riding a train for a few days that the tracks actually enhanced the sound, it made it louder in the car. She wanted to cut down on the noise and in her basement set up a model train using those same materials on the track and discovered a sound dampening device to help absorb the vibrations decreasing the noise from the train. She got a patent for her device and sold it to the Metropolitan Railroad of Innovative York City.  Making an impact by protecting our ears!  

And here at Cornell, where collaboration is a core value to our engineering college, we bring faculty from several departments together to tackle environmental problems.  

Dr. Christine Shoemaker is a great example, in fact she became the first woman to chair a department, the Department of Environmental Engineering, here at Cornell in 1985. Her work used modeling, simulations, and math applications to help with environmental issues like pest control and groundwater remediation. She takes concepts from math, Operations research, and computer science and applies them to the field of environmental engineering to take on these complex problems. 

Ok so we know environmental engineering entails a passion for helping solve complex problems in our natural world and collaboration from all fields of engineering, now let’s look at how that is offered here at Cornell. If you listened to some of our other episodes like our Earth and Atmospheric Sciences episode or computer science one, you have heard us say that some of our majors belong to two or more schools. Environmental Engineering is one of those supermajors here at Cornell. You can major in it through the college of engineering, or you can also major in it through the college of Agriculture and Life Sciences also known as CALS. You will get the same great education in either school, but it just depends on what you want to do alongside the major to see which is the best fit for you.

Speaking of previous episodes… I loved having my co-worker Ginger on in our EAS episode and I thought this is such a unique and great opportunity to introduce you all to more of the team here in Cornell Engineering. And so I want to continue to do that. I want you all to hear who we are in this office and who is reading your applications, answering your questions, and sending you information about our program. We want to lift the veil a little bit here. So, before we get to our student interview, I am really excited to introduce another member of the Cornell Engineering family, Amanda Augustyn. 

Amanda Augustyn Interview:

Teri:

Hey Amanda, how are you doing?

Amanda

Hi Teri, I'm doing well, how are you?

Teri 

I'm really good. Thank you so much for taking some time and coming onto the podcast. I think this is such a great opportunity for all of us to meet the staff in engineering admissions. And I loved having Ginger on for our EAS episode. So this is another great opportunity to meet another person who works here at Cornell.

Amanda

Absolutely, thank you for having me.

Teri

Thanks. So can you go ahead and introduce yourself and maybe tell us a little bit about your journey into admissions.

Amanda

Sure, yes. My name is Amanda Augustyn, and I am an Assistant Director of Admissions here in the College of Engineering. I have been in this role for about five years and at Cornell for almost seven years. My journey in admissions started almost 15 years ago, actually, when I was an undergrad myself. I went to a small private school in Buffalo, New York. And there I worked as an admissions ambassador. I love the ambassador program. I love the school. And it was actually a really good fit for me. I did office hours, answering the phone, talking to prospective students and families about the college and also about the admissions process. And it really sparked an interest for me. After I graduated, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in higher ed. So after I graduated, I started off at a small school, also in the Buffalo, New York area. And I worked in admissions as an admissions counselor for a few years before I actually switched over to the other side of the house and took a role in financial aid. And actually that's what brought me to Cornell University. I began my career at Cornell as a financial aid counselor in Day Hall in the Office of Financial Aid and Student Employment. So I served in that role for a few years before I had the opportunity to come over and join Scott's team in the Engineering Admissions Office.

Teri

And we are so glad that you did!

Amanda

Oh, thank you. I love what I do. I love working with students and families, helping them through the application process and all that goes along with it.

Teri

Yeah, and you had such a good foundation on it. You have a great perspective as a student working in an admissions office and doing that role that you did at your undergrad and then now coming full circle, coming here and doing that as a professional career.

Amanda

Absolutely, I loved it.

Teri 

Awesome. So can you tell me a little bit more about your role here? Because I think the perspective that people may have is that we select a class of engineers, and that's our job. But that's really a part of our job, and it's a big part of our job. But there are so many other things that we do in this admissions office throughout the year. So can you tell me a little bit about how you contribute to that?

Amanda

Sure, absolutely. So part of my role is selection. All of the members of our team are responsible for reading applications and making admissions decisions, like you said. I also am involved with frontline support, so answering phone calls and emails that come into our general inbox. I work with counselors, students, and families. I supervise our student employees. So we actually have two students in our office that work paid positions year round and who assist with frontline support and customer service. I give information sessions both on campus and virtually. I advise our student group, the Cornell Engineering Ambassadors, which is exciting because that actually comes full circle for me. And I oversee Cornell Days, which is the program that we run for admitted students. In my role, I also work on communications on behalf of the admissions office.

Teri 

So you do a lot. There's a lot there. 

Amanda

It sounds like a lot when I list it like that.

Teri

It is, yeah. You think about us reading. We read from maybe like November through March. But there's a lot more that goes into it than just selection. And so I appreciate you shedding that light a little bit and showing us how you help us with the whole admissions process throughout the whole year. And you talked about you do communications for our office. Can you tell us about how that role specifically helps prospective students?

Amanda

Sure, absolutely. So I think it helps prospective students in a variety of ways. So very broadly, we have two main goals with our communication. So we're looking to share information and to tell stories that connect viewers to our community. And there are a variety of ways we do this. But through various modes of communication, we are hoping to provide information for education and access to uncover a field that maybe women hadn't considered before and we're hoping to shine a light on the pathway to get there.

Teri 

Wonderful. So can you tell us about what kind of mediums you use for these messages? You know, we want to make sure that we are recruiting women who are interested in math and science and seeing this opportunity here but how do you actually reach out to them?

Amanda

Sure, that's a great question. So one of our primary modes of communication is email. We have various email series that we run throughout the recruitment cycle. Typically these messages start in late June and they run through the fall. And they are, as I mentioned earlier, there's sort of two different types of emails. One is information based and the other is telling stories. So information based would be things like an introduction to Cornell Engineering,what we offer, our project teams, information about how to get involved with research, also sort of detailed information about our majors. And then the second type is storytelling through the voice of current Cornell engineering students. They talk about their decision to enroll here, things that they're involved with, their majors, so many different things about life as a Cornell engineer. But really the hope is through that is that through these stories, we can showcase the breadth of opportunity available and also the wide variety of paths that students take once they come.

Teri 

Right, so no story is the same. There are a lot of different ways that people come to Cornell Engineering with many different backgrounds.

Amanda

Absolutely, that is 100% the case.

Teri 

So I know that you do a lot of emailing, but there are other mediums that you use to send out messages and other ways that you reach out to families and prospective students. What other ways do you reach out?

Amanda

Absolutely, that's a great question. So there are a lot of ways that we reach out to students and that we try to share information and give prospective students and families the opportunity to connect with us and with our office and with the Cornell Engineering community. So a big one is our virtual visit site. It's visit.engineering.cornell.edu. And it houses a ton of information. So there, folks can view a recording of our information session. They can take a virtual tour of the engineering quad. They can read student profiles. And we also post our blog. So our blog is another great way that we tell stories about life as a Cornell engineer. Our blogs are mostly written by students. Some of them are by staff. But we talk about various aspects of life as a Cornell engineer students talk about study abroad and how it fits into the engineering curriculum. They talk about their favorite classes, what they do outside the classroom, lots of different things. So it's a great way for students to get an idea of what it's like to be a Cornell engineer. You also mentioned panels. We do run several different panels throughout the year. We run virtual information sessions in the summer and we run Q and A panels in the fall. And those are usually staff led. And we have, five or six student ambassadors that come, they answer questions, and they talk about why they chose Cornell Engineering and what it's like to be a Cornell engineer.

Teri 

These are all awesome ways to get information. And it's not just information that you're going to get, reading a website, maybe structured as a website, but it's also you're getting the voice of an actual student. You're listening to panels, you're seeing their blogs. So I really love this perspective that you're able to provide for everybody and this access to this actual information that they can get from real students.

Amanda

Thank you so much. It is invaluable to hear the experience directly from our students.

Teri

Yeah, absolutely. So when do you start communicating with prospective students? When does this all begin?

Amanda

So typically we work mostly with high school juniors and seniors. These are folks that are really deeply into the college search. So they're exploring their options. They're thinking about what they want to do and where they want to go and what they might study. And I think it's important that we reach out early, both to talk about the opportunities here, but also to talk about their requirements and what curriculum requirements there are for students to apply to Cornell Engineering.

Teri 

That is really important. We want to make sure that students have that information about requirements for applications.

Amanda

Absolutely, yes.

Teri 

Okay, so finally, is there anything else you would like to share or any advice you have for prospective female students who are interested in engineering?

Amanda

Yes, I do. I think the one thing that I want women in engineering to know is that there is a vibrant community here in the College of Engineering waiting to welcome them. I want them to know that they'll be supported both academically and personally, and that Cornell Engineering can really help them achieve their dreams. And if you have questions or if there is anything that we can do to help you throughout your college search, please reach out. We are here to help.

Teri

Yes, absolutely. We want to hear from you. We want to know how we can help make this process a bit easier for you all. So thank you so much. I really appreciate your time, Amanda. This has been lovely to talk to you. And again, for everyone to hear from another person in our engineering admissions office.

Amanda

Thank you, Teri. Thanks for having me.

Student Interview:

Teri

Hey Regina, thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing?

Regina 

Good, thank you. 

Teri

Wonderful. So first, can you just introduce yourself to us and to our audience? 

Regina 

Yeah, of course. So my name's Regina. I'm from Monterrey, Mexico, and I'm a senior in environmental engineering.

Teri

Wonderful. Can you tell me a little bit about being an international student and coming here from another country and what that's like a little bit?

Regina 

I would say it's definitely, it was definitely an adjustment. You're far away from home and you're introduced to this whole new culture. But when you get here, you realize there's a lot of international students and there's a like really big welcoming environment from the faculty, from other students. And just your perspective is just being welcomed into this like academic environment, which is so exciting. And it's basically what I wanted just to learn from people that come from different places and different backgrounds and just share whatever they've grown up with and come up with like interesting ideas.

Teri

So cool. Awesome. So tell me a little bit about your interest in engineering and how that got started. Were you a young kid and you were playing with blocks and you started building or was there an experience that you had and you became interested in engineering?

Regina 

I would say it started mainly because I was very interested in sustainability. So I grew up in a very big city and from a very young age, I'd get frustrated by just inefficient infrastructure. I just couldn't understand why they would do that, basically, I would say. 

Teri

Hahaha

Regina

And so I got very interested in and drawn to the whole concept of sustainable cities and sustainable development, right? And so alongside this as well, I was always just very good at math and I really liked when like the numbers added up and when it was just like, it's like scientific, right? So I really just enjoyed that whole feeling. And then when I was thinking about going to a professional career, I was like sustainability and math and adds up to environmental engineering. So that's why I was interested in this particular career. Now I think it's not just that, it's not just sustainability and math, obviously, but that's what got me here.

Teri 

Mm -hmm. So you saw a problem, you saw all of these issues in your world. And I love the fact that you kind of took it into your own hands and you're like, I wanna fix this. This is not how it should be.

Regina 

Yeah.

Teri

We have better solutions, I have better solutions. So you wanted to be a part of that and bring that problem solving into it and bringing the math and saying, wait, I have these skills, I'm good at this. And I want to solve these engineering problems through sustainability. I love that. 

Regina

Yeah

Teri

That's such a cool story. So you're interested in sustainability and engineering, and you're seeing these problems. What brought you to Cornell? How did you find us up here in Ithaca, New York?

Regina 

So I would say that my journey to Cornell was not very traditional in the sense that I didn't start here as a first year. I was actually a transfer student. I started school back in Mexico and I was doing sustainable development engineering, which is similar to environmental engineering and I really liked it. But I felt or I thought that I really wanted to go to a school where I had more academic freedom to take classes outside of engineering. And I guess at Cornell was the perfect place for that because of how liberal arts is basically embedded into the engineering curriculum. And that was really exciting. And then also I would see that there were plenty of opportunities to get hands -on experience with sustainability -related activities here at Cornell. So just those two things sold it for me.

Teri 

So tell me about that experience of applying as a transfer student and then getting that email that said, yes, we want you to come to Cornell.

Regina 

Yeah, so applying as a transfer student, I'd say it's not very different from applying as a first year because I did that when I was in high school. And it was just a matter of figuring out what kind of specific requirements there is for the school you're applying to. It's a little bit of added work, but it's not so far off from just regular and early decision applications when you're in high school. And then when I got in, it's kind of like a funny story. It was my dad's birthday, actually that same day that I got the email. And I was so not hopeful of getting into Cornell that I had already started researching universities to apply to the coming year.

Teri

Yeah

Regina

So it was just like so not expecting it. My parents were out of the house and I remember just getting the email. And being like, of course I didn't get in and I opened it in my phone and I just saw the like, congratulations zoomed in and I started screaming and my sister was there and she was like, what is going on? And then I called my parents and they were like crying at the restaurant. They were having lunch at and so yeah, just a whole day with like so many emotions. My dad was calling his dad and like, it was just such a big thing and he was like so excited also because it was his birthday. So yeah.

Teri 

Oh my gosh.

Teri 

Yeah. What a gift. What a gift for him to see that his daughter was able to go to some, do something that she succeeded at. Um, and you weren't sure about your, you were like, Oh, I don't know. I'm going to research something else. There's gotta be a plan B, but, um, I love that. I love that story so much. That's really great. Ok so you’re here, you’re at Cornell. I love that your journey is a bit different and it's even different than a lot of the other women that we've had on this podcast. So can you tell me about what your academics are like, what kind of classes you're taking and what you're learning here?

Regina 

So this semester I'm a senior, which means that I'm taking like my capstone courses and I'm doing a class on wastewater engineering, which I gotta say I'd never taken before. I actually focused on energy. So those were the classes that I was choosing on like the previous semesters because that's what I wanna do in the future. But this time I'm like I'm challenging myself to learn something new, which is exciting and obviously a little bit scary at the same time, because this is a high level class and it requires a lot more analysis and critical thinking and just making up your own decisions with your projects. So I guess it's like good practice for going into the real world. And then out of that, I've also taken classes in… for example, environmental economics, as I was saying, I really wanted to spread out from engineering and have like a very well -rounded education. And I really enjoyed just looking at the business side of things and understanding a little bit more of how that, how like sustainability can be incorporated into our economic models. And another track that I also wanted to take was just environmental governance and learning how resources are allocated and how they're given value. And I also did this through like taking a class on Indigenous knowledge and how that plays into sustainability as well. So I'm just trying to build up this curriculum that allows me to have like a very global perspective towards environmental engineering and how to utilize resources.

Teri 

Yeah, you are taking environmental engineering and I feel like you are just like coming at every side of it. You are looking at so many different pathways and opinions and just different ways of exploring the whole field. I love that. So now that you have these classes, this background and this really diverse background about how to look into environmental engineering, can you tell me in your own words what environmental engineering actually is?

Regina 

Yeah, so that's a very good question because I think environmental engineering can be so many things and coming here definitely changed my perspective of what I thought environmental engineering was. And it's not just about like nature and like resources. It's like a whole combination of how can we make like something better through the optimal use of resources while also taking care of the environment, but also taking care of communities and the communities that are affected by said projects or said solutions. So I think it's just a very intersectional way of looking at engineering. And it just, it makes me very excited because I, more and more, I see that this is sort of like the solution through the problems I was seeing when I was a little girl, right?

Teri 

Yeah, and it's all encompassing. You're being able to see the problem, but then the solutions are not only coming from one place. The solutions are coming from many different directives with that. So now that we know a little bit more about environmental engineering and your classes, can you tell me about what else you do at Cornell? What are some co -curriculars that you have, whether it's like a dance team or maybe it is steeped in engineering and you're on a project team or doing research? I will say that...Regina is one of our lovely and wonderful student workers in our office. That's how we pulled her into this. And she is just an amazing help in the office. So if you've ever gotten an email from her 

Regina 

Hahaha

Teri

or a phone call and you've called and Regina has answered, she is the smiling face behind that. So tell us a little bit more about your other activities on campus.

Regina 

I kind of like throughout my time here at Cornell, I focused on two student groups that I really, really love and I put a lot of effort into them. And so one of them is Cornell Sustainability Consultants. So it's basically a group of students that are not necessarily only from engineering or from one major specifically, it's students that are from ILR, from economics, from business, from environment and sustainability and environmental engineering as well and so much more. And we are divided into sub teams and we actually work with real clients. So this past year, I've been a project manager for a group that is focusing on sustainable tourism and we're working with a real client. So that's just like a great hands -on experience.

Teri 

Whoa. Yeah.

Regina 

And then on the other side, I am still part of this group called Epsilon Eta, which is a professional development fraternity. And as well, it's comprised of many different majors and people that have many different interests but have this common goal or this common passion of sustainability. So I've really gotten to meet other students that are doing like so many different things and very different from what I'm doing, but they're doing it in the theme of sustainability. So it was a great way to get ideas of what I wanted to do in the future, what I could do with my career, the ways or the different paths that it could go to. So that was just a great way to like grow my network and expand it with people that at the end of the day have this just interest and common goal in sustainability.

Teri 

That’s awesome community to have. You're bringing your academics and your interests in environmental issues, but you're building this community of people who are not necessarily engineers, but they're coming from all different things and you're still trying to solve problems together. I love that. That's really great. All right, so you are a senior. You have just a few months left here at Cornell. Can you tell me about what you're planning for after graduation and maybe even beyond that what your goals are for your career and your life going forward.

Regina 

That is a good question. I'm excited to see how this like path after undergraduate school goes. At the moment, I'm gonna go out and work and I'm gonna start working in this company that's focusing on decarbonization and has this like overall theme of sustainability throughout all company areas, which is something that I was really looking forward to and a key and critical aspect that I was looking for in companies when I was looking for a job, right? And then I'm thinking of doing that for a bit. And there's this like thought in my head of going back to school after a few years and

Teri 

Mm -hmm.

Regina 

maybe getting a master's or just another graduate program specifically because I think that I still want to specify or like focus more in certain areas, which I don't know which they are at the moment because I'm interested in so many things at the same time. So I want to go out basically into the workforce and see what I like, see what I enjoy and see what I want to focus on more.

Teri 

Yeah, you're being very smart about that. I think it's okay to not know yet because you need to go out and experience it and see what you like and what you don't like that's actually in the field. Congratulations for getting a job right out of undergrad. That's really exciting. Do you start in the summer?

Regina 

Thank you. No, so I actually start until September,

Teri

Oh good, you have some time. 

Regina

So I'm gonna go home and be with my parents and be with my family for a while, and then I'm gonna go. Yeah.

Teri 

You should. You've worked hard. Yeah, you've worked hard and you deserve a little bit of a break before you become a full adult with the job and all of the, all of the stuff that goes along with it.

Regina 

Yeah.

Teri

Um, all right. So congratulations again. That's really awesome. 

Regina 

Thank you.

Teri

Tell me about your experience being a female in engineering, especially here at Cornell, like how have you contributed to this field as a woman and what kind of positives do you bring along with it having this unique voice?

Regina 

Yeah, I think there are several things I can say regarding to this question. So, I mean, I talked about how I was a transfer student from Mexico, right? So I would say that that was one of the crazy things that I saw when I came here to Cornell is that there were a lot of women in my classes, right? So I went to a school where like the engineering field is basically dominated by men and then I switched off to Cornell and I got to see that I was actually surrounded by a lot of women, and especially in environmental engineering, I think there's a lot of women that are in that field and that want to go into that field, which is just so exciting. And I think it's basically the future, right? And so I think it's just amazing to basically see that Cornell is committed or Cornell engineering is committed to this equity issue, right? And this accessibility issue and that they're at the forefront of basically giving women the opportunity to reach their career goals and to go into engineering if they want to. So I think that's just been an amazing experience, right? And then as a female engineer, I can say that at least here, my voice is always heard and that, I mean, we all bring a unique perspective. And I think that we have a lot to offer that in the sense that sometimes we have different mindsets because of the experiences that we've had growing up. And I think as coupled as a Mexican woman as well, I bring like another interesting perspective that is always welcome and that people are excited to hear about and to include in our analysis and in our like solving problems. 

Teri 

Absolutely.

Regina

So I think it's just been a really good experience overall.

Teri 

I'm glad to hear that. That's awesome. So going through this journey is not necessarily easy. There's a lot of rigor in our academics. You're away from home. You know, college can be a time where you need some support. So tell me who is your support? Who helps you feel like you can get through this and you have you're going to have success on the other side of it.

Regina 

I would say definitely my friends and family. They've been like a key aspect of me being here. And by this I mean like the family that I have back home and the friends that I have back home, but also the friends I've made here along the way 

Teri 

Mm -hmm.

Regina

and just going through it with other students that are also going through it and that are also struggling sometimes and just building the support system with people you enjoy spending your time with is really great. And I would say that at the beginning, for example, the first semester, it was particularly tough because you're building the support system. You don't have it here when you just come here for the first time and you're figuring things out. And so as I was building that support system, I realized that by joining like this extracurricular groups, right, I found community and I found friends along the way. 

Teri 

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You need that family that you kind of build yourself here. 

Regina

Mm-hmm

Teri

You have your family at home, and there's always FaceTime and calling, but there's nothing like being in a room with somebody and being like, this is hard, and someone else saying, it's hard for me too. And you connect, right? 

Regina

Yeah

Teri

You connect, you build that, and then you find and explore things that you guys can bond over. So I'm really glad that you found that community here and you're able to find that support system. 

Regina

Yeah

Teri 

So my final question for you is, tell me about your view of environmental engineering and specifically why girls should explore this field and why they should come to this and use their voice to help the future.

Regina 

Yeah, so I think that, as I've mentioned before, environmental engineering is something super important, not only for the future, but for the present, right? So we're coming at a time where we might start to see a lot of tipping points regarding the environment or even our economic models and how our society functions, basically. So I think that having...this view of like a very broad approach towards problems and just thinking about the many different things that come together to solve something and keeping community at the forefront of what we're doing is just critical to us moving forward as basically a society of human beings, right? So I think it's just something important for development and just sustainable development overall is something that we need to invest in and that we need to educate ourselves in. And I guess as women and as girls, we can do that as well. And we can be part of this huge solution that everyone is scouring for, right? Because there's a lot of people trying to like...

Teri

Yeah.

Regina 

come up with solutions for these problems. But the thing is that there's none already out there. So we're at the moment where we're all just trying to figure out what is best. So I think it's just an amazing opportunity to go into this field and be part of that solution of how do we make things more equitable? How do we make resources better allocated for those that do not have access to those resources, right? So I think it's just a great way to basically just contribute to the overall cause of bettering our world.

Teri 

Absolutely. And we need women to be at that table to contribute to that. We need a diverse community coming up with these solutions because they're a lot more complex than we've ever faced before. 

Regina 

Mm -hmm.

Teri

So we need everybody at the table. So thank you so much, Regina. This was a lovely conversation. I'm so appreciative of your voice and bringing your perspective to this podcast so others can hear.

Regina 

No, Teri, thank you so much for asking me to be here and I really enjoyed talking to you and sharing these experiences.

Teri 

Wonderful. Thanks, Regina.

Regina 

Thank you.

Admissions Interview: 

Teri 

Hey Scott, how are you doing?

Scott 

Hey Teri, I'm doing really well. How are you today?

Teri 

We're good. It's incredible that we are at the end of a selection cycle. It's almost the end of March, which is when we kind of wrap things up.

Scott 

Yeah, yeah, it's like a blur. It goes by so quickly. It's an intensive period of time for everyone, I think.

Teri

It is, yeah. And then we kind of start to think about our next selection cycle, right? It is truly a cycle. We start one and then we finish and then we go right into the next. And so the question I have for you today is about kind of the beginning of the selection cycle and students trying to think about their pathway to different college programs. And one of those things you have to think about are academic requirements. So I wanted to hear from you about what our academic requirements are for Cornell Engineering and why we have them.

Scott 

Yeah, it's never too early, I guess, to sort of think about this and how do you prepare for engineering? And literally by never too early, I mean, you know, even students in elementary school and junior high school and middle school that are interested in STEM or even thinking about putting creativity together with engineering or STEM fields later in life should maybe even start thinking about what courses ultimately they're going to take to get there. So our baseline requirements for the College of Engineering for submitting an application to the College of Engineering. The key ones are one unit of calculus, one unit of physics, and one unit of chemistry. And by unit, we basically mean one full high school course. So that's a baseline minimum. We want all of our students to walk through the door with that calculus in piece, feeling comfortable in physics and having experience in at least one chemistry class.

Teri 

And we do recommend a computer science class, but it is not something that is mandated or a requirement.

Scott

Yeah, absolutely. So computer science is, you know, often is an important part of whatever engineering field students ultimately go into. So gaining some facility or knowledge in computer science, even before arriving in engineering can be helpful. It's not an absolute requirement though. It's not absolutely at the core of what a student would need to succeed in engineering. Calculus, physics, chem, definitely at the core of that. So that it sort of leads into our related questions like, well, why do you...Why do you require those particular things? And the answer to that is essentially that the toolbox classes to be a successful engineer in any engineering discipline you can think of are really calculus, physics, and chemistry. Sort of think of them as sort of like the hammer, the screwdriver, and the saw for engineering work, whatever that engineering is that you're interested in doing. Those are the critical pieces.

Teri 

So we utilize those things, building your future forward, if you want to go with that toolbox reference and building your interests and understanding where it starts, right? That's the foundation.

Scott

It's a terrible metaphor, wasn't it? Yeah, it is. 

Teri

Hahaha

Scott

And the other thing is that's a bad metaphor, but that's not unique to Cornell. So any engineering program that you're looking at will have some level of those courses either embedded in the curriculum for engineering or as a requirement for applying and entering an engineering program. That comes off the back of the accrediting board for engineering programs. So ABET, the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology Programs requires that students be proficient in calculus, physics, and chemistry. And then in a tangential way, computer science will become important as well sort of later on too for students.

Teri 

Got it. So calc, physics, chemistry, those are the academic requirements that we need. So going in, what do you have for advice for us this episode?

Scott

I'm going to talk to you a little bit about a program that we have at Cornell in the College of Engineering that I think is A, really interesting and B, really excellent and C, something that's a little bit unique in many regards to Cornell. And we have an engineering leadership program that's embedded within the College of Engineering. And when you think of engineering as a high school student, you basically think often about, well, engineering is just about doing engineering and actually doing the technical work around engineering. And it absolutely is. But engineers ultimately become leaders and at Cornell, we don't want to leave that to chance. We want them to have the opportunity to explore their own self sense of what leadership is and also to build those skills in ways that we think are reflective and important and rooted in some sense of ethics and in principles. So we have an engineering leadership program that we've developed over many years, and it's a top notch program. It's a national leader in developing leaders in the field of engineering. And so I would say, you know, think about, absolutely think about the core pieces of engineering that interests you most, the technical parts, but always be on the lookout for these types of programs, engineering programs that you're thinking about or looking at.

And for Cornell, don't miss our engineering leadership program. Look it up on the web using those words, Cornell Engineering Leadership Program, and it will give you a good sense of what that architecture piece is. Now here's the key piece I'll just put out there really quickly. So when you think of leadership, you also think, people often think of like, well, it's the CEO of a company or something like that. Maybe that's part of it for us, but we're more interested in students having the opportunity to really reflect on who they are, what are their principles, what are their values, how do those intersect with the engineering work that they want to do, and then how do they cultivate themselves into a leader that makes sense to their own skills and abilities, values, attributes, and characteristics. That is what our engineering leadership program focuses on. So it's a way for students to really intensely and purposefully think about themselves within the context of leadership and define it for themselves. Not just us sort of saying, hey, to be a leader, you have to be really good at X, Y, and Z. It's really up to them to think about introspectively who they are and how they would want to lead in an effective way that makes sense to them. So it's unique.

Teri 

Self -exploration. Yeah.

Scott

It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's a great program for sure.

Teri

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. I hope that people do go online and try to find it. And that aspect of that self -exploration, finding the leadership that you are, the leader that you are, but not necessarily who everyone else is. It's within yourself. And developing that, I think, is really unique. That's cool.

Scott

Yeah, I love how they've done it. They just did a wonderful job putting that together and it continues to every year get better and better. So it's a good program.

Teri 

Awesome. Well, we have come to an end of another episode of VIEW. I want to sincerely thank Amanda for coming on the podcast,  our amazing student, Regina for sharing her story. Thank you, Scott, for always giving us some great advice and helping us answer all of our questions. And finally, thank all of you for listening. I hope you learned something today. And maybe it's that you're an engineer.

Closing:

Teri

VIEW, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women Is a podcast produced and written by the Cornell Engineering Admissions Office. Please remember to like, follow, subscribe and share our podcast and help us bring engineering to the ears of young women everywhere. To find out more information about Cornell engineering please visit our website visit.engineering.cornell.edu.