“As a research-focused Cyclone Engineer, I want to find the small changes or optimizations that will create drastic change for both people and the environment.”
Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri
Clubs and activities: Student Government, Biosystems Engineering Club, Honors, DSO Student and Family Outreach Team
Valuable hands-on learning experience: My internship I had with Gross-Wen Technologies junior year helped solidify my interest in research engineering and biotechnology. It also helped me get into grad school, setting me up with the necessary research and lab skills for success.
Most influential mentor: Kurt Rosentrater, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering. From freshman year to working on writing a paper for him to classes senior year, Dr. Rosentrater been a great mentor and help on pushing me to get things done, that I probably wouldn’t have wanted to do on my own, and ensuring that I’m a well-rounded engineer.
Best memory: My greatest memories at Iowa State were made with my student cohort in BSE. We all became close friends and very willing to help each other out and supportive of each other. All of our individual successes were possible due to the support of our classmates, and they made coming to class and getting stuff done fun.
Plans for after graduation: I am a concurrent student, so I will be graduating again next May with my masters in agricultural and biosystems engineering, after which I plan to work for a R&D company.
Making my mark on the world: As a research-focused engineer, I want to find the small changes or optimizations that will create drastic change for both people and the environment.
Engineering like a Cyclone Engineer: The Iowa State engineering experience is such a collaborative and community-focused environment. Iowa State Engineering manages to be rigorous but friendly. Classmates aren’t competition. We’re peers meant to lift each other up. It’s amazing to see campus seem to shrink each year as you meet more and more friendly faces in labs and classes.