The thing that I am looking forward to most while in Iceland is going to be seeing the Northern Lights if they come out. This summer I missed my chance of seeing the Aurora when they came to Cincinnati because I was out of town. I then worked in Northern Minnesota (see picture) with the Boy Scouts and was hoping to see the Northern Lights then, but sadly they avoided me. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to see them this spring break. While the Northern Lights aren’t a guarantee, seeing the natural beauty of Iceland is. I love camping and hiking and just being in nature, which is another reason I was with the Boy Scouts this past summer, and I can’t wait to see the glaciers and volcanoes of Iceland.
Part of what motivated me to become a chemical engineer is that I want the natural beauty of the world to be preserved so that future generations get to see and experience it. To do that, I need to learn about sustainability. Fossil fuels are creating so much carbon dioxide which is causing global warming and acidifying the oceans. This will break down the environments like Northern Minnesota and Iceland and take them away from future generations. I hope that with this class I can learn how other sources of power are used, and how to do it effectively. I hope to understand how to use our current fuels more efficiently and in ways to impact the environment less.
These things are important for an engineer to learn, but they are also things that I could learn at home here in Pittsburgh. Going to Iceland to learn these things is important to me because while I learn, I will also be exposed to a new culture and live in it for a week. While a week isn’t enough time to understand an entire culture, the exposure will help broaden my horizons and show me new ways of living. This is important because the globe is becoming more interconnected every day and as an engineer, I am likely going to be working with all sorts of people that won’t be from the same culture as me and my early exposures will make it easier for me to exist with these differences.
Swanson School of Engineering 