Thglimited - Heavy Industries

It is so hard to believe that we are about to start the sixth week of spring quarter. It seems like only last week that I was stressing over winter’s physics 1 final (which was not as hard as it is made out to be). I shouldn’t be surprised though, that is how my entire first year at UC has been. There is so much to do on campus and around Cincinnati that time just flies by. More often than not, I find myself overbooked and being forced to decide which event I want to attend and which event I will have to miss out on in order to keep up with the engineering curriculum. That is my favorite thing about The University of Cincinnati; the plethora of student organizations and activities. As a freshman fall quarter, I was overwhelmed with invites to attend meetings of student organizations, all of which appealed to my interest. However, I quickly found out that one simply cannot be a part of everything, so I settled on becoming very involved in a few select organizations.

The first student organization I joined was Rally Cats, a student spirit club that attends all of the varsity sporting events. The Rally Cats group is fun, energetic, and always up for having a good time. Aside from attending all of the big games, they plan several smaller outings such as mini golf, ice skating, and canoeing. We even went to Washington D.C. to see our Bearcats play Georgetown in basketball! However, despite all of the friends I made in Rally Cats, I realized quickly that I also needed to become more involved within the college of engineering because really, it takes an engineer to fully appreciate another engineer’s sense of humor and personality. That is why I joined Engineering Ambassadors (EA) and The Society of Women Engineers (SWE); I’m beginning to think everything in college is an acronym! I haven’t had time to be as active in SWE as I would like to be but I’ve really enjoyed my time with EA and I hope to become more involved as I advance in school.

Don’t be fooled though, college is not just attending a series of events and meetings. I spend most week nights studying with my study group, which consists of four other freshmen in mechanical engineering. Joining a study group was, by far, the smartest decision I made this year. Engineering is rewarding but it is also extremely challenging. Having a group to struggle through physics and calculus problems with makes the classes a lot more bearable. Plus, there is always someone that understands a concept and can explain it to the rest of us when we don’t understand.

Overall, I would say my first year at UC has been a success. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

-Meg