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"We
believe that some of the best advice
and insights about college life in general, and specifically engineering
education, reside within you who live the experience directly." With those words, the Academy for Excellence
in Engineering (AE3) launched an annual
essay contest inviting students to write about their educational experiences
at the University of Illinois.
Douglas
Campbell Britton's essay, a personal story of growth and self-discovery,
was selected from the first year's entries.
Britton, 25, expects to graduate with an engineering degree in
computer science in May 2002.
In
the top 5% of his 1993 high school class, he was accepted to the College
of Engineering and arrived with a treasured copy of Oh the Places
You'll Go! by Dr. Suess. He made the Dean's list his first semester
but was on probation by the following fall, and the future, he wrote,
"turned out to be not quite as simple as Dr. Suess' novella predicted."
Britton
dropped out of school in 1997, $30,000 in debt and determined to start
over. Tapping into his programming experience, he took a technology
support position at a Chicago bank, where his success led to increasing
responsibilities and a promotion to assistant vice president at age
23. Unwilling to commit
to a career in computers and banking, however, he enlisted in the Illinois
Army National Guard to be a Russian linguist in military intelligence
and resolved to return to the U of I.
Reassessing his life, he realized that his experiences were "indirect
training in how to be an engineer."
Following
are excerpts from Britton's AE3 essay:
First of all, an engineer with a wide base of experience
that reaches far beyond their everyday subject matter is a wiser engineer. If you want to know more about civil engineering, study history.
If you want to be a better programmer, study music.
The more you exercise your mind, the broader your perspective
will be. This will give
you a wider ability to solve problems in your main field.
Secondly, you might be capable of making it through an
engineering program at the U of I, but make sure that it is what you
want to do. There is nothing lost if you truly invest yourself in a discipline
and then that leads you to a new endeavor. The learned lessons will carry over to the new field of study. I was a better soldier because I had been
a student of engineering. I
was better at studying languages because I had the systematic discipline
of a soldier. And
now I will return to be a better engineer.
My original decision to be a computer science student
was passive and therefore unsuccessful.
To you, tomorrow's engineers, have the courage and confidence
in yourself to pursue your own life for your own reasons. Pick what interests you.
Next, in my opinion, the word "failure" is
simply a negative euphemism for "a chance to start fresh." The word "problem" really means "opportunity."
And when surrounded by these words, an engineer is given the
greatest chance to exercise creativity.
I needed to leave college and start over.
Don't be afraid to do that if you have tried everything else.
Having said that, let me explain what I mean by trying
everything else. The university has a variety of programs
to help students in all sorts of trouble. Do you think you are the first to have your problem? You aren't. Have the courage to approach your professors.
Have the courage to approach your deans.
I have gained confidence, discipline, strength, courage,
and brains that I never knew I had.
I will be a stronger engineer because of the varied experience.
Trust yourself.
Trust your instincts and your emotions.
Don't passively let decisions be made for you.
Actively make your choices.
Solve problems in a creative manner. That includes solving your own personal problems in a creative
manner. If you hurt, get
help. If you are unsure,
ask a question. If you
are scared, call your parents or friends.
After all, what is the work of an engineer?
Engineers solve problems.
Be an engineer.
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