Accommodating different learning styles with regards to gender, culture and personality types
A noble and competitive field such as engineering requires that one work with people of diverse backgrounds, cultures and genders. In this understanding, the university will be a melting pot of diversity in all aspects. Learning to work in sync and collaboration with all the other students and faculty is a main objective for any serious and success seeking engineering student. Previous academic experiences provide students with varying backgrounds and may have different ways of solving the same problem. Harnessing this diversity in ideas is a good way of building a wide arsenal of methods for application in the engineering practice with different scenarios seeking unique approaches. Further, by compounding different ways of doing things, an engineer is able to formulate a hybrid method marrying all the available ways to the solution. Hybrid methods are important in solving complex issues, which would otherwise prove difficult solving using contemporary methods.
An open-minded approach towards absorbing content disseminated by the faculty is important. Various lecturers have differing delivery methods with each applying the methods they feel adequately utilize their strengths in communication abilities. Some instructors for instance favor use of charts and diagrams; others utilize practical demonstrations while others may find detailed verbal delivery as the most viable solution for them. Understanding and marrying all the approaches disposes the student to a beneficial position of absorbing as much content as they can. Differentiating the educational content from the vehicle is an important skill thereof, as it applies in the work place in understanding situations differently
Good health and wellness practices, and stress management
Learners, especially of a demanding course such as engineering are bound to engage in activity, which might prove stressful for them. Adequate management of stress is an activity best controlled by the avoidance stressful situations. A major cause of stress for a majority of students is procrastination. Leaving tasks uncompleted up to the last minute causes the student to panic and rush to accomplish those tasks in a hurriedly manner compromising on the quality of their output and exerting enormous pressure and stress upon themselves. I intend to avoid this scenario by completing tasks on time, taking time to research and clarify on points of uncertainty and taking my tasks with passion executing them with a real love for them rather than a pretense associated with people seeking papers for landing a job.
Taking care of my health and the food choices is an important life skill. While it is hard relating food choices with academic success, the two are implicitly related and bad eating habits, for instance, indicate a lack of care for the self, which would be hard to imagine such individuals taking care of their plans, for instance. Taking care to avoid foods such as alcohol, for instance, which would derail my learning patterns and take up time that would otherwise be utilized in research and studying is a goal I strive towards every day.
Development of a high sense of personal and professional integrity, and ethical behavior
Engineering is a people oriented profession with a majority of the products offered by an engineer being services. Cultivation of ethical behavior is a goal that each engineer should strive towards as ethics relate to honesty, which in turn relates to quality services and products by the engineer. Learning to work with people, earning their trust and learning to use that trust is a skill that is essential in engineering practice. Trust is earned by conducting your activities in a way expected of you, or even by exceeding the expectations set on you. In developing this trait, the university provides the ample training ground. The pressures on an engineering student within the university situation closely mimic the pressures exerted on the engineers in the real world. School requires that deadlines to projects are met, assignments are handed in, and tests passed in order to achieve a good grade. The pressure in achieving these tasks is enormous and some students cave under the pressure to involve in practices that are unethical such as cheating in examinations. By avoiding these temptations in improving grades, I will build a strong foundation and sense of morality and ethics, and expecting reward for effort expended, rather than earning grades through dubious methods, hard work and adherence to procedure will build a strong sense of ethics in me.
Ways of getting desired outcomes out of the education system
The education system, being the vehicle that will ultimately build an engineer out of an ambitious young student, has to provide me with all the knowledge I will require in my practice. The value of professional released from institutions of higher learning is highly varied. The value people are able to extort from the university, determines the value they hold as professionals. In this consideration, I intend to extort the highest value as possible from the university. By utilization of tools such as tutoring of aspiring engineers, I will afford myself the chance to utilize my knowledge in a practical manner. This method will enable me to identify the areas of my learning that need strengthening and revamping. The utilization of the job placement programme on offer by the university is, to me, the best tool yet in gaining the most value from the university. The skills learnt are subjected to situations needing solutions in a job situation. The situation will help me in learning how to convert knowledge learnt as theory into practical solutions. Utilization of the Engineering club is another way I seek to earning maximum value from the university. The club provides the perfect place for meeting and making valuable contacts who might end up being business partners and useful in sourcing employment for instance.
Additional objectives important for success in engineering study.
Success in life involves knowing what you want, how you want it, and how to get it. The realization of these things puts an individual in a commanding position of their situation. As an aspiring engineer it is important that all the professional aspects of the career be addressed for success. However, in my endeavor, I seek to marry various factors in achieving a whole package, an accomplished engineer, and a fulfilled individual. Emotional stability is a factor I consider as key in ensuring my success in engineering both while studying, and as a career in future.
In achieving this aim, I intend to use the support of my family. The continued support they have continually showed in my endeavors is one of the main pillars of strength I draw from in succeeding to this extent. Maintaining good relations with them is a sure way of involving them in my success, as their success.
Spiritual alignment is another factor I consider as an integral part of my being, fortunately, the university is accommodative of all religious affiliations, and I intend to use the facilities both within campus and in the neighborhood to mould a spiritual persona. I find that spirituality helps me in keeping the peace between the demands of success, and the need to do what is right, a balance that is crucial for consistent performance.
Finally, success for individual gain has never been an area I deem as working towards. It is important that the success I hope to enjoy proves useful to other members of the society as well. In developing this habit, I intend to participate in the various charitable drives within campus such as hospices and community volunteer programmes. The experience of assisting is a culture that needs nurturing and these activities will go a long way in building that trait.
