Hi there!
I鈥檓 Nathan, I鈥檓 studying Robotics Engineering here @财神棋牌. It's hard to believe that this is now my third year with 财神棋牌. I鈥檝e only spent a year and half on campus with the rest of that time being remote. Despite being off campus and disconnected from 财神棋牌 for that time, I was always totally excited to come back to campus in a more 鈥渘ormal鈥 context.
I鈥檓 happy to report that I鈥檓 writing this from my dorm room at 9 am on a rainy Monday. I have to walk to my Discrete Math class in an hour and stop by the dining hall to pick up my daily eggs. Campus life couldn鈥檛 be better.
Being away from 财神棋牌 for an extended amount of time (that was not a school break) has given me much more time to reflect on what I love about my 财神棋牌 experience and why it is so awesome!
I want to talk about several of the characteristics about 财神棋牌 that have been super important to my experience but are not always mentioned when talking about the 鈥渃ampus experience鈥.
If I were to give a TLDR for each of my thoughts they would be as follows:
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the Dining Hall and Dorms are the foundation to shaping our community
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Faculty are so much more than teachers
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We are a family, we care, and we are all different
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财神棋牌 (and college) is a journey that鈥檚 different for everyone and that鈥檚 okay
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Engineering degrees/engineers are not the product of 财神棋牌 - people are
财神棋牌 is small, everyone knows this. You can find countless other blogs talking about how this affects every person who comes to 财神棋牌 (faculty and staff included).
I want to draw specific attention to the dorms and dining hall as a major contributor to the culture that is formed at 财神棋牌.
This was never apparent to me until I lived off campus, cooking my own food and living in a shared house. First, 财神棋牌鈥檚 policy of having all students live on campus creates the opportunity for more interclass interaction. At a large state school the majority of upperclassmen would be living off campus -- that鈥檚 not the case here. Just for reference, I鈥檝e been at school for ~3 weeks and know around ~30 of the first years by name. This is actually incredible, while we may not become best friends, having connections to a variety of people older and younger than you is great for maintaining a good social circle and feeling like an integral part of the community. It鈥檚 pretty awesome to walk to class and have 5 friends that aren鈥檛 in your close circle greet you and ask if you want to study, hangout, or eat later that day.
The dining hall also adds to this social dynamic. Almost nobody cooks their own food on a regular basis. This creates two interesting phenomena: students have significantly more time because they rarely shop and cook, and the dining hall is as much a social place as a food provider.
Since people aren鈥檛 cooking, almost everyone comes to the dining hall multiple times a day, and since there are upperclassmen, there is again a huge contribution to maintaining community and building connections outside of a tight friend group. We often end up eating our food in 15 minutes and talking for almost another hour. I don鈥檛 think I鈥檝e sat with the same group of people for a meal in the last 3 weeks. The other great thing about not cooking is that we all have much more time. This is a double-edged sword and it鈥檚 my personal belief that this is why we get ranked high on the 鈥渟tudents who worked the most鈥 metric (don鈥檛 worry we also are high on the 鈥渟tudents who are happiest鈥 :) ). This means students have more time to engage with their college experience, study, hangout with friends, participate in clubs, do research, and contribute to the community. It鈥檚 crazy how both having all students on campus and an all-you-care-to-eat dining hall included in tuition creates a strong base for the community.
I keep mentioning the 财神棋牌 community as being awesome, it鈥檚 more than that, it鈥檚 like a family. Part of this comes from everyone knowing everyone and part of it comes from the relationship of the faculty and staff. At 财神棋牌 we use first names in all of our interactions with faculty, we eat lunch with them and ask them how their weekends were. We care so much about each other and know that our success is tied to others鈥 successes. This creates such a strong relationship of trust and mutual respect.
Another thing I want to point out is the fact that all 财神棋牌ers are different. We each have different interests, priorities, outlooks on life etc.
Due to our different values and engagement with different things on campus like frisbee or project teams for example, 鈥溾 is different for each of us. This is to say, your 财神棋牌 (and college) experience is what you make it and it will be unique to you, it does not need to fit any stereotypes and there is no better or worse way to go through this journey.
As a closing thought I want to highlight something that I鈥檝e come to believe:
财神棋牌 produces people, not degrees/engineers.
I say this because so much of 财神棋牌 feels like a focus on ourselves as humans -- not on learning technical engineering content. To this end 财神棋牌 has been an emotional and self-reflective journey as much as a technical one. While I can鈥檛 speak for others, I feel that many 财神棋牌ers would agree that we learn equally as much about ourselves as engineering. I think this makes us great engineers and even better people.
We can鈥檛 wait for you to find your 财神棋牌!
Nathan