The Story of the Immigrant in American College

There is always a moment in someone’s life when something has to change. It was the quarantine and the realization that I no longer liked bartending. The struggle to go to work, looking for ways to change careers, job positions, and other ways to avoid confronting the idea that the time had come. I realized that I missed academia. I went to university in Ukraine and dropped out to move to the United States, where I was welcomed with the typical immigrant life. I did all possible low-paying and low-skill jobs but wanted more. I was always eager to improve, which was often met with a need for more knowledge of the English language. However, around early 2020, I realized that I would love to be a mechanical engineer, and the only way to become one was to go to college. That is when my journey in American college began.

Throughout my early years in college, I had an easy time with classes, possibly because I was getting lucky with the cool and understanding professors I had. This was very different from Ukraine, where you had a set schedule and professors for all years at the university. This year, I took a class called Writing for Engineers with Mr. Bubrow, and I experienced firsthand what it means when a professor cares about teaching and not just filling in the spot of a professor. We had amazing assignments and great moments during the semester with Mr. B, the first of which was writing a resume and cover letter.

With my big work experience, I thought I would easily fill in one page of experience and skills, but I needed to be corrected. Starting with my resume, I had to sit down and highlight relevant work experience. Naturally, I started looking back at my years in construction and putting that down on paper. Nevertheless, after filling in only a few lines, I realized that more was needed. Thankfully, Mr. B and the textbook pointed me in the right direction. I started to find connections between engineering and other fields I worked in and the transferable skills I had. After reflecting on all my jobs and internships, I developed a strong resume that was professionally organized and designed to fit the criteria.

Work continued. I began looking for internship positions to write my cover letter for, which was a relatively easy task. Using LinkedIn, I found many good companies with internship positions open, and I picked Syska Group. Writing the cover letter was straightforward, with the help of examples and notes from Mr. Bubrow. After all, I could use that resume and cover letter to apply to other internship positions, which helped me get two interviews, and I hope to land one of them for next summer’s internship.

The next and most interesting assignment was the lab report. Many of us who had to deal with physics or chemistry classes encountered professionally written lab reports, where students only had to fill in data and results. However, this assignment taught us how to be professionals who create engaging and well-written lab reports. Our assignment was to write a lab report about the probability of two dice tosses. I got the idea to use my coding skills in MatLab to write unique code to have the computer do one hundred dice tosses for me. After I computed all that work, I had to write an abstract and add engaging information to interest the reader in my lab report. Overall, this assignment taught me to combine my computer and writing skills and show a unique approach to completing assignments. However, the next assignment made me use all my software and technology skills.

The next assignment was a group proposal, my favorite and most challenging assignment this semester. Aside from the work and research needed to create one of the best student center proposals, we all had to work in groups. This assignment taught me that collaboration, communication, and time management are very important in the real world, where deadlines and client needs always pile up on your plate. That is where the separation of workload came into play. Michael, Georgia, and I began our work on the group proposal. Finding a location, deciding on the general look of the student center, creating a general view, and structuring floor plans for the building was challenging but much fun. We assigned each student to work on one of the floors and ensured that it came together as one big organism. We worked on the presentation and other aspects of the proposal to ensure everything was ready for the day we would present it to investors—this time, our fellow students. Ultimately, it all went very well, and we tied for first place with another group of students for the best student center proposal. This assignment taught me how to work in a group and manage and organize work with other group members. I used my skills in AutoCAD to create floor plans for our student center and my Excel skills to create budget tables and work plan schedules.

The last and most exciting assignment was the technical description. After a few internships, I had some interesting projects to draw from, and I decided to present the conductive concrete research I conducted at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. This research took place last semester. With a professor from BMCC, we worked on the innovative technology of conductive concrete to enhance and improve building materials. This research touches on important energy-saving issues and battling climate change. Having done much research on the topic already, I had much material to include on the poster and my own pictures from when we worked on making our own samples of the conductive concrete. The presentation for students went well; people were interested in listening to the innovative and unique topic about revolutionizing typical construction materials, like concrete.

This semester was full of interesting and thoughtful assignments, which will be part of my future as a mechanical engineer. I gained valuable skills from the first and most important—writing a resume and cover letter—to more advanced tasks like writing lab reports, group proposals, and technical descriptions. Moreover, if I continue my academic journey and decide to pursue a master’s or PhD, writing lab reports will be a handy skill. The ability to organize and synthesize information from multiple sources, such as textbook, research, and online libraries, has been invaluable. This semester also taught me about audience and how to tailor my writing to meet different needs. All the writing skills I learned during this semester will stay and help me in my rocky journey through American college and beyond.