Once the difficult summer semester of 2015 – which included Transport I and Organic Chemistry II – came to a close, I was excited to begin my third term at AK Steel as a process engineering co-op. The classes I had taken that summer had been quite exhausting, but the thought of tackling new challenges at my position in AK Steel gave me a renewed vigor. After comfortably settling back into my office and updating my computer login information for the company network, I got to work on a project my supervisor assigned to me. It felt good to be back and I reacquainted myself with Microsoft Access and Excel, which I’d be primarily using for projects. The daily morning meetings I attended gave me an excuse to get out of my office and walk my department again, during which I remembered how I loved being out on the floor where the real steelmaking happened. I’ve always been attuned to visual/tactile stimuli, which also helps me learn better. I took on multiple projects during the course of my Fall term, some of which I was not able to finish before the end, but overall I furthered my ability to accomplish personal goals with the guidance of my supervisor.
Fast forward to the end of winter break and the start of the Spring 2016 semester. I was able to lessen my course load by one class because of an English credit I earned in high school from a college-level course. Fourteen credit hours seemed like a breeze of a semester going in, but of course I was in for a rude awakening. I struggled in Transport I the year before and had Transport II with the same professor, so it was a rocky start. This year, however, I was making more of an effort to fully understand the material and take an interest in it because I started to see how the knowledge attained could be applied in future jobs. I studied hard for the first quiz and was rewarded with a 100%, but I got a little too confident during midterms and my grade suffered for it. I decided I had to rally if I wanted to improve my grade, so on the semester-long group project I put in a killer effort. The project was on Diffusion of Alcohol through the bloodstream, which required a lot of applied calculus to estimate inner workings that we could not see with our own eyes. I made sure every derivation was spot on and triple checked for mistakes and after presenting the project, our professor was very impressed and we received full credit. That confidence boost and hands-on knowledge I worked for in the project proved extremely beneficial on the final exam and my overall grade because I achieved my goal of a B+ in the class. There’s a similar story associated with my Thermodynamics class, but I struggled with the material the whole semester. The professor knew the material was tough and offered ways to buffer quiz grades, which I readily accepted. I made every effort possible, from completing two extra credit projects to touring companies with classmates that utilized the processes from our lectures. In the end I received a C for my effort, but I was happy with it. I knew I put forth my best effort and then some to succeed. The other two classes I took, one in history and one in personal finance, afforded me the breadth of knowledge that I think is extremely important for a well-rounded education. I’m very excited to finish my last two years of education at the University of Cincinnati with the same or better effort I gave in my most recent year and I look forward to the challenges that await. I'm about halfway through my fourth term at AK Steel, this semester as a co-op in the hot strip mill, and am loving the new environment and learning opportunities.
Fast forward to the end of winter break and the start of the Spring 2016 semester. I was able to lessen my course load by one class because of an English credit I earned in high school from a college-level course. Fourteen credit hours seemed like a breeze of a semester going in, but of course I was in for a rude awakening. I struggled in Transport I the year before and had Transport II with the same professor, so it was a rocky start. This year, however, I was making more of an effort to fully understand the material and take an interest in it because I started to see how the knowledge attained could be applied in future jobs. I studied hard for the first quiz and was rewarded with a 100%, but I got a little too confident during midterms and my grade suffered for it. I decided I had to rally if I wanted to improve my grade, so on the semester-long group project I put in a killer effort. The project was on Diffusion of Alcohol through the bloodstream, which required a lot of applied calculus to estimate inner workings that we could not see with our own eyes. I made sure every derivation was spot on and triple checked for mistakes and after presenting the project, our professor was very impressed and we received full credit. That confidence boost and hands-on knowledge I worked for in the project proved extremely beneficial on the final exam and my overall grade because I achieved my goal of a B+ in the class. There’s a similar story associated with my Thermodynamics class, but I struggled with the material the whole semester. The professor knew the material was tough and offered ways to buffer quiz grades, which I readily accepted. I made every effort possible, from completing two extra credit projects to touring companies with classmates that utilized the processes from our lectures. In the end I received a C for my effort, but I was happy with it. I knew I put forth my best effort and then some to succeed. The other two classes I took, one in history and one in personal finance, afforded me the breadth of knowledge that I think is extremely important for a well-rounded education. I’m very excited to finish my last two years of education at the University of Cincinnati with the same or better effort I gave in my most recent year and I look forward to the challenges that await. I'm about halfway through my fourth term at AK Steel, this semester as a co-op in the hot strip mill, and am loving the new environment and learning opportunities.