Empowerly

Student profile

Explain your interest in the major you selected and describe how you have recently explored or developed this interest inside and/or outside the classroom. You may also explain how this major relates to your future career goals.

During the summer after my freshman year, I was warned not to drink the water due to poor quality. I began researching what could be done to improve the water quality and learned that chemical engineers play a large part in water treatment, which sparked my interest in chemical engineering. Besides improving water quality, chemical engineers play a role in many different fields, from drug production to pollution control. 

To further develop my interest in engineering, I attended two camps over two summers - Exploring STEM camp at Northern Illinois University and Exploring Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering camp at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.  I learned about the different fields of engineering, built a trebuchet, programmed a game using C#, built a line following robot, and learned about nuclear reactors. I also learned that chemical engineers are working on new ways to deal with nuclear waste. 

My journey into uncovering a piece of chemical engineering world began during my freshman chemistry class. It seemed as though I made a new and exciting discovery through each lab. The chemical equation that we balanced had come to life and I observed them in awe. During my physics class, I uncovered how mathematics could perfectly describe how chemicals moved through space and time.

Later that summer, I attended an Intro to Engineering class at my school. In one of the sessions, a chemical engineer gave a presentation on the impact chemical engineering has in the food industry. He brought in a sample of a pickle that he helped create a process to make, which gave me yet another example of how chemical engineers design processes to scale up production of food and drugs, and how versatile being a chemical engineer can be. I recently read an article in Science Magazine about how chemical engineers have developed a 3D printer that can be used to synthesize pharmaceuticals and other chemicals to create cheaper drugs, that are  more accessible and could save many lives. This is a great example of how chemical engineers use physics, chemistry and coding to create life-saving drugs. 

Pursuing chemical engineering would enable me help solve real-world issues such as developing cleaner air, drinking water, cheaper medicines, or sustainable energy and materials. Although I am not sure what exact career path I want to take, I know that as a chemical engineer, I will be making the world a better place.