Reflections with Rylee Snellenberger

Last week, I hoped you listened to my discussion with Rylee Snellenberger.? I just love how she lit up as she was talking about her future career. She has found a spot to take her passion for biomechanical engineering and wanting to work with people.? I love seeing how her engineering degree is going to impact that.?

Putting the Pieces Together

While she's going to be very people facing and doing a lot of clinical work, it's her engineering background that she talked about for the context of her job.? She understands what those prosthetics really mean from an engineering perspective.? She knows what that does for a person and their ability to walk and she knows how to translate that into her job.?

That got me thinking about how many students we have talked to who love their engineering degree, but also feel that they want to apply that knowledge in another way.? In Rylee’s case it is the medical profession.

Sometimes students want to do something with education or another field, they're just trying to figure out how to put these pieces together. We have always heard that if you have an engineering degree, here's the stereotype of where you're going to go with. But in some people’s minds, like Rylee, they're wanting to follow that passion.?

Where Does Your Student's Passion Lie?

I think these are really great conversations that we can have with students.? Where does that passion that you have apply to engineering? What does that mean to really take that engineering problem solving and put those skills into play within your profession??

Rylee is already finding that perfect example.? As a high schooler, she saw a video, got excited about prosthetics, figured out what she wanted to get a degree, and found herself in a career where she can now apply that.? Not only that, but she articulates so well what that degree and her passion is.?

There are so many other students out there who are trying to find that connection as well, and maybe didn't happen upon the TED Talk that was going to help answer that question. So when we're working with these students, we need to be encouraging.??

Are we helping them think a little bit tangentially to the stereotypical engineering career, which is still great for so many people, but for those that are thinking about how they put their interest together in this.? Are we helping them find that solution? I am sure that throughout her career, Rylee is going to love to tell everyone how she was a biomechanical engineer and how she uses that piece.?

You can see that passion in her voice, but she's found a way to really directly use that to solve problems for people. Let's see what other students out there we can have that conversation with for them to connect engineering and their passion.