speaker-0: Hi, I'm Terry Carey and welcome to View Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. Are you interested in math and science? Are you curious about the world? Are you an engineer? Well, maybe you don't know yet. The world of engineering is huge, and we want girls to be included in the future of it. So grab a cup of coffee, get your curiosity going, and listen in as we talk to real women studying engineering at Cornell. We hope you enjoy our view.
speaker-1: ⁓
speaker-0: Hey everyone, welcome back to View. I'm your host, Terry Carey. Now, today we have a really neat major to talk about that I think gets overlooked sometimes. Applied Engineering Physics or AEP. I think the first question to answer here is what is physics? So glad you asked. Physics is the study of the natural world around us. It helps us understand how things move, how they interact, why things behave the way they do. Here are some examples. Why do we stay on the ground? Gravity, right? But then why does a kite fly up in the sky? Well, physics can answer that with understanding the forces of lift, gravity, drag, and tension and how they all interact. Physics helps explain why your hot coffee cools over time when left out, why a ball stops rolling across the lawn, how electricity works, and so much more. Physics is one of the academic requirements we have when applying to Cornell Engineering, and for good reason. You need to understand the world around you in order to solve problems within it. So then, what is applied engineering physics? What does that really mean? Well, if you visit the website for Cornell AEP, they have a phrase on there that sums it up really well. It says, learn physics, speak engineering. AEP is taking physics and applying it to engineering problems. You are taking physics and rather than doing theoretical research. You are applying it to industry, solving concrete issues. So, what kind of industry can you go into? Really anything in engineering and many fields adjacent to engineering, anything from nano and micro devices to nuclear reactors, work with semiconductors, join any company that produces their own microchips and chip design, biomedical devices, creating new materials, developing new technologies, clean energy, automation, machine learning, robotics. Do you see how wide this can really be applied? It can be integrated into any field or interest you have in engineering. About half of applied engineering physics graduates take positions in high technology industries, but some do go on to graduate school, or they go on to law school, medical school, or even get their MBA. This field is actually really attractive for graduate admissions. So today I want to talk about two amazing women who applied physics to the engineering world. The first is Dr. Ellen Ochoa. She went to San Diego State University and majored in physics. And then she went to grad school to study electrical engineering from Stanford. She took that application of physics, brought it into engineering, and became the first Latina woman to go to space serving a nine-day mission on the shuttle Discovery. She actually went to space four times. But on one of her missions in nineteen ninety nine, she was on a presidential commission to celebrate women in American history commemorating the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first women's rights convention. She borrowed a flag that was used by the National Women's Party over a hundred years ago and brought it with her to space. Her and two of her other female astronauts held the flag in space together to honor all those women who came before them, making it possible for their careers in NASA. And for them to be in space. She was also the 11th director of the Johnson Space Center. She has earned many awards and just recently was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden. Dr. Ochoa is now also creating a line of STEAM based children's books directed at children in both Spanish and English to help introduce the world of science, technology, engineering, art, and math to young girls and Latinx children everywhere. The next woman I want to talk to you about is Dr. Jill Cornell Tarter. She is fascinating. She studied AEP here at Cornell in the 1960s. Now, it was a much different time than it is now at Cornell. But Dr. Tarter described her experience in one of the videos that I was watching, and she had some really tough pushback being a woman in engineering. She was confined to her dorm room from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night. She was required to wear a skirt. Excluded from teamwork assignments from other male peers. And when she wanted to get married at the end of her junior year, she hit another hurdle. She was on a full ride scholarship from a consumer goods company. And when they found out that she was getting married, they took that scholarship away. And they thought, well, we aren't going to pay for you to be a scientist when you're obviously going to go on to be a housewife. And this was a really tough blow. She wanted to graduate and continue on to grad school. So she went to the Dean of Engineering at the time, and he agreed with her that it wasn't fair. He called up the company and got the scholarship reinstated. She graduated and went on to co-found the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute. Twenty years after graduation, that dean became the eighth president of Cornell, and he asked her to be on his advisory committee. She was able to thank him all those years later and say, look, I made it as a scientist. She does research on the origin of life and the evolution of intelligence, trying to find out if there is life beyond what is found here on Earth. A fun additional tidbit about her that I really loved reading about was about the movie Contact. It has Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey in it, and it's based on a novel by Carl Sagan, who was a Cornell professor in astronomy. The book is about a group of people trying to interpret a signal being sent from space. The main character portrayed by Jodie Foster is named Ellie, and Dr. Tartar was the inspiration for this character. She even came on as a consultant for the film, helping to portray realistic career struggles that women faced in the 1950s through the 70s. AEP can bring you in a lot of directions, from the tiny nanotechnology world to the vast unknown of outer space and everywhere in between. AEP transcends all of the other engineering fields, opening up a huge world of opportunity and possibilities. One of those people exploring those opportunities and possibilities here at Cornell is our next current student, Sophia. Hey Sophia, welcome to the show, how are you?
speaker-1: Good. I'm so excited to be on.
speaker-0: Thank you so much for giving us some of your time. ⁓ I'd love for you to just go ahead and introduce yourself.
speaker-1: Well hi, my name is Sophia Arnold. I am a rising senior applied and engineering physics major at Cornell. And yeah.
speaker-0: So I would love to know a little bit about your background with engineering, how engineering came into your life, how you first got introduced to it and why you decided to study it.
speaker-1: So it's kind of a funny story because both of my parents are actually civil engineers. So I spent most of my time growing up saying, I'm not gonna be an engineer. I don't wanna be an engineer. I hate engineering. And yet I loved science. I loved math. And so then when I was in high school I ended up taking ⁓ AP Physics One and loving it, just wanting to be doing physics forever. And I kept taking STEM classes and eventually when I was applying to colleges, my college counselor said, You really should apply to engineering. I know you don't want to, but you really should. So that's how I ended up in engineering. And I found my way to engineering physics because of that deep love for physics. And honestly, I've never regretted it since coming to college, coming to Ormel.
speaker-0: Yeah, you were able to combine that. ⁓ you know, you were a little bit like, ⁓ resistant to engineering because it's maybe been in your face for so long. But the fact that you made your own pathway because you fell in love with physics and being able to apply it in that way, is a great little pathway for that. That's really good. So tell me about your journey to Cornell. How did you find Cornell? I always love to hear the story about when you actually received the email ⁓ that you were admitted. ⁓ what was that like?
speaker-1: Yeah, so Cornell had been up high on my college list for as long as I could remember. I just loved the area. I loved Ithaca. ⁓ and then my junior year, the summer between my junior year and senior year of high school, ⁓ it was the COVID year. So me and my mom and my sister took a road trip to Cornell and I just remember walking around campus and thinking, This is where I wanna be. Like I can see myself here for the next four years. So in that moment I knew I was gonna early decision ⁓ apply to come to Cornell. And so I I did my application and I waited until like December and I was so scared. I remember watching like this random Netflix original movie like right before because I was so scared I couldn't think about anything else. So I had to watch this really cheesy movie to like get through it. So I watched this movie and then it's it becomes seven o'clock and I sit at the kitchen table with both of my parents and I opened the decision and I I just started crying and both of my parents did too. And they they pulled out they'd bought me this stuffed animal bear with a Cornell scarf. It was just perfect. It was it was so exciting and I felt like all of this hard work
speaker-0: ⁓ my goodness.
speaker-1: that I'd put into my high school experience had really paid off.
speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. The feeling beforehand of like the anxiety and you have no control. Like you did everything you could. There's nothing else left. and watching ⁓ a movie that maybe makes your brain feel a little softer, right? You're not you're not as ⁓ going crazy about it. ⁓ what a beautiful memory. Do you still have that bear? Is it with you up in Cornell? That's so cool. I love that. okay, so
speaker-1: Absolutely.
speaker-0: I think applied engineering physics, and I I said this in my intro, is a major that is overlooked a lot. I don't think people really even know about it. I don't think people really understand what it is. So I'd love to hear in your own words what it actually is. ⁓ and you talked about how you took physics and that's kind of like why you decided to go into AEP, but maybe any other reinforcement that happened when you were at Cornell that was like, Yeah, this is what I want to do.
speaker-1: Yeah, so I would describe engineering physics as having all of the physics experience that you could want while also having all of the engineering experience that you could want or need for a job application or something. So I've actually referred to it with my friends. We say that in engineering physics, you basically get fast tracked on all of your engineering courses and all of your physics courses. So you get to specialize in something and be really good at something versus some other engineering majors like mechanical engineering. It's a much more broad major where you take a much more di I wouldn't say more diverse range of classes, but you have really diverse requirements. Whereas engineering physics, you have your physics requirements and you have engineering requirements obviously. But then you get a lot of technical electives where you can just really focused on something that you wanna do. So for me that's been electrical engineering classes. So I'm actually gonna end up being two classes away or three classes away from a double major when I graduate because of the way my class has worked out. Yeah, it's it's really cool. I know a lot of people who are actually able to get the double major pretty easily too. ⁓ if you play your cards right, I guess. Yeah. so I I don't know if there've been I would say that the moments that I have really known that engineering physics is for me have been when I've been talking with other engineering majors about my classes and about the things that I've been learning about and just realizing like how deep my knowledge of physics goes. Because if I was just an electrical engineer, I wouldn't know it much quantum mechanics or I wouldn't know the quantum mechanics at the level that I know at this point. And I wouldn't get to see a lot of these really fundamental mathematical bases for the things that I'm learning in the same way. And I've always been the kind of person who needs to understand how something is found in order to really understand what's going on. And so sometimes engineering kind of confuses me because I'm like How did we get from here to here when it's some kind of assumption that's being made? So that's where engineering physics really walks the line for me because I get to really understand what's going on, how things are found, but then I also get to make those assumptions make those really really practical applications happen.
speaker-0: Right. Yeah. And so you talk a little bit about your electrical engineering focus. ⁓ and you are taking classes in that, like obviously you're very close to a double major, so you have that experience. There's an interdisciplinary ⁓ experience that's happening here. So taking that and taking the physics and the engineering, putting it all together, what are your classes like? What are these lab experiences like and like unique ways that you are learning about AEP through this really diverse way of of exploring all of these different courses and putting them together into this focused, this focused educational experience.
speaker-1: Yeah. So I would say my classes are much more math heavy than what I've seen in a lot of other engineering classes. Or let me rephrase that. They're a different kind of math. Because we need to take pretty high level math in order to actually take our classes. I think we have even to affiliate in the major, we have one of the highest math requirements, if not the highest math requirement. And so basically you're spending a lot of your time doing math. And then because of your you doing this math, you're learning to derive a lot of these ⁓ pretty fundamental equations in electrodynamics, mechanics, and quantum mechanics, which are basically the three or electricity and magnetism too. Those are the the core subset of AEP classes. And then we get to take these technical electives, which I talked about. where I'm in the bigger engineering classes where I can I can go and take some electrical engineering class or I know people who take mechanical engineering classes because they want to specialize in aerospace engineering. Or I know people who take like grad level math classes because they love math and they want to explore that more. ⁓ so really I see a pretty diverse range of classes because I I get those like smaller physics classes where you're basically just grinding out these equations, but you're learning a lot in the process. And then you're also in these bigger engineering classes which tend to have more labs. ⁓ though in engineering physics we do have a few lab requirements. Like we have an advanced lab requirement and then we also have a circuits requirement. We have a few we have a pretty diverse range of requirements for lab classes as well. ⁓ Which make you work with your hands, get in the lab, actually see what's going on, learn to solder, those kinds of things. ⁓ so
speaker-0: Cool. Yeah. I feel like it's almost like a boost for you, right? Like the physics part of it is like you're kind of like on this rocket of like which direction I want to go on. Here's the physics part and it's gonna get you there a bit faster or like understanding it a bit more. Is that accurate, do you think, or Yeah.
speaker-1: Exactly. It just like it brings you to this crazy level of understanding. I mean, you gotta keep up, but anyone in my opinion, anyone can keep up with it. You just have to put the work in. Yeah, definitely the love gets tested, but you come out stronger, right?
speaker-0: I a love for it. Yeah, absolutely. So what other things are you interested in or involved in here at Cornell Beyond Academics?
speaker-1: So beyond academics, but still within engineering physics, I'm on the engineering physics ⁓ like student organization board. So I actually planned ⁓ this we had a ⁓ engineering physics and physics student formal last semester where we had over a hundred people attend who were in various physics and engineering physics majors. ⁓ and it was a fun night. We had a DJ. It was it was really nice. ⁓ outside of physics, because I need to have something outside of physics. ⁓ I'm actually on the the triathlon team. ⁓ it's just a club, but I I go to a lot of their practices or well I go to whenever I can I go to a practice. Yeah. And it it's fun because like they have bike biking, they have swimming, they have running. And it's really a good way to hang out with some friends outside of physics and some friends who ⁓ like to exercise as well, ⁓ and do those kinds of things. So that's really fun.
speaker-0: Actually participate in triathlons.
speaker-1: I need to do one. I've been I've been waiting to do one. I was thinking about doing a half Iron Man this summer, but I I ended up having some health problems so that I couldn't do it. But I'm so bummed about it. I need to do one next year.
speaker-0: Still on your list. Yeah, absolutely. Keep training, keep going, getting the I think that's a great way to like let off some steam too, right? Like that's the best way it is to get your body moving and get all the stress out from everything. So where do you want AEP to take you in the future? ⁓ I know that you are doing an internship this summer, so that's probably a little bit of a direction, but where where does your career what do you want your career to look like after Cornell?
speaker-1: As of right now, I wanna be a fusion engineer. I wanna be one of the people who are helping to bring fusion energy to the world. And that's actually what my internship right now is in. ⁓ I'm an electrical instrumentation and controls engineer at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is the leading private company looking to make fusion reactors happen. and looking to make their own fusion power plant in the next, I think that they're saying ten years. Basically I've been doing these really cool magnetic field calculations for different areas inside of ⁓ where they're going to store the reactor. And it's just this really interesting math, which I love obviously, but then you're also seeing these really physical impacts of what are reactor that's making these fusion reactions happen that will actually like what kind of effects it will actually have on what's around it. Because when you're making a fusion reactor, not to geek out or whatever, but you're you literally have something that's hotter than the sun that you're containing with magnets that are stored at temperatures colder than ⁓ space. So you have something that's hotter than the sun. And then right outside of that, you have magnets that are controlling it that's that are cooler, kept cooler than space, the temperature of space. So it's this really crazy engineering problem. It's this really crazy physics problem. And I love it. And honestly, there are a lot of Cornell ⁓ AEP alumni who are working here as well. I think I know of at least four or five. So ⁓ I'm in good I'm in good company. So A E P tend to love this. Yeah.
speaker-0: That's a really mind blowing thing to think about that there even is something on Earth that can not only imitate but is as hot or hotter than the sun.
speaker-1: I I've been joking about actually to my astronomy friends. ⁓ I'm like, you just study stars. I make them.
speaker-0: That's so cool. Like that's such a neat thing. And the way that you're directing that to solve a problem, right? It's like who even thought of being able to do this? And then now you're there actually utilizing it to solve problems. ⁓ that's really, really neat. I love that. ⁓ and I'm glad that there's other AEP people there ⁓ from Cornell. That's really cool.
speaker-1: I also am hoping to get my PhD in some fusion related field. I I'm still debating whether or not to take a year off before that and kind of take a year off from being in school, but ⁓ we'll see what happens. I'm I'm looking forward to the future though.
speaker-0: Yeah, you have a lot of options. That's really cool. okay, so AEP is one of our smaller majors here in terms of numbers. ⁓ and my hope is that more women will see this major. They'll see that this is a great place to bring their engineering interests and apply it to whatever field they want to go into. So what do you think is a unique thing that women bring to AEP?
speaker-1: Honestly, I think that they really bring a collaborative atmosphere. Like I love we have a lounge at Cornell, ⁓ in the physical sciences building. And whenever I walk into the lounge and there are a couple of girls in there, they're always talking, they're always working together, they're always chatting about something. And it it makes me feel really seen and it it makes me really encouraged to go over and talk to them and figure out what problem they're working on, figure out what they're studying. I I've really appreciated having all of the girls in the major and I know the guys have too. it it really it it really adds a level of ⁓ community to the major that otherwise I'm I'm not sure how it would be. You make such great friends, especially the girls with the girls, but then also with the guys, like it they they are supportive. And obviously you're gonna have your ups and downs in any ⁓ engineering major, but I would say overall I've had very supportive relationship.
speaker-0: That's really good. So you have your community there too. Like you were saying, like specifically with the women who are in the major, ⁓ that community of people that you feel like you can be ⁓ seen. That was a really great way to put it that you that you feel seen in there. so I know that there are ups and downs. I know that there are times that you are going to struggle or feel like this was a lot. Today was a lot. So who is your support during those times? ⁓ who makes you feel like you've got this and that you can get through it? ⁓ when you need a pep talk.
speaker-1: would say actually another girl ⁓ another two girls in engineering physics but mostly one ⁓ whose name is ⁓ Eleanor. ⁓ she's also a rising senior and she's also on the triathlon club slash team with me. And so sometimes when we're both feeling really down about something or we just had a test and w it was super hard. We'll go and we'll go for like a run or a bike ride ⁓ for like an hour or two. and just work it out and it it really helps me. Like it it just takes your mind off of it. Cause it's also helpful to have somebody who's taking the same tests as you and taking the same classes as you because it's one thing for me to tell my friends who are like mechanical engineers or electrical engineers like, ⁓ that test was so bad because they don't understand. ⁓ not as in like their classes are bad, but whenever you just have a test that really, really challenged you and you say that to somebody who like hasn't taken the same test, they're never really gonna understand, versus somebody who's also done it with you, they get it. They've been there. My other friend's name is ⁓ Jillian and she's also really there for me. And ⁓ she really is into astronomy, so we'll there's ⁓ a really beautiful observatory actually on Cornell's campus called ⁓ Fuerte's Observatory. and we're part of the astronomy club. And so both of us will like go to the observatory and just look at the stars and think to ourselves, Okay, we're feeling calmer now. We looked at the stars, we saw we saw the sky, the world is bigger than us then This one test or this one thing that I'm upset about this week.
speaker-0: I was gonna say that it must make you feel like, wow, look how big the world is. Yeah, really. Yeah. But the fact that you have those two women next to you who can truly feel like what it feels like to be in your shoes, to take that test, to be, you know, at at this place in your life that you're at, ⁓ and to have that community and that support, ⁓ who can really empathize with what's going on. That's a really great support system that you have through those other women.
speaker-1: No, really. Like I I like to say like as AEP people like really stick together. Like if you meet an alumni, they're always gonna see you and they're always gonna say hi to you and they're always gonna be nice to you. And then women in engineering physics too, it's just like a it's a bond. Like you are definitely bonded with those people.
speaker-0: Lovely. ⁓ all right, this is my last question for you. I would love to hear your view of engineering and why girls should explore applied engineering physics.
speaker-1: I would say my view of engineering is really this art and this really cool experimental way of making something work and understanding something on a level that nobody else is ever gonna understand it at. Like if you if you talk to somebody who's doing like I know people from Cornell who ⁓ after they they graduate they're going to work for on the cars for F1 racing. Yeah, so like they're gonna go and work on these cars and know the aerodynamics of these cars better than most people in the world. Or there are people who go and work ⁓ in aerospace engineering and they're gonna go and know how these rockets are able to fly or able to launch better than anybody else. And
speaker-0: ⁓ yeah, yeah.
speaker-1: In my mind it's just this really cool way of feeling like both powerful but then also small at the same time. Like it's a really it's It's a really cool dynamic and it it really makes you feel like you have a place. I in my the way that it is for me. Like I feel like wha by making something, by helping especially to make this fusion reactor, like I am doing my part in this world. And maybe that's my engineering mentality, but I I love it. I think girls should explore AEP because engineering physics majors can really do anything. Like I've said, I know people who are doing theoretical math. I know people who are doing biomedical engineering after they graduate. It's this really, really diverse major that also has this really cool basis in math. And honestly, you just get this really cool view of the world out of it. You d Iva as I said, you definitely have your ups and downs, but the community is always there to support you. And honestly, I would say that the community is tighter than a lot of the bigger engineering majors because you know everyone. You know who are in their c your classes with you. You know who's gonna be in the AEP lounge working until midnight on that problem set and you know when they're gonna be done. And it it definitely is such a unique college experience, but also like so worth it at the end. The hard work is so worth it. And any engineering physics alumni will tell you, like, you get in what you put in or you good get out what you put in, right? Yeah. It it's a really cool experience and I I would love to see more girls in the major.
speaker-0: Yeah, I completely agree. And I think you put a beautiful spotlight on it. again, I think that this major is one that's not necessarily as known, but I think it is so applicable to so many things that no matter what your interest is, you're no matter what your interest is, you can utilize it and utilize it well. Like it's not just, you know, something that you can kind of put somewhere because it fits. It's like it truly does enhance your experience with that engineering field, having all of this physics behind it. so thank you. I think that was a a beautiful way to put it ⁓ and to spotlight this really a awesome field. ⁓ so thank you for your time. I really appreciate you being here.
speaker-1: ⁓ I love to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
speaker-0: Welcome back everyone. I'm so excited today because I get to introduce you to another one of our wonderful staff members here at Cornell Engineering Admissions. She's actually one of our newest members of the team and we're so glad that she joined. ⁓ her name is Emily. Emily, do you wanna introduce yourself?
speaker-2: Absolutely. Thank you for having me today. My name is Emily Staros. I am an assistant director of admissions and the rural recruitment coordinator at Cornell Engineering. I've been in this position since October of 2023. So this is a relatively new role for me, like you said. I'm originally from Thomson, Pennsylvania, which is a super small town with a population of about 250 residents in the northeastern corner of the state.
speaker-0: So you are the newest addition to our office, which is so wonderful and lovely. We're so glad you're with us. ⁓ but one of the reasons why I asked you on this podcast specifically was because ⁓ I have been asked a number of times working at admissions, am I an engineer? And the answer to that is no. And the other question I get asked a lot is, did you go to Cornell? And the answer for me again is no, I did not attend Cornell as a student. However, that is not the case for you. ⁓ you actually are an alum of Cornell, not in engineering, but in a different college. And I would love to hear about your time here at Cornell and if you could share that with everyone.
speaker-2: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ like you said, my answer to the engineer question is also a no. But I ⁓ was a student at Cornell in the College of Arts and Sciences. ⁓ I graduated with a degree in chemistry and chemical biology. So not engineering, but I do have experience as a Cornell student studying a STEM field. a lot of the work I do is informed by my journey to and through Cornell. In terms of my journey to Cornell, I wouldn't say it was very direct at all. But that experience is a reason I'm so passionate about the work that I do today. Like I said before, I grew up in a really rural area and graduated with around 50 students at a public school. My college search and application process was all over the place. I had applied to six or seven institutions, not very sure of what I wanted to study. but I knew I tended more towards math and sciences. So around April of my senior year, it felt like Everything fell apart. I found out that I had missed the financial aid deadline for the institution I was planning to attend by like a day, which was not Cornell. So my family and I were informed that there was no financial aid available and we were not able to afford that institution without it. So I found myself at the end of my senior year, no idea where to attend college. Basically, my worst nightmare at the time. I ended up visiting a completely different university at the end of my senior year that I hadn't even applied to. And they ended up offering me a full ride in their honors program. I accepted the offer and I was there for two years, after which I decided to apply as a transfer to universities. I think that even though I grew a lot in that time and I found my love for chemistry, I didn't feel that institution was the best fit. And that was partly, I'm sure, a result of Feeling like I didn't explore and choose it myself. You know, it was like it felt like it was the only option at the time. so I remember when I see received my Cornell acceptance as a junior transfer. I remember shopping for supplies for a camping trip. And I got the email that a decision had been made. And when I logged in and saw the congratulations, which I was not expecting, it felt like my heart stopped. My family and I were so unbelievably excited at that point. I had visited a few times with them. And just fell in love with it. So, with the environment, the values, the people I met, the campus, everything. As for my journey through Cornell, I would be lying if I said it didn't start out kind of rough. Although the high school I attended had a really strong community and so many incredibly caring and influential teachers. and I'm so proud of having grown up there and attended that school, it had no Honors courses or AP classes. I didn't really have to study in high school. And although I improved my study skills at that first college, the rigor at Cornell was so much more intense. ⁓ in addition to that, I felt that I kind of lacked social skills, which I was not expecting. I attributed it to the fact of growing up with and around the same people my whole life in that rural area, upon reflection later on. I was not used to the feel of a large institution, to have all those resources available, the opportunities. ⁓ so it was really overwhelming and such a gift at the same time in those first few months. So I had the opportunity for a lot of internal growth during that first semester, two semesters at Cornell, which I really tried to take advantage of. And it in turn has had such a positive impact on my life. So after adjusting more to being a Cornell student, I felt like I opened up a lot. I tried to take advantage of all the opportunities at Cornell and to learn as much as possible from formal courses, of course, and just from the people and communities around me. In addition to the chemistry courses required for my major, I was able to take so many interesting courses from a law class to a belly dancing class to the famous wines course at Cornell and reflecting on it today, despite those inevitable challenges, like everyone. deals with in the college process. maybe not to that extent, but there always struggles. ⁓ I wouldn't change anything about those years.
speaker-0: That's a really awesome story to hear. And I think an important one to share because again, everyone's journey to college or even specifically to Cornell is different. But I love how you highlight that your high school wasn't necessarily the most rigorous. They didn't offer AP or honors courses, but you took an extra step. You went to another university and then you transferred in. ⁓ and I think that's an important story to hear that it's it's not always a straight line. and How you went from such disappointment, probably your senior year, being like, Well, this is the only option I have, to then being able your senior year of college to say, I just graduated from an Ivy League institution. Here I am at Cornell. that's a really great story to share. And I hope that you and I'm sure you have reflected on this, but like the growth and the journey that has gone through all of that is probably something beyond just the education that you got, is like as a person and personal development. ⁓ It must be an incredible journey to to reflect on.
speaker-2: Yeah, it's been it honestly has. I'm a reflective ⁓ person in nature, but I I really do think those years, that whole process, even though it was very difficult at the time, ⁓ have changed my life for the better. I was able to go live in France. I learned French well enough to be accepted to do program to live in France after I graduated for a year and helped teach over there in rural France. And I don't think I would have done that or felt the, you know, confidence or really push myself to do that if I didn't attend Cornell and kind of deal with those difficulties. I do wish at the time I I knew. Now I know that people deal with struggles throughout college when applying, you know, the transition. ⁓ but at the time I didn't No, I wasn't as aware of it. I didn't feel like I had a huge community around that. So I try to talk about it as much as possible now because it's always comforting to know, you know, that ⁓ everyone's life isn't as as direct and not easy, but ⁓ without struggle as as we think.
speaker-0: Right. Yeah. All these doors are closing and you're like, ⁓ no, I'm not gonna get to where I want to go. But then you got there. all right. So now understanding that you were a Cornell student and you l kind of lived that life, we always, ⁓ when we're applied when we're reading applications, we're looking for certain characteristics in students. And that is something that I have developed through the years that I've read applications. But I think for you it's special because you were a Cornell student. So I would love to hear what you think, what kind of characteristics you think a Cornell student should have, ⁓ beyond grades and achievements and all of that, ⁓ what you think goes into being a Cornell student?
speaker-2: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I was in arts and sciences, like I said. So, and Cornell can be kind of is decentralized, right? Each of the colleges functions separately with admissions and but there are definitely many commonalities I've noticed across colleges. The first thing I want to say is that there is not one type of student that's like an ideal Cornell student at all, ⁓ which makes the community at this institution overall that much stronger. I I love that. ⁓ The first characteristics I think of, though, that I feel were shaped by both, you know, my experiences as a Cornell student and also in this role. Like you said, you're adjusting to going through applications, getting to see this. I am as well from the side. but the first that come to mind are being kind and empathetic. That's something that I've seen in many of my peers when I was at Cornell, and of course, in a lot of the strongest applications we've seen. ⁓ being driven, of course, which is a I would say pretty common one for most of our applications, being driven personally, professionally, academically, authentic, seeing authenticity in our applications and genuinely wanting to have a positive impact everywhere on your community, the world, society, the people around you. that's something in this position now that I love, I love when I see that come out of an application. And it's not something that I intentionally thought about prior to, you know. seeing that in an application before working in higher education.
speaker-0: Yeah, I think the one for me, and I agree with all of them, but like kindness and empathy just go so far. ⁓ and when you can recognize that in an application, that always is like, ⁓ yes, we need more of that. There's never enough of that, right? Like that's always something we need. But you're right, being driven, trying to make an impact, all of that. I completely agree. and I think is reflec is reflected in you as well as a Cornell alum. I think that you are a a great example of all these characteristics.
speaker-2: Absolutely.
speaker-1: This is
speaker-0: Which is why we're so glad you're on our team. ⁓ thank you. Welcome. so can you tell me about your favorite part ⁓ being here at Cornell as a student in those you were here for two years, but there must have been something that you just absolutely loved. What was your favorite part about it?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: Another great question. ⁓ there were so many things that I came to love at Cornell and in Ithaca. If I had to choose just one, it would probably be the culture around a genuine love of learning, which is portrayed in a lot of different ways here. I it seems to me that's one thing almost all Cornell students have in common. So there's like an open-mindedness that a lot of people share and a willingness to really listen to others, to collaborate. And to keep growing as a person. and being in a community like that for the first time in my life where it felt like almost everyone was on the same page was just was honestly incredible. I really appreciated it. I still do.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, I agree. That's really neat to to be a part of that. So now what is it like to be on the other side of the desk? ⁓ you're now somebody who is has a hand in bringing students into Cornell, specifically Cornell Engineering. What is that like?
speaker-2: Yeah, it's definitely been interesting and an adjustment like anything else, but it's been super exciting. I have always been interested in how educational institutions function, especially in higher education at the university level. So I find the work enjoyable and there's definitely a lot to learn, which which I which I love. ⁓ my experiences finding my way to and through an institution that felt like the best fit for me have fostered this passion I have now for helping others through their college search and application processes. And I feel grateful in this position. I'm able to spend time and resources to help other students. as a rural recruitment coordinator, I can do that with other students from rural areas and small towns ⁓ to help them with their college search and application processes. And a part of that responsibility in this role includes bringing awareness to rural culture and all the unique strengths that rural students bring to the College of Engineering. So I've been able to do some exciting work helping bring together a community of Cornell Engineering students from rural areas and small towns, which has fostered some great conversations and initiatives. ⁓ and having, you know, dealt with that adjustment from a rural area that transitioned to ⁓ an institution like Cornell. From a rural area and kind of the difficulties I felt with that experience at the beginning of feeling that not that it it did not limit me in a way, but it definitely had an impact. And if I if I had a community that I would have been able to confide in and relate to, ⁓ I think that would have been just incredible. So I'm excited to see, to see where this goes.
speaker-0: Yeah, you're now building that community. And it was so great to have your perspective come into our office and say, hey, look at this population of students that we need to pay attention to. so that was a really great addition that you brought to that. And you are doing a lot of work to make sure that we are paying attention to them, that we are valuing their experiences and seeing them. ⁓ so that's really great. ⁓ all right, we're going to just wrap up here, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to share anything else that you wanted to share, any tips. Or anything else that you thought would be helpful for our students?
speaker-2: I think one thing that comes to mind that I try to share often, I would say when working on your college application, stay true to who you are. So and this can be easier said than done. ⁓ try and create an application that genuinely shows a picture of you rather than thinking what do the people looking at this application want to see? we know that you only have so much control over so much of the application. So a lot of the time the essays are what hold a lot of room for this. And as everyone knows, grades and achievements do matter, but most people know this and we see strong grades and achievements from the large majority of our applicants. So what we see less of is an idea of someone that makes us think, wow, this applicant's perspectives and personality would absolutely contribute so well to the Cornell Engineering community.
speaker-0: Yeah, I completely agree. thank you so much, Emily. I really appreciate you being here.
speaker-2: Thank you so much for inviting me, Terry. It's been so great to get to know you and be a part of this team.
speaker-0: Wonderful, absolutely. Well, we have come to the end of another episode of View, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. I want to thank our guest, Sophia, for giving her insight into AEP. Thank you again, Emily, for joining me and having us learn more about another admissions officer here in the office. And finally, thank all of you for joining us. I hope you learned something today. And maybe it was that you're an engineer. View, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women is a podcast produced and written by the Cornell Engineering Admissions Office. Please remember to like, follow, subscribe, and share our podcasts and help us bring engineering to the ears of young women everywhere. To find out more information about Cornell Engineering, please visit our website, visit.engineering.cornell.edu.
speaker-1: ⁓
speaker-0: Hey everyone, welcome back to View. I'm your host, Terry Carey. Now, today we have a really neat major to talk about that I think gets overlooked sometimes. Applied Engineering Physics or AEP. I think the first question to answer here is what is physics? So glad you asked. Physics is the study of the natural world around us. It helps us understand how things move, how they interact, why things behave the way they do. Here are some examples. Why do we stay on the ground? Gravity, right? But then why does a kite fly up in the sky? Well, physics can answer that with understanding the forces of lift, gravity, drag, and tension and how they all interact. Physics helps explain why your hot coffee cools over time when left out, why a ball stops rolling across the lawn, how electricity works, and so much more. Physics is one of the academic requirements we have when applying to Cornell Engineering, and for good reason. You need to understand the world around you in order to solve problems within it. So then, what is applied engineering physics? What does that really mean? Well, if you visit the website for Cornell AEP, they have a phrase on there that sums it up really well. It says, learn physics, speak engineering. AEP is taking physics and applying it to engineering problems. You are taking physics and rather than doing theoretical research. You are applying it to industry, solving concrete issues. So, what kind of industry can you go into? Really anything in engineering and many fields adjacent to engineering, anything from nano and micro devices to nuclear reactors, work with semiconductors, join any company that produces their own microchips and chip design, biomedical devices, creating new materials, developing new technologies, clean energy, automation, machine learning, robotics. Do you see how wide this can really be applied? It can be integrated into any field or interest you have in engineering. About half of applied engineering physics graduates take positions in high technology industries, but some do go on to graduate school, or they go on to law school, medical school, or even get their MBA. This field is actually really attractive for graduate admissions. So today I want to talk about two amazing women who applied physics to the engineering world. The first is Dr. Ellen Ochoa. She went to San Diego State University and majored in physics. And then she went to grad school to study electrical engineering from Stanford. She took that application of physics, brought it into engineering, and became the first Latina woman to go to space serving a nine-day mission on the shuttle Discovery. She actually went to space four times. But on one of her missions in nineteen ninety nine, she was on a presidential commission to celebrate women in American history commemorating the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first women's rights convention. She borrowed a flag that was used by the National Women's Party over a hundred years ago and brought it with her to space. Her and two of her other female astronauts held the flag in space together to honor all those women who came before them, making it possible for their careers in NASA. And for them to be in space. She was also the 11th director of the Johnson Space Center. She has earned many awards and just recently was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden. Dr. Ochoa is now also creating a line of STEAM based children's books directed at children in both Spanish and English to help introduce the world of science, technology, engineering, art, and math to young girls and Latinx children everywhere. The next woman I want to talk to you about is Dr. Jill Cornell Tarter. She is fascinating. She studied AEP here at Cornell in the 1960s. Now, it was a much different time than it is now at Cornell. But Dr. Tarter described her experience in one of the videos that I was watching, and she had some really tough pushback being a woman in engineering. She was confined to her dorm room from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night. She was required to wear a skirt. Excluded from teamwork assignments from other male peers. And when she wanted to get married at the end of her junior year, she hit another hurdle. She was on a full ride scholarship from a consumer goods company. And when they found out that she was getting married, they took that scholarship away. And they thought, well, we aren't going to pay for you to be a scientist when you're obviously going to go on to be a housewife. And this was a really tough blow. She wanted to graduate and continue on to grad school. So she went to the Dean of Engineering at the time, and he agreed with her that it wasn't fair. He called up the company and got the scholarship reinstated. She graduated and went on to co-found the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute. Twenty years after graduation, that dean became the eighth president of Cornell, and he asked her to be on his advisory committee. She was able to thank him all those years later and say, look, I made it as a scientist. She does research on the origin of life and the evolution of intelligence, trying to find out if there is life beyond what is found here on Earth. A fun additional tidbit about her that I really loved reading about was about the movie Contact. It has Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey in it, and it's based on a novel by Carl Sagan, who was a Cornell professor in astronomy. The book is about a group of people trying to interpret a signal being sent from space. The main character portrayed by Jodie Foster is named Ellie, and Dr. Tartar was the inspiration for this character. She even came on as a consultant for the film, helping to portray realistic career struggles that women faced in the 1950s through the 70s. AEP can bring you in a lot of directions, from the tiny nanotechnology world to the vast unknown of outer space and everywhere in between. AEP transcends all of the other engineering fields, opening up a huge world of opportunity and possibilities. One of those people exploring those opportunities and possibilities here at Cornell is our next current student, Sophia. Hey Sophia, welcome to the show, how are you?
speaker-1: Good. I'm so excited to be on.
speaker-0: Thank you so much for giving us some of your time. ⁓ I'd love for you to just go ahead and introduce yourself.
speaker-1: Well hi, my name is Sophia Arnold. I am a rising senior applied and engineering physics major at Cornell. And yeah.
speaker-0: So I would love to know a little bit about your background with engineering, how engineering came into your life, how you first got introduced to it and why you decided to study it.
speaker-1: So it's kind of a funny story because both of my parents are actually civil engineers. So I spent most of my time growing up saying, I'm not gonna be an engineer. I don't wanna be an engineer. I hate engineering. And yet I loved science. I loved math. And so then when I was in high school I ended up taking ⁓ AP Physics One and loving it, just wanting to be doing physics forever. And I kept taking STEM classes and eventually when I was applying to colleges, my college counselor said, You really should apply to engineering. I know you don't want to, but you really should. So that's how I ended up in engineering. And I found my way to engineering physics because of that deep love for physics. And honestly, I've never regretted it since coming to college, coming to Ormel.
speaker-0: Yeah, you were able to combine that. ⁓ you know, you were a little bit like, ⁓ resistant to engineering because it's maybe been in your face for so long. But the fact that you made your own pathway because you fell in love with physics and being able to apply it in that way, is a great little pathway for that. That's really good. So tell me about your journey to Cornell. How did you find Cornell? I always love to hear the story about when you actually received the email ⁓ that you were admitted. ⁓ what was that like?
speaker-1: Yeah, so Cornell had been up high on my college list for as long as I could remember. I just loved the area. I loved Ithaca. ⁓ and then my junior year, the summer between my junior year and senior year of high school, ⁓ it was the COVID year. So me and my mom and my sister took a road trip to Cornell and I just remember walking around campus and thinking, This is where I wanna be. Like I can see myself here for the next four years. So in that moment I knew I was gonna early decision ⁓ apply to come to Cornell. And so I I did my application and I waited until like December and I was so scared. I remember watching like this random Netflix original movie like right before because I was so scared I couldn't think about anything else. So I had to watch this really cheesy movie to like get through it. So I watched this movie and then it's it becomes seven o'clock and I sit at the kitchen table with both of my parents and I opened the decision and I I just started crying and both of my parents did too. And they they pulled out they'd bought me this stuffed animal bear with a Cornell scarf. It was just perfect. It was it was so exciting and I felt like all of this hard work
speaker-0: ⁓ my goodness.
speaker-1: that I'd put into my high school experience had really paid off.
speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. The feeling beforehand of like the anxiety and you have no control. Like you did everything you could. There's nothing else left. and watching ⁓ a movie that maybe makes your brain feel a little softer, right? You're not you're not as ⁓ going crazy about it. ⁓ what a beautiful memory. Do you still have that bear? Is it with you up in Cornell? That's so cool. I love that. okay, so
speaker-1: Absolutely.
speaker-0: I think applied engineering physics, and I I said this in my intro, is a major that is overlooked a lot. I don't think people really even know about it. I don't think people really understand what it is. So I'd love to hear in your own words what it actually is. ⁓ and you talked about how you took physics and that's kind of like why you decided to go into AEP, but maybe any other reinforcement that happened when you were at Cornell that was like, Yeah, this is what I want to do.
speaker-1: Yeah, so I would describe engineering physics as having all of the physics experience that you could want while also having all of the engineering experience that you could want or need for a job application or something. So I've actually referred to it with my friends. We say that in engineering physics, you basically get fast tracked on all of your engineering courses and all of your physics courses. So you get to specialize in something and be really good at something versus some other engineering majors like mechanical engineering. It's a much more broad major where you take a much more di I wouldn't say more diverse range of classes, but you have really diverse requirements. Whereas engineering physics, you have your physics requirements and you have engineering requirements obviously. But then you get a lot of technical electives where you can just really focused on something that you wanna do. So for me that's been electrical engineering classes. So I'm actually gonna end up being two classes away or three classes away from a double major when I graduate because of the way my class has worked out. Yeah, it's it's really cool. I know a lot of people who are actually able to get the double major pretty easily too. ⁓ if you play your cards right, I guess. Yeah. so I I don't know if there've been I would say that the moments that I have really known that engineering physics is for me have been when I've been talking with other engineering majors about my classes and about the things that I've been learning about and just realizing like how deep my knowledge of physics goes. Because if I was just an electrical engineer, I wouldn't know it much quantum mechanics or I wouldn't know the quantum mechanics at the level that I know at this point. And I wouldn't get to see a lot of these really fundamental mathematical bases for the things that I'm learning in the same way. And I've always been the kind of person who needs to understand how something is found in order to really understand what's going on. And so sometimes engineering kind of confuses me because I'm like How did we get from here to here when it's some kind of assumption that's being made? So that's where engineering physics really walks the line for me because I get to really understand what's going on, how things are found, but then I also get to make those assumptions make those really really practical applications happen.
speaker-0: Right. Yeah. And so you talk a little bit about your electrical engineering focus. ⁓ and you are taking classes in that, like obviously you're very close to a double major, so you have that experience. There's an interdisciplinary ⁓ experience that's happening here. So taking that and taking the physics and the engineering, putting it all together, what are your classes like? What are these lab experiences like and like unique ways that you are learning about AEP through this really diverse way of of exploring all of these different courses and putting them together into this focused, this focused educational experience.
speaker-1: Yeah. So I would say my classes are much more math heavy than what I've seen in a lot of other engineering classes. Or let me rephrase that. They're a different kind of math. Because we need to take pretty high level math in order to actually take our classes. I think we have even to affiliate in the major, we have one of the highest math requirements, if not the highest math requirement. And so basically you're spending a lot of your time doing math. And then because of your you doing this math, you're learning to derive a lot of these ⁓ pretty fundamental equations in electrodynamics, mechanics, and quantum mechanics, which are basically the three or electricity and magnetism too. Those are the the core subset of AEP classes. And then we get to take these technical electives, which I talked about. where I'm in the bigger engineering classes where I can I can go and take some electrical engineering class or I know people who take mechanical engineering classes because they want to specialize in aerospace engineering. Or I know people who take like grad level math classes because they love math and they want to explore that more. ⁓ so really I see a pretty diverse range of classes because I I get those like smaller physics classes where you're basically just grinding out these equations, but you're learning a lot in the process. And then you're also in these bigger engineering classes which tend to have more labs. ⁓ though in engineering physics we do have a few lab requirements. Like we have an advanced lab requirement and then we also have a circuits requirement. We have a few we have a pretty diverse range of requirements for lab classes as well. ⁓ Which make you work with your hands, get in the lab, actually see what's going on, learn to solder, those kinds of things. ⁓ so
speaker-0: Cool. Yeah. I feel like it's almost like a boost for you, right? Like the physics part of it is like you're kind of like on this rocket of like which direction I want to go on. Here's the physics part and it's gonna get you there a bit faster or like understanding it a bit more. Is that accurate, do you think, or Yeah.
speaker-1: Exactly. It just like it brings you to this crazy level of understanding. I mean, you gotta keep up, but anyone in my opinion, anyone can keep up with it. You just have to put the work in. Yeah, definitely the love gets tested, but you come out stronger, right?
speaker-0: I a love for it. Yeah, absolutely. So what other things are you interested in or involved in here at Cornell Beyond Academics?
speaker-1: So beyond academics, but still within engineering physics, I'm on the engineering physics ⁓ like student organization board. So I actually planned ⁓ this we had a ⁓ engineering physics and physics student formal last semester where we had over a hundred people attend who were in various physics and engineering physics majors. ⁓ and it was a fun night. We had a DJ. It was it was really nice. ⁓ outside of physics, because I need to have something outside of physics. ⁓ I'm actually on the the triathlon team. ⁓ it's just a club, but I I go to a lot of their practices or well I go to whenever I can I go to a practice. Yeah. And it it's fun because like they have bike biking, they have swimming, they have running. And it's really a good way to hang out with some friends outside of physics and some friends who ⁓ like to exercise as well, ⁓ and do those kinds of things. So that's really fun.
speaker-0: Actually participate in triathlons.
speaker-1: I need to do one. I've been I've been waiting to do one. I was thinking about doing a half Iron Man this summer, but I I ended up having some health problems so that I couldn't do it. But I'm so bummed about it. I need to do one next year.
speaker-0: Still on your list. Yeah, absolutely. Keep training, keep going, getting the I think that's a great way to like let off some steam too, right? Like that's the best way it is to get your body moving and get all the stress out from everything. So where do you want AEP to take you in the future? ⁓ I know that you are doing an internship this summer, so that's probably a little bit of a direction, but where where does your career what do you want your career to look like after Cornell?
speaker-1: As of right now, I wanna be a fusion engineer. I wanna be one of the people who are helping to bring fusion energy to the world. And that's actually what my internship right now is in. ⁓ I'm an electrical instrumentation and controls engineer at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is the leading private company looking to make fusion reactors happen. and looking to make their own fusion power plant in the next, I think that they're saying ten years. Basically I've been doing these really cool magnetic field calculations for different areas inside of ⁓ where they're going to store the reactor. And it's just this really interesting math, which I love obviously, but then you're also seeing these really physical impacts of what are reactor that's making these fusion reactions happen that will actually like what kind of effects it will actually have on what's around it. Because when you're making a fusion reactor, not to geek out or whatever, but you're you literally have something that's hotter than the sun that you're containing with magnets that are stored at temperatures colder than ⁓ space. So you have something that's hotter than the sun. And then right outside of that, you have magnets that are controlling it that's that are cooler, kept cooler than space, the temperature of space. So it's this really crazy engineering problem. It's this really crazy physics problem. And I love it. And honestly, there are a lot of Cornell ⁓ AEP alumni who are working here as well. I think I know of at least four or five. So ⁓ I'm in good I'm in good company. So A E P tend to love this. Yeah.
speaker-0: That's a really mind blowing thing to think about that there even is something on Earth that can not only imitate but is as hot or hotter than the sun.
speaker-1: I I've been joking about actually to my astronomy friends. ⁓ I'm like, you just study stars. I make them.
speaker-0: That's so cool. Like that's such a neat thing. And the way that you're directing that to solve a problem, right? It's like who even thought of being able to do this? And then now you're there actually utilizing it to solve problems. ⁓ that's really, really neat. I love that. ⁓ and I'm glad that there's other AEP people there ⁓ from Cornell. That's really cool.
speaker-1: I also am hoping to get my PhD in some fusion related field. I I'm still debating whether or not to take a year off before that and kind of take a year off from being in school, but ⁓ we'll see what happens. I'm I'm looking forward to the future though.
speaker-0: Yeah, you have a lot of options. That's really cool. okay, so AEP is one of our smaller majors here in terms of numbers. ⁓ and my hope is that more women will see this major. They'll see that this is a great place to bring their engineering interests and apply it to whatever field they want to go into. So what do you think is a unique thing that women bring to AEP?
speaker-1: Honestly, I think that they really bring a collaborative atmosphere. Like I love we have a lounge at Cornell, ⁓ in the physical sciences building. And whenever I walk into the lounge and there are a couple of girls in there, they're always talking, they're always working together, they're always chatting about something. And it it makes me feel really seen and it it makes me really encouraged to go over and talk to them and figure out what problem they're working on, figure out what they're studying. I I've really appreciated having all of the girls in the major and I know the guys have too. it it really it it really adds a level of ⁓ community to the major that otherwise I'm I'm not sure how it would be. You make such great friends, especially the girls with the girls, but then also with the guys, like it they they are supportive. And obviously you're gonna have your ups and downs in any ⁓ engineering major, but I would say overall I've had very supportive relationship.
speaker-0: That's really good. So you have your community there too. Like you were saying, like specifically with the women who are in the major, ⁓ that community of people that you feel like you can be ⁓ seen. That was a really great way to put it that you that you feel seen in there. so I know that there are ups and downs. I know that there are times that you are going to struggle or feel like this was a lot. Today was a lot. So who is your support during those times? ⁓ who makes you feel like you've got this and that you can get through it? ⁓ when you need a pep talk.
speaker-1: would say actually another girl ⁓ another two girls in engineering physics but mostly one ⁓ whose name is ⁓ Eleanor. ⁓ she's also a rising senior and she's also on the triathlon club slash team with me. And so sometimes when we're both feeling really down about something or we just had a test and w it was super hard. We'll go and we'll go for like a run or a bike ride ⁓ for like an hour or two. and just work it out and it it really helps me. Like it it just takes your mind off of it. Cause it's also helpful to have somebody who's taking the same tests as you and taking the same classes as you because it's one thing for me to tell my friends who are like mechanical engineers or electrical engineers like, ⁓ that test was so bad because they don't understand. ⁓ not as in like their classes are bad, but whenever you just have a test that really, really challenged you and you say that to somebody who like hasn't taken the same test, they're never really gonna understand, versus somebody who's also done it with you, they get it. They've been there. My other friend's name is ⁓ Jillian and she's also really there for me. And ⁓ she really is into astronomy, so we'll there's ⁓ a really beautiful observatory actually on Cornell's campus called ⁓ Fuerte's Observatory. and we're part of the astronomy club. And so both of us will like go to the observatory and just look at the stars and think to ourselves, Okay, we're feeling calmer now. We looked at the stars, we saw we saw the sky, the world is bigger than us then This one test or this one thing that I'm upset about this week.
speaker-0: I was gonna say that it must make you feel like, wow, look how big the world is. Yeah, really. Yeah. But the fact that you have those two women next to you who can truly feel like what it feels like to be in your shoes, to take that test, to be, you know, at at this place in your life that you're at, ⁓ and to have that community and that support, ⁓ who can really empathize with what's going on. That's a really great support system that you have through those other women.
speaker-1: No, really. Like I I like to say like as AEP people like really stick together. Like if you meet an alumni, they're always gonna see you and they're always gonna say hi to you and they're always gonna be nice to you. And then women in engineering physics too, it's just like a it's a bond. Like you are definitely bonded with those people.
speaker-0: Lovely. ⁓ all right, this is my last question for you. I would love to hear your view of engineering and why girls should explore applied engineering physics.
speaker-1: I would say my view of engineering is really this art and this really cool experimental way of making something work and understanding something on a level that nobody else is ever gonna understand it at. Like if you if you talk to somebody who's doing like I know people from Cornell who ⁓ after they they graduate they're going to work for on the cars for F1 racing. Yeah, so like they're gonna go and work on these cars and know the aerodynamics of these cars better than most people in the world. Or there are people who go and work ⁓ in aerospace engineering and they're gonna go and know how these rockets are able to fly or able to launch better than anybody else. And
speaker-0: ⁓ yeah, yeah.
speaker-1: In my mind it's just this really cool way of feeling like both powerful but then also small at the same time. Like it's a really it's It's a really cool dynamic and it it really makes you feel like you have a place. I in my the way that it is for me. Like I feel like wha by making something, by helping especially to make this fusion reactor, like I am doing my part in this world. And maybe that's my engineering mentality, but I I love it. I think girls should explore AEP because engineering physics majors can really do anything. Like I've said, I know people who are doing theoretical math. I know people who are doing biomedical engineering after they graduate. It's this really, really diverse major that also has this really cool basis in math. And honestly, you just get this really cool view of the world out of it. You d Iva as I said, you definitely have your ups and downs, but the community is always there to support you. And honestly, I would say that the community is tighter than a lot of the bigger engineering majors because you know everyone. You know who are in their c your classes with you. You know who's gonna be in the AEP lounge working until midnight on that problem set and you know when they're gonna be done. And it it definitely is such a unique college experience, but also like so worth it at the end. The hard work is so worth it. And any engineering physics alumni will tell you, like, you get in what you put in or you good get out what you put in, right? Yeah. It it's a really cool experience and I I would love to see more girls in the major.
speaker-0: Yeah, I completely agree. And I think you put a beautiful spotlight on it. again, I think that this major is one that's not necessarily as known, but I think it is so applicable to so many things that no matter what your interest is, you're no matter what your interest is, you can utilize it and utilize it well. Like it's not just, you know, something that you can kind of put somewhere because it fits. It's like it truly does enhance your experience with that engineering field, having all of this physics behind it. so thank you. I think that was a a beautiful way to put it ⁓ and to spotlight this really a awesome field. ⁓ so thank you for your time. I really appreciate you being here.
speaker-1: ⁓ I love to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
speaker-0: Welcome back everyone. I'm so excited today because I get to introduce you to another one of our wonderful staff members here at Cornell Engineering Admissions. She's actually one of our newest members of the team and we're so glad that she joined. ⁓ her name is Emily. Emily, do you wanna introduce yourself?
speaker-2: Absolutely. Thank you for having me today. My name is Emily Staros. I am an assistant director of admissions and the rural recruitment coordinator at Cornell Engineering. I've been in this position since October of 2023. So this is a relatively new role for me, like you said. I'm originally from Thomson, Pennsylvania, which is a super small town with a population of about 250 residents in the northeastern corner of the state.
speaker-0: So you are the newest addition to our office, which is so wonderful and lovely. We're so glad you're with us. ⁓ but one of the reasons why I asked you on this podcast specifically was because ⁓ I have been asked a number of times working at admissions, am I an engineer? And the answer to that is no. And the other question I get asked a lot is, did you go to Cornell? And the answer for me again is no, I did not attend Cornell as a student. However, that is not the case for you. ⁓ you actually are an alum of Cornell, not in engineering, but in a different college. And I would love to hear about your time here at Cornell and if you could share that with everyone.
speaker-2: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ like you said, my answer to the engineer question is also a no. But I ⁓ was a student at Cornell in the College of Arts and Sciences. ⁓ I graduated with a degree in chemistry and chemical biology. So not engineering, but I do have experience as a Cornell student studying a STEM field. a lot of the work I do is informed by my journey to and through Cornell. In terms of my journey to Cornell, I wouldn't say it was very direct at all. But that experience is a reason I'm so passionate about the work that I do today. Like I said before, I grew up in a really rural area and graduated with around 50 students at a public school. My college search and application process was all over the place. I had applied to six or seven institutions, not very sure of what I wanted to study. but I knew I tended more towards math and sciences. So around April of my senior year, it felt like Everything fell apart. I found out that I had missed the financial aid deadline for the institution I was planning to attend by like a day, which was not Cornell. So my family and I were informed that there was no financial aid available and we were not able to afford that institution without it. So I found myself at the end of my senior year, no idea where to attend college. Basically, my worst nightmare at the time. I ended up visiting a completely different university at the end of my senior year that I hadn't even applied to. And they ended up offering me a full ride in their honors program. I accepted the offer and I was there for two years, after which I decided to apply as a transfer to universities. I think that even though I grew a lot in that time and I found my love for chemistry, I didn't feel that institution was the best fit. And that was partly, I'm sure, a result of Feeling like I didn't explore and choose it myself. You know, it was like it felt like it was the only option at the time. so I remember when I see received my Cornell acceptance as a junior transfer. I remember shopping for supplies for a camping trip. And I got the email that a decision had been made. And when I logged in and saw the congratulations, which I was not expecting, it felt like my heart stopped. My family and I were so unbelievably excited at that point. I had visited a few times with them. And just fell in love with it. So, with the environment, the values, the people I met, the campus, everything. As for my journey through Cornell, I would be lying if I said it didn't start out kind of rough. Although the high school I attended had a really strong community and so many incredibly caring and influential teachers. and I'm so proud of having grown up there and attended that school, it had no Honors courses or AP classes. I didn't really have to study in high school. And although I improved my study skills at that first college, the rigor at Cornell was so much more intense. ⁓ in addition to that, I felt that I kind of lacked social skills, which I was not expecting. I attributed it to the fact of growing up with and around the same people my whole life in that rural area, upon reflection later on. I was not used to the feel of a large institution, to have all those resources available, the opportunities. ⁓ so it was really overwhelming and such a gift at the same time in those first few months. So I had the opportunity for a lot of internal growth during that first semester, two semesters at Cornell, which I really tried to take advantage of. And it in turn has had such a positive impact on my life. So after adjusting more to being a Cornell student, I felt like I opened up a lot. I tried to take advantage of all the opportunities at Cornell and to learn as much as possible from formal courses, of course, and just from the people and communities around me. In addition to the chemistry courses required for my major, I was able to take so many interesting courses from a law class to a belly dancing class to the famous wines course at Cornell and reflecting on it today, despite those inevitable challenges, like everyone. deals with in the college process. maybe not to that extent, but there always struggles. ⁓ I wouldn't change anything about those years.
speaker-0: That's a really awesome story to hear. And I think an important one to share because again, everyone's journey to college or even specifically to Cornell is different. But I love how you highlight that your high school wasn't necessarily the most rigorous. They didn't offer AP or honors courses, but you took an extra step. You went to another university and then you transferred in. ⁓ and I think that's an important story to hear that it's it's not always a straight line. and How you went from such disappointment, probably your senior year, being like, Well, this is the only option I have, to then being able your senior year of college to say, I just graduated from an Ivy League institution. Here I am at Cornell. that's a really great story to share. And I hope that you and I'm sure you have reflected on this, but like the growth and the journey that has gone through all of that is probably something beyond just the education that you got, is like as a person and personal development. ⁓ It must be an incredible journey to to reflect on.
speaker-2: Yeah, it's been it honestly has. I'm a reflective ⁓ person in nature, but I I really do think those years, that whole process, even though it was very difficult at the time, ⁓ have changed my life for the better. I was able to go live in France. I learned French well enough to be accepted to do program to live in France after I graduated for a year and helped teach over there in rural France. And I don't think I would have done that or felt the, you know, confidence or really push myself to do that if I didn't attend Cornell and kind of deal with those difficulties. I do wish at the time I I knew. Now I know that people deal with struggles throughout college when applying, you know, the transition. ⁓ but at the time I didn't No, I wasn't as aware of it. I didn't feel like I had a huge community around that. So I try to talk about it as much as possible now because it's always comforting to know, you know, that ⁓ everyone's life isn't as as direct and not easy, but ⁓ without struggle as as we think.
speaker-0: Right. Yeah. All these doors are closing and you're like, ⁓ no, I'm not gonna get to where I want to go. But then you got there. all right. So now understanding that you were a Cornell student and you l kind of lived that life, we always, ⁓ when we're applied when we're reading applications, we're looking for certain characteristics in students. And that is something that I have developed through the years that I've read applications. But I think for you it's special because you were a Cornell student. So I would love to hear what you think, what kind of characteristics you think a Cornell student should have, ⁓ beyond grades and achievements and all of that, ⁓ what you think goes into being a Cornell student?
speaker-2: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I was in arts and sciences, like I said. So, and Cornell can be kind of is decentralized, right? Each of the colleges functions separately with admissions and but there are definitely many commonalities I've noticed across colleges. The first thing I want to say is that there is not one type of student that's like an ideal Cornell student at all, ⁓ which makes the community at this institution overall that much stronger. I I love that. ⁓ The first characteristics I think of, though, that I feel were shaped by both, you know, my experiences as a Cornell student and also in this role. Like you said, you're adjusting to going through applications, getting to see this. I am as well from the side. but the first that come to mind are being kind and empathetic. That's something that I've seen in many of my peers when I was at Cornell, and of course, in a lot of the strongest applications we've seen. ⁓ being driven, of course, which is a I would say pretty common one for most of our applications, being driven personally, professionally, academically, authentic, seeing authenticity in our applications and genuinely wanting to have a positive impact everywhere on your community, the world, society, the people around you. that's something in this position now that I love, I love when I see that come out of an application. And it's not something that I intentionally thought about prior to, you know. seeing that in an application before working in higher education.
speaker-0: Yeah, I think the one for me, and I agree with all of them, but like kindness and empathy just go so far. ⁓ and when you can recognize that in an application, that always is like, ⁓ yes, we need more of that. There's never enough of that, right? Like that's always something we need. But you're right, being driven, trying to make an impact, all of that. I completely agree. and I think is reflec is reflected in you as well as a Cornell alum. I think that you are a a great example of all these characteristics.
speaker-2: Absolutely.
speaker-1: This is
speaker-0: Which is why we're so glad you're on our team. ⁓ thank you. Welcome. so can you tell me about your favorite part ⁓ being here at Cornell as a student in those you were here for two years, but there must have been something that you just absolutely loved. What was your favorite part about it?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: Another great question. ⁓ there were so many things that I came to love at Cornell and in Ithaca. If I had to choose just one, it would probably be the culture around a genuine love of learning, which is portrayed in a lot of different ways here. I it seems to me that's one thing almost all Cornell students have in common. So there's like an open-mindedness that a lot of people share and a willingness to really listen to others, to collaborate. And to keep growing as a person. and being in a community like that for the first time in my life where it felt like almost everyone was on the same page was just was honestly incredible. I really appreciated it. I still do.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, I agree. That's really neat to to be a part of that. So now what is it like to be on the other side of the desk? ⁓ you're now somebody who is has a hand in bringing students into Cornell, specifically Cornell Engineering. What is that like?
speaker-2: Yeah, it's definitely been interesting and an adjustment like anything else, but it's been super exciting. I have always been interested in how educational institutions function, especially in higher education at the university level. So I find the work enjoyable and there's definitely a lot to learn, which which I which I love. ⁓ my experiences finding my way to and through an institution that felt like the best fit for me have fostered this passion I have now for helping others through their college search and application processes. And I feel grateful in this position. I'm able to spend time and resources to help other students. as a rural recruitment coordinator, I can do that with other students from rural areas and small towns ⁓ to help them with their college search and application processes. And a part of that responsibility in this role includes bringing awareness to rural culture and all the unique strengths that rural students bring to the College of Engineering. So I've been able to do some exciting work helping bring together a community of Cornell Engineering students from rural areas and small towns, which has fostered some great conversations and initiatives. ⁓ and having, you know, dealt with that adjustment from a rural area that transitioned to ⁓ an institution like Cornell. From a rural area and kind of the difficulties I felt with that experience at the beginning of feeling that not that it it did not limit me in a way, but it definitely had an impact. And if I if I had a community that I would have been able to confide in and relate to, ⁓ I think that would have been just incredible. So I'm excited to see, to see where this goes.
speaker-0: Yeah, you're now building that community. And it was so great to have your perspective come into our office and say, hey, look at this population of students that we need to pay attention to. so that was a really great addition that you brought to that. And you are doing a lot of work to make sure that we are paying attention to them, that we are valuing their experiences and seeing them. ⁓ so that's really great. ⁓ all right, we're going to just wrap up here, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to share anything else that you wanted to share, any tips. Or anything else that you thought would be helpful for our students?
speaker-2: I think one thing that comes to mind that I try to share often, I would say when working on your college application, stay true to who you are. So and this can be easier said than done. ⁓ try and create an application that genuinely shows a picture of you rather than thinking what do the people looking at this application want to see? we know that you only have so much control over so much of the application. So a lot of the time the essays are what hold a lot of room for this. And as everyone knows, grades and achievements do matter, but most people know this and we see strong grades and achievements from the large majority of our applicants. So what we see less of is an idea of someone that makes us think, wow, this applicant's perspectives and personality would absolutely contribute so well to the Cornell Engineering community.
speaker-0: Yeah, I completely agree. thank you so much, Emily. I really appreciate you being here.
speaker-2: Thank you so much for inviting me, Terry. It's been so great to get to know you and be a part of this team.
speaker-0: Wonderful, absolutely. Well, we have come to the end of another episode of View, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. I want to thank our guest, Sophia, for giving her insight into AEP. Thank you again, Emily, for joining me and having us learn more about another admissions officer here in the office. And finally, thank all of you for joining us. I hope you learned something today. And maybe it was that you're an engineer. View, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women is a podcast produced and written by the Cornell Engineering Admissions Office. Please remember to like, follow, subscribe, and share our podcasts and help us bring engineering to the ears of young women everywhere. To find out more information about Cornell Engineering, please visit our website, visit.engineering.cornell.edu.
