Why did you choose engineering at CU Boulder?
I chose to do engineering at CU Boulder because I wanted to do engineering since I was in 8th grade. After realizing this, I came to tour CU Boulder's engineering department and I fell in love with the campus.
What does #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag mean to you?
What #ILookLikeAnEngineer means to me is that you can't judge people based off what they look like. People from different walks of life and from different backgrounds can do engineering because engineers aren't just white males anymore. There are engineers from different demographic backgrounds and that's what makes engineering a good thing—it's starting to be diverse.
What are three things that make you unique?
- I am adopted from China
- I published my first article in the Colorado Engineer Magazine semester Fall 2019
- I ran state in cross country twice in high school and broke a school record in swimming
What are your career goals?
Since I am still young, I don't have a set idea of what I want to do as a long term career. As of right now, I want to do into the aerospace industry after graduation. I am working at Colorado Space Grant and I love what I'm doing. I really just want to design and fabricate those designs and work with a diverse team.
Do you have a favorite quote or mantra?
One of my favorite quotes that someone told me once was, "What would you struggle for?" and this has helped serve me as a good reflection question as to what I want to do in life.
A little philosophy I like is dedicate your time and energy towards the things you can control because too often, we think about all the things we can't control (e.g. the past) but we can't do anything about that so we should invest that time and effort into bettering our future selves.
What are your hobbies?
Hiking, photography, swimming, running, writing, baking/cooking, reading, hang out with friends and family
What do you enjoy most about engineering?
What I enjoy the most about engineering is learning from other people. I feel like I learn more when I am learning from my peers. Another thing I enjoy about engineering is collaborating with others because people can give you insight to different perspectives or ideas you've never thought of before and vice versa.
What is your favorite engineering experience?
My favorite engineering experience so far has been building things in the ITLL. For GEEN 1400, I was in charge of the manufacturing for our project and I loved being in the wood working shop cutting pieces for our project. I find it very rewarding to have a concept be turned into a design and for that design to be turned into something tangible.
Nora Drewno, Class of 2023, Mechanical Engineering