Prominent industry leaders have been sharing their career insights and knowledge with Elizabethtown College Engineering students as part of the Engineering Fall Seminar. 

The seminar series, which is led by Dean of the School of Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Dr. Sara Atwood and Industry Liaison for the School Stephanie Zegers, features presentations with topics of current interest in engineering and exposes students to current engineering-related perspectives, challenges, and opportunities.  

Throughout the fall semester, five speakers with a variety of backgrounds and career paths have spoken with the 51 Etown students enrolled in the course about the latest trends in engineering across fields such as mechanical design, bioengineering, construction engineering, and more. 

Oct 20 – Carolyn Steele, Ph.D. (Zoom)

Title: Senior Brand Manager at Adventure Ready, formerly Senior Product Manager at Bauer Hockey 

Background
Steele shared her evolution from a technical engineer to a product and brand manager with Etown students and explained how she made a career out of combining her love of sports and engineering.

Student Takeaway
“Overall her presentation helped me learn a lot about being fearless as an engineer and stepping outside of boundaries both socially, geographically, intellectually, and so on. She also brought a lot of really good points to light about finding your passion and pursuing it, and knowing what you like and how you can reach for it.” – Ruth Jacob ’23

“It was inspiring to see that companies value interdisciplinary knowledge since I am interested in working with cross-functional teams and not just focusing on technical work. Dr. Steele discovered that her passion didn’t lie within a certain discipline but instead is rooted in the kinds of problems that she likes to solve.” – Pablo Miguez ’22

Oct 27 – Ryan Shelby, Ph.D. (Zoom)

Title: Career Diplomat & Supervisory Regional Engineering Officer at USAID/Southern Africa 

Background
Shelby spoke with Etown students about his career as an engineering diplomat in Haiti and Africa with USAID, a lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty. 

Student Takeaway
“Dr. Shelby’s profession impacts global, economic, environmental, and societal factors at a high level. Working on jobs in foreign countries affected by natural disasters exemplifies these factors as he worked as a diplomat and an engineer at the same time, which is fascinating to me.” – Blake Wallace ’22

Nov 3 – Jill Kovach, PE (in person)

Title: President- Construction at NUTEC, Women In Manufacturing Chapter

Background
Kovach discussed the importance of taking on challenges, being willing to move to new locations for both professional and personal goals, obtaining a PE, and networking to create and maintain relationships.

Student Takeaway
“When Ms. Kovach was presenting it shows how she never was in just one type of industry the whole of her career. She went from manufacturing to health care, to an office job and many more. This just shows how I can use my Industrial Engineering (IE) degree to access different parts of the career path in my future.” – Sabriah Hussien ’22

Nov 17 – Chielo Mbaezue (Zoom)

Title: Mechanical Design Engineer at Tesla

Background
Mbaezue earned his Mechanical Engineering degree from Stanford University and credits his Nigerian upbringing with influencing his interest in sustainability and power generation. In his talk, he emphasized a solid foundation of “first principles” engineering, which matches Etown’s mastery-based curriculum approach. 

Student Takeaway
“Mr. Mbaezue talked about how sustainability and being environmentally friendly is important to him as an engineer. I think this is something that every engineer should value as we have the power to change the world and make a positive turn.” – Emily Rahe ’22

“It was interesting to hear what a typical day in the life of a Tesla engineer looks like. Mr. Mbaezue works in the battery division, which is obviously the biggest component of an electric car.” – Pablo Miguez ’22

Nov 17 – Joe Towles, Ph.D. (Zoom)

Title: Lecturer in Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering at Stanford (Zoom)

Background
Towles collaboratively redesigned a surgery to restore thumb function for tetraplegic patients while at Stanford and is a current lecturer in the University’s Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering departments.

Student Takeaway
“I believe that Dr. Towles’ work is a prime example of how your passion can guide you toward unexpected career paths and how other fields (like medicine) can benefit from tackling problems from an engineering perspective to drive improvement in people’s lives.” – Pablo Miguez ’22

“Dr. Towles is a great example of how impactful engineers can be and how critical it is that we always continue to learn and evolve as the world does.” – Ryan Brechbiel ’22