Whole Life Concepts Paper

Sara Keranakis

ENGR 1201- 024 Linda Hargrove 9/18/2012 I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any violation of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.

9/20/2012

Keranakis, Whole Life Concepts

Passion: Someone once asked me what was my passion, and I could notn't answer themthem because I had never really thought about it, so I took some time and realized I really enjoyed seeing my ideas become tangible items. When I was young, I always enjoyedliked building stuff with my Legos and Lincoln Logs. I would try to build the tallest, coolest looking tower, and make it stable enough where it took my sister a while to tear it down. My cousins and I would go build forts in the woods and my fort would always have the most intrigue layout. Also while I played with my dolls I would make the play houseplayhouse my mom bought bettemore funr by adding other toys and even boxes to constructmake a better design for the house. I knew that I wanted to grow up and build things out of various materials but I had not quite made my mind up yet of what I would build. I lived in the country on a farm and I was constantly helping my dad fix the fence and work in the fields. Farming has taught me how to do lots of things. It has shown me how to use my creativity to solve problem and how to use what you have to make things work and work better. But throughout my life I found out that farming is not what I wanted to do with my life. I enjoyed helping dad fix things and make them work more efficiently, but I had little experience in building objects myself and still wasn't sure of my exact desires. Over the past three summers I haveve gone on mission trips around the east coast with my church youth group. On these trips we would help people with needs and spreadhare the word of God. The jobs on our work sites varied from painting to repairing and shingling roofs. Every year I ended up on a roofing crew. I really enjoyed working on the roof. I would always try I tired to be the first person on the roof and the last person off every day. I also stayed close to the crew chief because I was extremely interested in learning as much as I could for them. The crew chiefs often would teach me something and trust me to teach others or even let me work by myself. I always took every opportunity that arose to follow the footsteps of the leaders because I was curious about how everything worked. One day my passion is to be the leader and have people follow in my footsteps like I once did to them. I knew that I wanted construct different thingsbuild stuff but I needed to figure what kind of stuff I was most passionate about building. The summer of junior year my mission trip took me through Atlanta, Georgia. I had never really been out of the country and Atlanta was the first big city I had been to. I was amazed at all of the bridges and skyscrapers. At that moment I knew I wanted to create something that would contribute to a city skyline. I thought it would be an extremely amazing thing to see my creation permanently set in the skyline. The following year I was signed up for physics class and one day we had a project assigned that was to build a bridge that could support a lot of weight while not weighing much itself. I realized that this was exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and I would work to have that opportunity. My physics teacher, Mrs. Urbanski, encouraged me to work very hard on my bridge project. She saw how much I enjoyed it and allowed me extra time to perfect my bridge. She would give me hints on how to make my bridge better but she would never give away the trick. I had to figure it out on my own and she knew that I could. I also had to use my creativity and knowledge to help make my bridge be successful. I was dedicated to making my bridge look the best and hold the most weight. She saw how passionate I was at making my bridge flawless. Mrs. U was also my soccer coach,coach; she thought of me as a leader and always pushed me to be better. If I would not do something to my absolute best she would tell me she was disappointed and make me do it again. A few times she would even take it out on me by making me run extra at soccer. I was never happy about that but now I can see that she was only doing it because she knew I could be great if I had someone to push me. Mrs. U knew how much I like math and enjoyed the mechanics part of physic so she encouraged me to look into engineering. I did not know much about engineering so I did some research about it. By this time I was a senior in high school and the most popular question a senior is asked by an adult is "What are you majoring in when you go to college?", well I still did not know for sure but I would often tell them engineering. Once I told them this they would automatically ask what kind. Since I had done little to no research on engineering, I did not know what to tell them. One day my next door neighbor, and family friend, asked me this dreaded question and I told him the same answer I told everyone "some kind of engineering". He was a welder and worked with many types of engineers so he asked me what I wanted to do in the engineering world. I told him I did not know much about any engineering but I wanted to build bridges or skyscrapers. He told me

Keranakis, Whole Life Concepts

about civil engineering, and how he had just got done working with a civil engineer. I was very interested and listened to him talk about what they did on a regular basic day. He told me how they worked together and he explained a lot of things an engineer has to know. I was overwhelmed at all the stuff he was telling me. I then realized how much work I was going to have to put into becoming an engineer. I think he saw my worried look because he then asked me why I was so set on being an engineer. I sat there for a while asking myself the same question and I then realized the reason. I told him how passionate I was about seeing my creations come to life and no matter how hard I had to work I was willing to do it because there is nothing else I would rather do. Impact: A few contemporary issues in life are to make the world a better place and I will make it my goal to play my part to help improve the world. One way I would try would be to create safer more efficient bridges. Improving existing bridges will help the community by allowing people to travel faster to work or to the places they are going. I also want to find new more economically and environmentally friendly materials to use in my designs. By creating these efficient bridges I will help lower the effect we have on our natural surroundings. Our natural resources are become less and less protect because of human grow and expansion. Bridges are a very expensive necessity to improve human transportation and by trying to find more economically reasonable materials I could lower the expenses. That would help us build more bridges faster and not hurt our declining economics. Most bridges are built very safely but there are always those rare occurrences when a bridge does fail. There are many reasons why bridges could collapse; Ed Grabianowski describes a few reason in his article "10 Reasons Why Bridges Collapse." The reasons vary from earthquakes, floods to unknown reasons we may never know. Some reasons can be avoided by correcting human error, but other involves research and innovation to create more sable structures. When I become an engineer I will set my goal to use my passion to help make sure bridges are safe for the community. The community relies on bridges to make transportation to work or other places easy and faster. If the bridges are not safe then we put our people in danger. I will try to think of better ways to help protect our bridges from natural or manmade problems (Grabioanowski 2011). Bridges are very expensive, according to an article about the Golden Gate Bridge on San Francisco Travel it cost nearly $1.2 billion dollars to build. Another goal of mine is to find resources that are economic friendly. The economy is declining and if I could find cheaep, strong, long-lasting materials it would help our lower the amount we spend on building and put that money to other places of research. This would help our economy by not bring it down. Some bridges never get finished because of budget cuts, and if there were ways to reduce cost that would lower the amount of these bridges. If we have more bridges then we can get to places faster or even places we couldn't before by means of ground transportation on cars, such aslike islands for instance. (San Francisco Traveler 2011). Human development has greatly affected the environment. Some development has been for the betterment of natural life but some has put some of our natural resources in harm. Construction sites usually hurt nature because you have to get rid of what was there before you build new stuff. By becoming an engineer and possibly having a work site of my own I will set my goal to help protect our natural life. Not only does the construction of buildings hurt the environment, but also the stuff bridges are made out of can affect the world around us. An article from DSM on composite bridges, they talk about how construction with concrete has contributed to 7% of the global carbon dioxide emissions. We really need to pay more attention to how we have an affect on the Earth (DSM 2011). Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: My passion is to see my creations come to life, but before I am able to do that I know that I am going to have to gain some knowledge, skills and abilities about building and working with others. I am going to have to gain knowledge of materials, and how they are used to construct bridges. One day I hope to be able to lead my own project and in order to do that I will need to gain leadership and soft skills. Also I will need to learn abilities that will help me succeed at my

Keranakis, Whole Life Concepts

career. I am going to have to learn to draw detailed enough design that others will be able to follow it. Civil engineers need to know about the material they are using. If an engineer does not know the limit of their materials it can lead to bridge failure and possible death. It is important to know everything you can about the product you are using. Some types of material bend differently then others, and if I were to use the wrong type of materialstuff it could throw off the whole structure. Materials like concrete and steal both swells in the heat of the day. They both swell at different rates and if I did not know the rate of fluctuation I would cause a malfunction in the bridges stability. To be good engineer I am going to have to know everything I can about all types of material and avoid any mishaps. Engineers cannot build bridges by themselves,themselves; they have to be able to work well in teams. These teams will be with other engineers and non-engineers. I am going to need the communication skills to explain my ideas and instructions to everyone on my team. Also to be able to lead my own project I am going to need great leadership skills. Leadership skills are not all about leading they also will help me to be a great follower. I will have to work under people before I can work for myself and in order to rise up to a lead position I will need to be a great follower. If I have great following skills I can help my team be successful in all of our projects. Some classes like Intro to Engineering, where I have to work in teams will teach me these skills. They will help improve my soft skills, which will help me out in not only my desired career, but also in my every day life. Engineers cannot just build a bridge out of thin air,air; everyone has to be on the same page and to help everyone do this detailed drawings are made. The drawings need to be made were both engineers and non-engineers can read it. I would need to take classes to help be gain this ability. These drawings are the main factor in helping bridges come together correctly. If someone is not sure how to read it then measurements could get off and that could cause mishaps of where the bridge does not meet up with the other side or even failure. I would apply these skills to help me learn how to draw my own designs and this ability will help to learn how to read others drawings. In order to be a contributing factor in a working team I will need to master this ability. I did some research on available jobs and saw what employers are looking for in engineers. An Associate Engineering job I found in San Jose has a starting job salary at $75,000. This job requires at least four years of experience. Leadership and Communication are a few skills they say you will need to be successful at this job. An employee must also be able to prepare or review design, and and make improvements if needed. A candidate must also prove that they can solve problems and analyses data to help make projects be successful (Department of Transportation 2012). Another Civil Engineering (Structural) job located in Bremerton, Washington has a starting salary of $73,000. In order to be qualified for this job you must have knowledge in calculus, physics, and strength of materials. They also prefer you have at least one year of supervised quittance in a professional engineering experience. Leadership skills will direct and advise other engineers while working this job. You also must have the ability to prepare detailed work instructions (Department of the Navy 2012). One final job I found is located in Huntington, West Virginia. This is a Civil Engineering (Structural) job that pays $96,000. In this job you must be able to produce structural models that will be used to analyze decisions for assessment. You will need to have leadership skills in order to lead a team of professional. One must have calculus, engineering sciences and physical education to help accomplish projects on this job. At least one year of experience is needed to qualify for this job. The applicantYou must also have the ability to evaluate progress and resolve issues related to the stages of dam safety (Department of the Army 2012). Next Steps: Now that I have discovered my passion, what impact I want to have on the world, and the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do it; I feel I can successfully continue on the path of my concentration in engineering. My passion will help motivate me to help the world in ways that are not yet discovered. I feel that I am moving in the direction I am most passionate about, and this will help me be successful at obtaining my degree. The only concern I have about obtaining my

Keranakis, Whole Life Concepts

degree would be that itsits going to be very hard. I need to keep up the hard work and improve my time management skills. I will work towards expanding these skills by keeping track of assignments and having them done before due dates. This will help me obtain my goal of a degree in Civil Engineering and also work towards my passion. I will continue to work towards my choice of major so I can go through will reaching my passion. I want to see my ideas turn into tangible creations. This assignment has confirmed the fact that I want to be a civil engineer. I want to help make the world a better place by creating safer, economical and environmentally friendly bridges.

Keranakis, Whole Life Concepts

Works Cited Department of the Army. 2012. Agency Job Opportunity Announcement. USA Jobs. Accessed September 19. https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/326555600 Department of the Navy. 2012. Civilian Careers. USA Jobs. Accessed September 19. https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/326802000

Department of Transportation. 2012. Job Description. City Jobs. Accessed September 19. https://cityjobs.sanjoseca.gov/psc/prod/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Pag e=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL&Action=A&JobOpeningId=2599&SiteId=1&PostingSeq=1& DSM. 2011. Composite Bridges. DSM. Accessed September 18. http://www.dsm.com//en_US/cworld/public/media/pages/publications/cs_composite_bri dges.jsp# Grabianowski, Ed. 2011. 10 Reasons Why Bridges Collapse. Howstuffworks. Accessed Sepember 18. http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/10-reasons-why-bridgescollapse.htm San Francisco Travel. 2011. Interesting Facts About the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco Travel. Accessed September 18. http://www.sanfrancisco.travel/Interesting-Facts-About-theGolden-Gate-Bridge.html