It sure has been a long ride from
my University of Hartford days, spanning the years from 2004-2008. I went
through the four years in West Hartford with great people, inside and outside
of the classroom (some I saw in both cases). I majored in Mechanical Engineering
Technology at the Ward College of Technology (and later the College of
Engineering, Technology and Architecture “CETA” after Dana Hall was renovated),
simply put I was in the “MET” Program. “MET’s” or “techies” as some professors
called us stayed together, aiding in each other’s trouble spots ensuring we all
came out as well-rounded Mechanical Engineering Technologists upon our
graduation. As May 18, 2008 approached, every graduating MET landed a job offer,
and set out on a diverse array of careers. I started at a gas turbine services
company in Northern Connecticut that was great off the bat but it was not meant
to be and I returned home to my beloved New Jersey a year later. The summer of
2009 didn’t end up being the best, pondering different options to get me working
again. I knew my first and second passions in my life are railroading and
aviation, I wanted to lean in that direction but I didn’t know how I could get
in. I stumbled on the idea of going for a master’s degree and began looking at programs
that could fit my personal and professional desires. After researching school
after school, I ended up finding a great one in my own backyard. The New Jersey
Institute of Technology (NJIT) had a Transportation Engineering Program at
their Newark College of Engineering that was the perfect fit for me. Hence, I
applied, got in, and hit the ground running in the spring of 2010.
I entered the two year
transportation engineering program offered at NJIT’s Newark College of
Engineering. I was very lucky to have some top notch professors during my
Hartford days who laid down the law but also knew how to keep you engaged and
motivated throughout your studies. My mechanical courses taught by Ivana
Milanovic and Lee Townsend provided me with the tools to get through my
graduate studies, especially in courses such as Introduction to Public
Transportation Operations, Urban Systems Engineering, and Multi-Modal Freight
Transportation where crunching the right numbers was absolutely crucial. Natalie
Segal’s technical writing courses lent me expertise in my Transportation
Economics, Project Control and Land Use Planning classes where numerous
papers/presentations had to be written. I can’t begin to express the gratitude
I have for these professors and the others who taught me at Hartford. They
truly stand out from many others who teach, and they teach because the success
of their students drives them to success in their careers.
Upon my graduation from NJIT this
past May, I was accepted for an internship at Burlington Northern Santa Fe
Railroad (BNSF), one of my dream companies to work for. I am currently working
at their headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas in their safety operations
department on a precursor project aimed to proactively keep railroad employees
safer on the job. It involves data mining through a plethora of data on
numerous databases and portals. It is my duty to find trends in the data that
will lead BNSF’s proactive approach to continue its lead as one of the safest
transportation and logistics companies in the world today. Working here is a
dream-come true, not possible if I didn’t have professors like Milanovic, Segal
or Townsend. They truly stand out from many others who teach, and they teach
because the success of their students drives them to success in their careers.
