你好
本周我将比较课堂和职业环境。科技、工程和数学领域的就业与学术背景几乎密不可分，而我对待这两者的方式，并不像其他人想象的那样截然不同。
首先，我要说的是，我对大学的态度与大多数人截然不同。作为一名化学工程专业的学生，我知道我所打下的数学基础以及物理、化学等最基本的基础知识将伴随我的余生。但是，我完全明白，我所学到的大部分知识--如果没有一个更好的术语--在工业中将是无用的，因此我希望在现场学习大部分细节（我认为我未来的化学工程学位更像是一个解决问题的学位）。由于长期从事体育运动，我把上大学看成是一场表演。我上大学完全是为了证明我有能力在短时间内学习到广泛的知识，并证明我能够在压力下完成学业；从根本上说，我有能力 "一鸣惊人"。虽然我对课堂上所学的知识非常着迷，但从专业的角度来看，我完全不感兴趣。我感兴趣的是，在专业方面，我因此而培养的技能。
尽管如此，我觉得我在学校的经历和我的实习经历都能使我的技能得到提升。我之所以这么说，是因为我几乎是同时实习的，当我试图把其中一个放在另一个前面时，我脑子里就会产生 "先有鸡还是先有蛋 "的争论。
实习：
Not only has every internship I have had thus far mainly consisted of me working on a project so large that there is no expectation that I finish, but there also has been no “template” for me to follow. To be honest, every time I sat in front of my supervisor on the first day I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about or what they wanted. After the initial meeting they would say, ‘Get to work!’ and I would go to my desk slightly flustered because I had a general idea of what the end goal was. But I had no idea what that looked like, how to get there, or even where to start. In retrospect, I love that about Indium Corporation. They are not afraid and resolute enough to not only give the intern a project that actually means something, but they don’t “helicopter” over them and hold their hand through the process. This experience has taught me to how to move fast, make decisions on my own, and effectively present/communicate information; I learned those lessons very quickly (out of fear of not being productive or not meeting expectations). Probably the biggest lesson these internships have taught me, and skill they have sharpened, however, is how to seek help; this one took more time to learn. I take great pride in being independent and working through a situation myself, but I also understand that the majority of people love to help (especially at Indium Corporation). I eventually learned who had knowledge or connections that could help me – or who could direct me to someone that could help, and went to those people whenever I “got in over my head.” By putting my best effort into my work and leveraging these people I was then able to ensure that the final product I offered my supervisors was of high quality.
学术
Studying engineering hits you from the beginning (just like each internship did). Mohawk Valley Community College has a very well respected Engineering Science program; one that results in standing articulation agreements with Clarkson, RPI, and RIT (just to name a few) for seamless transfer into their programs. Professors begin trying to thin out the engineering crowd from the first day. My program was rather small with only ~55 students; by midterms of the first semester we were down to 15, 12 by the end of the second year. One professor in particular, Derrick Stevens, has trained me in the same way that Indium Corporation has. He instructed me in Physics 2 (Electricity & Magnetism) and in Dynamics (non-equilibria vector mechanics). Not only did this man want to weed out those who did not want to be there, but he wanted to humble those who did. That style of teaching caused me to resort to the same faculties that Indium Corporation did. On any assignment/test he gave I had to think fast, I had to work efficiently, I had to be confident in my work and I had to be able to seek the right resources to help me. Though his courses were always the toughest and most taxing, those were the classes that I enjoyed the most and learned the most in.
是的，学校的氛围可能截然不同，我们都能找到将这两者对立起来的细节，但只要有正确的观点和态度，一个人就能利用在一个领域学到的技能在另一个领域变得更加有效。
下次再见
肖恩-麦肯纳
