By far, my global experiences have been my most favorite part of the Grand Challenge Scholar journey. I was able to do so many fun things and meet so many interesting people along the way. It almost feels wrong to call it work! I truly loved this component the most and it had me thinking about working internationally for a while.

The first Global Experience component I completed was my summer study abroad trip in Tokyo. The course was called “Visualization and Simulation in Japan” and it lasted for a little over two weeks. Not only did I get to live in Tokyo for a few weeks, but I developed a lot of skills programming in Unity, a video game engine, that later prepared me for my senior capstone project. This was my first time ever leaving the United States. The trip ignited my drive to travel more and live overseas. I loved this program so much that I have seriously contemplated moving to Tokyo and working there for a few years.

The second component I completed for my Global Experience was a course that allowed me to travel as well. Because of this, I was able to experience travel twice for my studies. The course I took was EGR 317: Humanitarian Engineering Project 2. In this class, we were tasked with developing a solution to help a community in the developing world. My group was entrusted with developing a digital library that was portable, self-sustaining, and easy to use for communities in the Pacific Islands. With this project, I was even able to travel to Samoa to help train local teachers and United States Peace Corps Volunteers how to use our library.