December grad Krish Soni earns dual degrees in aerospace and psychology

This month, Krish Soni earned bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering and psychology. Originally from Virginia, Soni decided to pursue psychology as his second major after discovering he had a passion for the field.

"Initially my plan was to do aerospace and maybe see if I can get a minor in psychology because I had a lot of classes that were aligned with it,” Soni said. “Eventually, I realized that I really do like psychology, so I’ll do a major in it because I want to put in the work for that."

Although he tried out numerous registered student organizations and was able to gain a sense of community from them, Soni decided to focus on school for his last semester at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

"I have participated in Design Build Fly, Philosophy Club and Chess Club," Soni said. “Currently, I'm not a part of anything but my two degrees. I decided I'm just going to focus on school right now."

Soni has a couple of courses that particularly stick out to him when it comes to the various classes he has taken throughout his curriculum.

"In aerospace, I really enjoyed my AE 484 class, where we constructed a UAV that was six feet long, and it was all remote-controlled from scratch,” he said. “We had that fly, and that was really cool.

"This past semester for psychology, I took a depression and mood disorders class with Benjamin Hankin,” Soni continued.  “That class is really fun and really interesting to learn about."

He attended the Aerospace Medical Association Conference this past May to learn how he might integrate his dual degrees.  Soni attended panels on aerospace psychology, understanding factors in mental health, and had discussions with others about their life paths.

"Ultimately, I realized that I wouldn't want to integrate aerospace with psychology in that way,but it allowed me to understand what it could take to go down that path, and where my interests lie."

Soni believes energy is not as linear as people believe it is, and that people should understand how to take breaks to conserve more of their energy for the areas of their lives they are more passionate for.

"Psychology was my break from AE, and it gave me energy to do more AE," Soni said. “So I’d definitely recommend students pursue majors and minors. If that’s your passion, you’ll find time for it, and it’ll help you with whatever other major you’re doing."

One of the major lessons Soni learned throughout college is to be authentic, no matter what everyone else surrounding you is doing. He believes it is key to follow your own aspirations and passions.

"Don’t chase the stable job,” he said. “Don’t chase that security until you figure out what your passion is."

Overall, Soni encourages others to push themselves throughout their college lives to find what they are truly enthusiastic to do.

“It’s easy to not challenge yourself, for sure,” Soni said, “but there are opportunities everywhere you go."