Why did you choose to study at Illinois?

Being an in-state school with an amazing engineering program, it was tough to pass up on. While I didn’t get the chance to visit many colleges because of COVID, I definitely feel like I made the right choice.

Why aerospace engineering?

I didn’t always know I wanted to study aerospace engineering, but I’ve been interested in airplanes for a long time.

Whenever I visited my grandparents, my grandpa would take us to his hangar where he built his own two-seater plane 40 years ago. He always took me up to fly and show me around the hangar where he still maintains his aircraft.

When I decided I wanted to go into engineering toward the end of high school, aerospace engineering just seemed like the right fit.

What course did you like most?

My favorite class I’ve taken has been air-side senior design. This past semester, I’ve really enjoyed working with my group to design a plane for the AIAA competition. It’s been very rewarding seeing all the hard work our group has done starting to pay off in the end.

 What projects helped you gain technical expertise?

I’ve been in Student Aircraft Builders all four years and currently serve as the president. Although progress on our main project—building a Zenith aircraft at the Willard Airport hangar—has been limited, I’ve still gained valuable technical and leadership experience through several smaller projects.

In our current project we’re building a model P-51. It’s been a lot of fun using sheet metal and different tools more common in the aerospace industry. I’ve also been staying engaged with the Zenith project by working with the Experimental Aircraft Association to plan for its continuation and by helping set up future club members for success in completing the build.  

What are you particularly proud of?

Something I’m proud of from my time at Illinois is the friends I’ve met, both inside and outside of aerospace. I came into college mostly focused on my career and academics, but the people I’ve ended up meeting and keeping those relationships have been just as important.

Did you have any internships?

I had the chance to intern for United Airlines the previous two summers. I worked in service engineering at O’Hare where we worked with maintenance at the hangars. Something I really like about this job is that pretty much every day is a new project. Working closely with maintenance, especially the sheet metal shop, allowed me to gain familiarly with so many different parts of Boeing and Airbus aircraft—avionics, systems, interiors, structures, and more.  A couple bigger projects I got to work on were making repairs for 777 landing gear hoses and 737 GPU internal structure damage.

What extracurricular experience stands out as memorable? 

A standout extracurricular experience was my part-time job with Campus Recreation, which I held all four years. I refereed intramural sports and held a couple of leadership positions along the way. I originally took the job just to make some money during school, but I quickly discovered how much I enjoy reffing—especially basketball. This past year, I became a certified high school basketball referee and plan to keep that up after graduation.

What's next for you?

After graduation, I will be going back to United Airlines working as a full-time service engineer at O’Hare. I had two great internship experiences there and wanted to stay in Chicago because of family and friends – I am very excited to get started.

 I will also be starting the online MEng in Aerospace Systems Engineering in the fall.

What's on your bucket list for the next five years?

Thanks to flight benefits while working for United, I was able to visit a few incredible national parks and countries. Over the next five years, I plan on travelling to some of the countries I didn’t get the chance to see while interning.