The Moon

Even from a young age, planes and aircraft have always fascinated me. I grew up in a suburb just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, which neighbors Nellis Air Force Base. My close proximity to the base meant that F22’s were always flying overhead. I recall many times scanning the skies to spot the jets that could be heard from miles away. As a family, we even took a few trips out to the base for air shows to watch the true mechanical feats these stealth aircrafts were – my favorite of which was the F-117 Nighthawk. My family played a large role in my interest. My uncle, who is also a commercial aircraft pilot, would come home from work and we would go out to McCarran International Airport and watch him land ERJ-170’s. My grandpa, a mechanic for Lockheed Martin and loved military aircraft, would join us on trips to the bases. My grandpa’s brother, who had an astrophysics degree, also worked for Lockheed Martin as an aircraft designer. For myself, I always had dreams of earning an astrophysics degree (like my great uncle) to work on fighter jets or satellites for deep space missions.

​

Growing up in the struggling school district of Las Vegas meant I was hardly exposed to STEM classes – especially engineering or the possibilities of STEM majors. Therefore, when I came to the University of Washington, I immediately jumped into physics and astronomy because I knew it was something I was passionate about; originally, I thought that I wanted to double major in both. My Astronomy 150, “The Planets”, professor left a lasting impression with his knowledge and excitement for the subject. I loved being his student so much that I decided to take another class with him the following quarter: Astronomy 105, “The Moon”. This class was entirely centered around the Apollo missions and all that we have learned from lunar exploration – and of course, the Saturn V rocket and the engineers who built it. It was my first introduction to engineering. Needless-to-say, I knew right then and there that I needed to change my major. The more I researched, the more I learned how perfectly Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering combined my greatest passions: flight, math, space, and physics. From that class on, my entire life plan was changed.

​

I have always been a planner and a goal setter. From my first physics class in high school, I’ve had my college and career planned for the next 10 years. I am not normally the type of person to change plans or deviate from my goals. Therefore, I was extremely stressed and uncomfortable when I was second-guessing my major and career. I had to spend a lot of time trying to understand myself and my personal values - why I felt I needed to change and why I would have been unhappy with a physics degree. There were a lot of pros and cons listed and debated upon. Ultimately, I realized what was important to me and how to continue doing something that I love. One of the biggest things I realized during this class was how much I value working with my hands and building tangible things. Career paths with a physics degree are usually doing research and theoretical work. With an engineering degree, work is usually designing and creating things that will actually be used in my lifetime. It is significant to me to see final results for things that I’ve put a lot of time and effort in to – like the Saturn V engineers feeling so happy and fulfilled when it successfully launched and completed a mission.

​

Before coming to UW, I honestly knew nothing about engineering. Once I learned how great it was, I subsequently found out how many people shared my views. Thus, with a limited number of spots and more than enough students wanting one, the engineering majors are very competitive. Therefore, it took a lot of confidence to apply and convince the aerospace engineering department that I was worthy of one of the coveted degrees from the class of 2019. Apart from understanding my goals and values, there was a lot of evaluationthat occurred my freshman year winter quarter. Because being an out-of-state student entails a higher tuition, it was important that I was still able to complete a degree in a short amount of time. While the physics major required mostly the same pre-requisites as the aerospace engineering major, there were numerous extra classes needed for engineering. I needed to take these classes before I could apply for the major so I was risking time and money because I wouldn’t know if I’d make it into the major. I carefully planned out how my next 3 three years were going to be and determined whether the risk was worth it.

​

Since I originally came to UW wanting a physics degree, I made a lot of progress towards it during my first and second years. Even though I ultimately changed my major, I still loved physics and wanted to learn more about it. Therefore, I took advantage of the small opportunity to add classes my sophomore year for further self-development and earn minors in physics and mathematics. I am always looking to learn more things and take advantage of all that UW has to offer.

​

From Astronomy 105, I learned the purpose of space missions and about our motivation for returning. I had my eyes opened to new discoveries and things that were still unknown about our own universe. I also learned how to get in the position to make those discoveries. After a lot of personal reflection, I knew that my life goals and personal values were better suited for an engineering degree. Therefore, I have been working hard and setting myself up for life after graduation with companies like NASA, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. Obviously, there is still a lot to learn, and in the future, I plan to keep finding opportunities to gain new skills and constantly have my mind widened by the possibilities of the future. Who knows, maybe someday that will also include going back to school to finish my physics degree and combine my understanding from both fields to make new discoveries.