Alexan­dra is major­ing in indus­tri­al engi­neer­ing. She is prepar­ing for life after col­lege with a co-op and intern­ship, and by com­plet­ing an addi­tion­al minor in psy­chol­o­gy to expand her ​“engi­neer­ing toolk­it”. Scroll for more about Alexan­dra and the oppor­tu­ni­ties she has lined up!

How are you explor­ing your career and prepar­ing your­self for life after college?

I am prepar­ing for life after col­lege by pur­su­ing real-life work oppor­tu­ni­ties. I have accept­ed a co-op posi­tion as a qual­i­ty engi­neer at CIV­CO Med­ical Solu­tions. Because my degree in indus­tri­al engi­neer­ing pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties in a wide range of areas, such as qual­i­ty con­trol, process improve­ment, mechan­i­cal, oper­a­tions, etc., I view the co-op as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to nar­row my field of interest. 

I also have a sum­mer intern­ship lined up at Ten­neco in Burling­ton, where I will be able to enhance my hands-on expe­ri­ence and under­stand­ing in the field of man­u­fac­tur­ing engineering. 

Anoth­er way I am prepar­ing for life after col­lege is by com­plet­ing a minor in psy­chol­o­gy and a cer­tifi­cate in sus­tain­abil­i­ty. I believe both will serve as valu­able ​“tools in my engi­neer­ing toolk­it,” as my engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sors like to say. 

What is your favorite class and why?

My favorite class is Com­put­ers in Engi­neer­ing. Although I will prob­a­bly nev­er use C++ in my career, I real­ly enjoyed learn­ing it. Being able to read and cre­ate code is like learn­ing a new lan­guage that’s dri­ven by math, which is some­thing I feel com­fort­able with as an engi­neer­ing stu­dent. In the class, we start­ed know­ing almost noth­ing, and by the end of the semes­ter, we were able to design entire com­put­er games!

What’s the best food on campus?

My favorite place is Air­lin­er, which is right across the street from cam­pus. It has the best piz­za in Iowa City, by far, but don’t go there if you’re try­ing to avoid the Fresh­man 15. It’s just too good to resist!

What cam­pus activ­i­ties do you like to par­tic­i­pate in?

Last year, I was pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Iowa Water­s­ki and Wake­board Club. I joined the club my first semes­ter of col­lege and it helped me find a great group of friends and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to water­s­ki and be involved with the university.