Exploring the Other

 For this “putting yourself in the other” challenge, I was paired with Dan. To begin with, Dan and I are already pretty much complete opposites—he’s about a foot taller than me and is a chemical engineer—height and science are not my fortes. I assumed at the beginning we’d have a pretty easy experience doing this challenge.

For my part in this cultural swap, I thought the best way to communicate my global openness was through food. So, I treated Dan to dinner at a Korean restaurant with some European cake as dessert (although I would have preferred to show him the wonders of New England cuisine). I think in this dinner of kimchi and chocolate cake, I tried to give Dan a pretty clear understanding of what makes me, me—I place heavy emphasis on diversity and exploration of new cultures. I chose Korean because I knew that it wasn’t as popular as Mexican or Chinese, and it might break new culinary grounds for his palette. And sure enough it was his first Korean meal. Even though we explored a new cuisine and culture, I did not feel that that was all who I am, because I don’t have a drop of Korean blood in me. So I bought him two of my favorite cakes, Sacher Torte and Esterhazy Torte, from Mozart’s Café. I feel that the European culture has had more of a direct influence on who I am. While I greatly appreciate and am infatuated with many other cultures, my family still celebrates and follows many customs of our European roots and it was through traveling to Europe that sparked my interest in discovering new cultures.

Later in the week, Dan brought me to a place I never thought I’d enter—Koffolt Lab, the home of the chemical engineering department. When I walked into the building it was like landing on another planet—the lighting was different, a strange odor filled the air, and anxious students rushed from classrooms into the computer labs to finish their projects. Dan was kind enough to show me the computer lab where he spends about 6 hours a day computing and simulating complex experiments on some pretty sweet touch screen computers (I was trying really hard to remember the correct terminology for the project he is working on right now but I don’t want to do an injustice and incorrectly describe his work). I had always thought that engineering was a pretty singular discipline subject, so when Dan showed me the project he was working on was for chemical engineering economics it took me off guard. My stereotype of engineers only limited to taking science and mathematics courses was completely debunked…maybe engineers aren’t so different after all. Having an insider’s perspective on what makes engineers tick also made me realize that engineering students don’t choose their major because of the cool touch screen computers, but value the problem solving skills that are developed. The engineering discipline is about solving problems and answering questions—two skills that can be translated across every discipline and career. Not every engineer wants to build bridges, and a good number of students who study engineering go on into fields that aren’t related to the subjects they study, but their problem solving skills are invaluable. I had very little awareness of what was going on in the typical engineering student’s mind, but now I can see that the skills learned in this field can transcend into many other disciplines.

Besides making me feel technologically inept, the trip to the Koffolt Labs really gave me a deeper appreciation for engineering students. I admired them for their abilities in math and science--but to hear the real reasons for pursuing an extremely difficult major was really awesome. It almost made me think about engineering...almost.