Engineers Without Borders - Texas A&M Student Chapter

There are many ways to succeed in grad school. Even though as a general understanding it is getting all A’s and publishing articles, attending conferences, some of us are missing a very important point. Call it self-development, socializing or volunteering. It is pretty much taking the time to contribute into something that is not related to your degree. But this hour or so in a week will lead to so much more than you can imagine.

During my masters degree at Texas A&M, we were encouraged to take part in extracurricular activities. In beginning of my second semester of first year I came across a student chapter called Engineers Without Borders. They were starting a project in Panama and were looking for students with civil/structure knowledge.

I came home super excited knowing that I could contribute and become part of very prestigious student chapter. After a few weeks, I already became a team leader and I was responsible for giving weekly technical meetings.

I served at different positions in EWB TAMU student chapters for a year. I had chance to meet a lot of students, some of them became a friend later. It increased my self-confidence, improved my presentation skills. I am no longer shy to speak in front of a crowd on something I know.

In Fall 2015, we had regional EWB conference held at Texas A&M University. Again, a great way to interact with other EWB members within same region. We had presentations on what to be careful of when we were travelling, how the paper work is for different stages of the project. The surprising fact for me was that, there was actually attendees from industry. They were part of the professional EWB chapters and were willing to mentor us (each project has to be mentored by a PE with some years of experience).

EWB gave me many skills I sure couldn’t master during my 2 year degree only by studying. I had excellent conversations during job interviews just because I was part of such a prestigious organization. Even though I am currently not a member of any EWB chapter, as soon as I settle somewhere I will join again and I highly recommend it to any engineer looking for ways to improve their knowledge and to contribute while having fun.