Working with EWB - Case Study Example

Portfolio 2 Name Course Lecturer Date 1. Expectations at the beginning of the semester: When I started my first semester, I knew that I was lucky to be admitted to the engineering department. This department was highly respected in the society. My expectations were like those of many people in the society-working hard, passing exams and landing in a lucrative job. I was full of expectations. These expectations were focused on the gains I will have from the study. However, after the semester, I managed to join the Engineers without Borders (EWB) project. I expected to learn about how to work hard, how to pass exams and how to land in well-paying job after my studies. However, in my current position at the EWB, I have learnt that there is more to being an engineer than just working hard, passing exams, and getting a well-paying job. Consequently, I now expect that with the skills learned and knowledge gained, the problems in the society could be solved. My expectations have therefore shifted from working for my own gains to working for the gains of the society. This is because, working with EWB involves bringing efforts together to accomplish something for the common good of the society and not for personal gains. I now get more motivation when I see the society getting solutions to its problems than when I gain a lone and the society is left behind. 2. Working with EWB: While working with EWB, I learnt a couple of things that changed my expectations. I learnt that the main aim of engineering is not to earn a student a job upon completion but to equip the student with the requisite skills for solving problems in the society. I also learnt that engineering is more than just cramming ideas and presenting them during exam. I learnt that the course demands a lot of practical understanding and mastery of concepts. By learning the significance of practical understanding of engineering concepts, I have found it easy to apply the practical skills in the real life situation. I have also realized, for instance that EWB equips one with the problem solving skills that the society, going through a given problem, massively needs to solve the particular engineering problem they are going through. 3. Motivations for studying at university: I have enjoyed many things about this semester. First, studying engineering is full of fun. The fun in engineering came when I realized that the things I was studying were not strange but are the ones I found in the society. The things I was studying were the problems being faced in the society. Every aspect of engineering focuses on something in the society. Therefore, when given problem is highlighted in class, then a process of solving the same problem is explained, then I will see a lot of sense in engineering. The second thing I enjoyed was the school environment. My school had a well maintained, clean environment. This was very conducive for learning. Third, my colleagues were very friendly. Though we had different cultural backgrounds, the cultural difference was shelved, paving way for health interactions and discussions. Last, I enjoyed the assistance and attention I received from my tutors. The tutors were always ready and willing to assist. 4. Barriers encountered while studying: Despite the fact that I enjoyed seeing solutions to problems in the society possible in engineering field, I also had trouble while tackling the subject. The first difficulty is that engineering needs many mathematical calculations. It is the solutions to these mathematical calculations that are used to solve the real problems in the society. Because of the mathematical demands, it means that an engineering student needs to master many complicated and hard-to-understand mathematical formulae. Most of the mathematical formulae were long. This made it hard for me to master everything from the beginning to the end of a given formula, for instance. Apart from mastering the formulae, I was also expected to know how to apply the formulae to a given real life situation. This was very difficult for me. I needed to do more practice on each of the formula so that I understand it well. Studying engineering therefore did not turn out to be the way I expected it to be. This is not because of the challenges or the difficulties I experienced, but because of the importance and applicability of the field. Despite the fact that I had trouble in understanding some of the concepts, I was not discouraged because I knew that with constant practice and with consultation with my lecturers, I would finally come to understand and master the hard formulae. Therefore, though it turned out to be harder and more mathematical, contrary to my expectations, I was ready to continue and make it easier by dedicating a lot of time and energy to it so that I could master the field. 5. The biggest problem and solution obtained Studying in engineering in an overseas institution meant that I had to interact, discuss, and share views with students from different cultural backgrounds. Indeed, I experienced language problems. Language is one of the factors responsible for the creation of the communication problems. When people are studying, working, or living in a multilingual environment, language differences can result in all sorts of communication problems. This is because the language barriers will result in alienation of feelings among the involved, unintended conflicts, and misunderstandings. In an international institution like the one I was studying, students are admitted from different divides of the world. There are Americans, Hispanic, Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Africans. With all these students from different parts of the world, interpersonal communication could proof challenging sometimes. This is because the cultural backgrounds of each of these students affect the way they communicate with their colleagues. Despite the fact that the institution encouraged the use of a single universal language, that is English, there were still some verbal and non verbal cues that were hard to be understood by some of the students. This called for us to devise ways of tackling some of the communication barriers. Below is one of the solutions that proved effective in bridging the communication and enhancing discussion with students. The second problem is that tutors may not know exactly what is in our minds, but they can make more concern on the environment surrounding us, the ideas, the inspirations, forces, and make efforts to empower the conditions to which we are exposed. This is a big problem to university students in their efforts to make their education pleasing and a field of fun and learning. My primary message to our professors and the administration in their efforts to make our university and specifically the engineering department more exciting is that they should plan our education not just to stride back and look at the amazing things we do. It is even more important if they try to make it creative, rigorous, empowering, and adventurous than just denoting curricular particulars (Baillie, Pawley & Riley, 2012). We had problems related to our welfare in terms of food and recreational facilities. In the catering department, the quality of food was low most of the times. This affected me a lot since I always had stomach problem every time I ate food whose quality was poor. My body was very sensitive to the kind of food that had compromised quality in terms of the amount of acid. Therefore, there are many times I skipped some meals fearing that they would cause me stomach problems. In terms of recreational opportunities, the major problem was that the academic curriculum in the school was much squeezed to the extent that we had very little time to go for physical exercises, sports and other recreational activities. It is clear that working all the hours without engaging in play is not healthy. This is because one’s brain becomes exhausted when it is not relaxed through physical exercises. Sometimes, class lessons could extent into games time. This made our games time to be too short. In the weekends, we expected to relax and concentrate on other activities but some tutors could still come and conduct the engineering lessons. This gave us no rest and most of the times. 6. The solutions: With the language problem at hand, I had to apply all my communication skills to address it. This is because I needed fellow classmates whom we could be discussing the subject together. I knew about the power of discussion. I, together with three of my classmates formed a group. The purpose of a group was to collect the different views of the group members regarding the aspects of engineering. In the interpersonal communication that we had, I came to understand that people always have different views regarding any of the aspect in life. Therefore, the best thing in life is that of creating a platform where these views can be brought together to come up with a lasting conclusion. In most cases therefore, as I learnt from our discussion, the task of bringing the ideas from different people during interpersonal communication hardly comes easily. Such things as effective listening, understanding that the group members have diverse views and awareness of the barriers to effective interpersonal communication must be taken into account (Young, 2007). 7. Effective listening: Apart from all the members being effective listeners, there was a good understanding amongst us as we worked as a diverse group. We came from different cultural diversities. However, instead of this diversity being a barrier to our discussion, it served well as a catalyst for knowing better ideas from each of the represented culture. Literature too supports the aspect of understanding and working with diverse others. Linking literature with the experiences from our group, I got to learn about important things when group processes are concerned. I learnt the value of diversity in the group discussion. Diversity simply means difference. The term can also mean recognizing different approaches, which are used in handling the various, and diverse problems and therefore meeting their needs and expectations. In this regard, all of my group members were effective listeners. Each of us was given equal time to make his or her point. When anyone was making his or her presentation, the rest of the group members had to listen attentively. This gave me time to listen carefully and seek clarification by asking questions when I did not understand something. My group members were very ready to help me when I requested for clarification. They could use simple language that was easy for me to understand. In fact, the best thing that I applaud is the use of illustrations. When my group members noticed that language was causing some trouble to me, they made illustrations o help me understand the concept well. This is called non-verbal cue in communication. It enabled me to have clear understanding of the concepts that were discussing (Young, 2007). In literature, the importance and skills of listening are explained. The explanation in literature complies with what was happening in our group. Linking the experience I got from the discussion with what is in the literature, I learnt to develop strategies for active, critical, and empathic listening. At the same time, I learnt that there are several significances of listening. For instance, the successful listener is mostly likely to become a team leader and manager. They are observed as more focused and successful in careers like management, health, and sales. In relationship development, both men and women are seeking for a partner who demonstrates the capacity listen mindfully. Successful listeners have remarkable chances for career progress as compared to non-effective listeners. The listening process involves receiving where a person takes keen interests not just, on what was presented but also on how it was presented. To enhance individual receiving skills, attempt to concentrate on the verbal as well as the nonverbal messages, and avoid guessing what might be said, reduce barriers like phone calls radio, and play your part as a listener (Reece et al., 2010). 8. Getting closer to tutors The other problem encountered while pursuing the engineering course was that of tutors failing to understand the students. Sometimes the tutors could be rushing through the lecturers, and maybe, the tutor’s speed was too fast for me to understand. In such a case, I needed the solution to this problem. Fortunately, I managed to get the solution when I realized that the tutors were available in their offices for advisory and any other kind of assistance. Each of the tutors had set up the consultation hours during which we, as the students could go to their offices for consultation and information or clarification on particular topics. I am happy to say that I have always received cooperation from these tutors any time I look for them. 9. Airing complaints Apart from the academic problems, the tutors were also ready to listen to other forms of problems that affected us. In our college, we always had forums during which we could air our grievances and suggestions. We had two types of these forums. One of the forums took care of the class issues. The other forum in the other hand took care of the accommodation and welfare issues. Therefore, during the class forums, we raised that issue that the tutors needed to respect the timetable schedule by allowing us to have time for other activities like games. After forwarding this through our class representative, the school administration acted on it swiftly. The tutors started respecting the time allocated for their classes and the time allocated for other activities. By doing so, the tutors enabled us to grow in all spheres, namely academic, social, spiritual, and physical. We realized that school was more than just the academic aspect. Instead, it also comprises of the social, spiritual, economic, and physical wellbeing of students. Regarding the quality of food, I raised my problem during a forum put in place to take care of accommodation and welfare. Fortunately, my problem was also addressed immediately. The student leader in charge of accommodation and catering forwarded my problem to the catering department. Upon receiving the complaint, the catering department apologized and promised to improve on the quality of the food. Actually, the quality of food improved from the second day after the presentation of the complaint. This is because I the common stomach problem that I used to have after taking the food ceased from the second day. Therefore, when all these problems had been addressed, I started enjoying every bit of the school right from class work to the accommodation and catering services. 10. Conclusion In conclusion, studying engineering has come with challenges and motivations. Fortunately, for every challenge that I met, I managed to come with a solution through the assistance of my fellow students, teachers and school administrators. I have managed to find a solution to the challenge of hard mathematical concepts, the language barrier during discussions, time management, and welfare services. The solutions came in form of consultation with tutors, effective listening during group discussions, airing of views and complaints during class forums and accommodation forums. From my experience with engineers without borders, engineering has the capacity of making immense contribution in the society. References: Baillie, C, Pawley, A, & Riley, D., 2012, Engineering and social justice: in the university and beyond.West Lafayette, Ind, Purdue University Press. Belzer, E., 2009, Skills Training in Communication and Related Topics Part 2: Communicating with Patients, Colleagues, and Communities. New York: Radcliffe Publishing. Chance, P. & Chance, E., 2002, .Introduction to educational leadership & organizational behavior: theory into practice. New York, NY: Eye on Education. Cheng, W., 2009, Doing good well: what does (and does not) make sense in the nonprofit world, Singapore, Jossey-Bass/Wiley. Knapp, M. & Hall, J. 2009,.Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction. New York: Cengage Learning. Mccallum, V., & Brooke, A., 2006, University wisdom: discover the secrets of getting the most from your experience at university and use them as stepping-stones to launch your life and career: a practical guide for all students. Frankston, Vic, Zermatt Press. Wiles, K., 2010, Engineering, mechanics, and architecture. New York: Ferguson, an imprint of Infobase Pub, http://site.ebrary.com/id/10398954. Read More

4. Barriers encountered while studying: Despite the fact that I enjoyed seeing solutions to problems in the society possible in engineering field, I also had trouble while tackling the subject. The first difficulty is that engineering needs many mathematical calculations. It is the solutions to these mathematical calculations that are used to solve the real problems in the society. Because of the mathematical demands, it means that an engineering student needs to master many complicated and hard-to-understand mathematical formulae.

Most of the mathematical formulae were long. This made it hard for me to master everything from the beginning to the end of a given formula, for instance. Apart from mastering the formulae, I was also expected to know how to apply the formulae to a given real life situation. This was very difficult for me. I needed to do more practice on each of the formula so that I understand it well. Studying engineering therefore did not turn out to be the way I expected it to be. This is not because of the challenges or the difficulties I experienced, but because of the importance and applicability of the field.

Despite the fact that I had trouble in understanding some of the concepts, I was not discouraged because I knew that with constant practice and with consultation with my lecturers, I would finally come to understand and master the hard formulae. Therefore, though it turned out to be harder and more mathematical, contrary to my expectations, I was ready to continue and make it easier by dedicating a lot of time and energy to it so that I could master the field. 5. The biggest problem and solution obtained Studying in engineering in an overseas institution meant that I had to interact, discuss, and share views with students from different cultural backgrounds.

Indeed, I experienced language problems. Language is one of the factors responsible for the creation of the communication problems. When people are studying, working, or living in a multilingual environment, language differences can result in all sorts of communication problems. This is because the language barriers will result in alienation of feelings among the involved, unintended conflicts, and misunderstandings. In an international institution like the one I was studying, students are admitted from different divides of the world.

There are Americans, Hispanic, Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Africans. With all these students from different parts of the world, interpersonal communication could proof challenging sometimes. This is because the cultural backgrounds of each of these students affect the way they communicate with their colleagues. Despite the fact that the institution encouraged the use of a single universal language, that is English, there were still some verbal and non verbal cues that were hard to be understood by some of the students.

This called for us to devise ways of tackling some of the communication barriers. Below is one of the solutions that proved effective in bridging the communication and enhancing discussion with students. The second problem is that tutors may not know exactly what is in our minds, but they can make more concern on the environment surrounding us, the ideas, the inspirations, forces, and make efforts to empower the conditions to which we are exposed. This is a big problem to university students in their efforts to make their education pleasing and a field of fun and learning.

My primary message to our professors and the administration in their efforts to make our university and specifically the engineering department more exciting is that they should plan our education not just to stride back and look at the amazing things we do. It is even more important if they try to make it creative, rigorous, empowering, and adventurous than just denoting curricular particulars (Baillie, Pawley & Riley, 2012). We had problems related to our welfare in terms of food and recreational facilities.

In the catering department, the quality of food was low most of the times.

Read More