Engineering Public Service Experience: Student Profile

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Marcelo Worsley Year: 2007 Major/Dept: Chemical Engineering Summer 2006 Experience: Haas Summer Fellowship Location: Salvador, Brazil Project: Science, engineering, and math enrichment program

1 – What was the nature of your experience?

I spent three months working with a science, engineering and math enrichment program in Salvador, Brazil. There I joined a team of instructors and a classroom of about 26 students. My specific task was to subsitute for the other teachers when they weren't available and provide supplemental learning opportunities for the students Tuesdays and Thursday.

2 – Why did you choose this engineering and public service experience?

I chose to do this because I have enjoyed doing similar work in the East Palo Alto area, and because I had already experiences a number of typical industry internships at both Dow Chemical and Merck and Co, and was looking fora different sort of opportunity for this summer. Additionally, the project fell in line with my second major, which is Luso-Brazilian Studies, and my eventual goal of entering the field of Education.

3 - What did you enjoy the most about the experience?

The thing I enjoyed most was finding ways to reach the students where they were, this is to say that many of the students came from different backgrounds, and had different strengths and weaknesses. Similarly they had different life experiences, which meant that there was no real cookie cutter sort of solution for reaching all of them. Instead, I had to get to know them, and then find ways to show how certain aspects of science, math and engineering were applicable to their lives. And once this information stuck, I knew that all of my hard work had paid off.

4 – What was the most challenging aspect?

The most challenging aspect was finding ways to get the students engaged, and to keep them engaged. This is not to say that the students were not keen on learning, but instead that they needed to be challenged more, and given the opportunity to explore. Finding the right balance between structured learning and exploratory freedom was quite a challenge.

5 – What recommendations would you have for other students wanting to work through this or a similar experience?

My primary piece of advice is to get some experience doing this work right here at Stanford, or in the surrounding communities. Once you have gotten some experience with that, you will be much better prepared to operate in environments that feature additional variables. Additionally, I would say to start looking for opportunities early (ie. the summer before you wish to pursue such an opportunity). Finally, be prepared for a lot of ups and downs.

Pictures courtesy of Marcelo Worsley