I had the time of my life with you!

The last day of classes has come and gone. As you’re reading this, the last assignment of my undergraduate degree has been completed and I’m just waiting for my grades to come in. That’s absolutely crazy for me to think about- I don’t feel like I’ve been here for even a year, much less four years. But here we go on the last and final Riddle Rewind. (Freshman, sophomore, and junior year can be found at the links!)

The WAMP O-Week Luncheon!

The timing of my internship unfortunately didn’t work with O-Week, so I couldn’t be on the Orientation Team this year. However, I did make it back in time for a Women’s Ambassador Mentoring Program luncheon for all of the female freshmen, and I was given the opportunity to speak. It was a great experience!

WAMP Ice Cream Social!

WAMP events in the fall were a lot of fun- and this one had FREE ice cream! I couldn’t complain about that. 🙂

My Women’s Ambassador trip to Pittsburgh!

I had never been to Pittsburgh before, but it was definitely a cool experience. While I was there I also got to meet some cute cats in a cat cafe!

Adopting my kitten, Radar!

I adopted a five-month-old kitten named Radar back in late September after moving off campus and it’s one of the best things that I’ve done. He is the sweetest cat ever- and my roommates love him, too! He recently celebrated his first birthday, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch him grow.

My Women’s Ambassador trip to Washington, D.C., and NYC!

Visiting D.C. and New York City was a whole lot of fun! It rained on my first night in NYC, but that didn’t stop me from having some late-night adventures.

Open House 2023!

Open House is always a lot of fun. There are always new people to meet and new things to learn! I volunteered for both the Women’s Ambassadors and Aerospace Engineering Student Advisory Board.

Flying Into Finals Week!

Pun… ha ha. Finals week isn’t fun, but going for a short flight in a Cessna was a lot of fun and a great way to relax before the stress of finals week hit.

The Rolex 24 (and the Roar Before the 24)!

I’ve never been to a car race before, but I thought that attending the Rolex 24 was a lot of fun. It’s definitely something to experience at least once if you’re here.

Touch-N-Go Comedy Night!

For Blue and Gold Week, comedian Ryan Kelly came to campus and gave an amazing one-hour comedy show. I laughed- a lot.

My Women’s Ambassador trip to Boston and Hartford!

Don’t get me wrong- I was SOOOO cold!! However, it was a lot of fun to walk around one of the United States’ oldest and most historic cities when I had the chance.

Speaking about internships at the WAI Conference!!

I never thought I’d be speaking at a conference as an undergraduate student, but I proved myself wrong. The Women in Aviation conference was a lot of fun, and being a speaker was an experience that I’ll never forget.

The Last WA Trip – Ever!

My last trip was to Washington, D.C., and Richmond, VA. I’d never been to Richmond, but I LOVE D.C., so I was happy to go. On the way back, I did get stuck by myself on an unexpected overnight in Charlotte- but hey, it was a new adventure.

Preview Day 2024!

Just like for Open House, I volunteered for the Women’s Ambassadors and Aerospace Engineering Student Advisory Board. Preview Day was also a lot of fun- over the Friday and Saturday that I worked, I got to meet a lot of new people who may be at ERAU this fall!

Sun n’ Fun Airshow!

I love airshows- so much so that I went to the Orlando Airshow (aka the Air Dot Show tour) the weekend after Sun n’ Fun. Airshows are a great opportunity for me to see aerospace in action- plus, just being around giant airplanes is cool. When I graduate, I’ll be working as a Space Systems Engineer, but still- airplanes are cool. I plan to go to as many airshows as I can even after I graduate!

It’s been a lot of fun blogging these past four years- it’s made me get out and adventure more than I would’ve without. This is my last post as an ERAU student, but who knows- maybe one day I’ll come back and write about what my new life looks like after Embry-Riddle. I’m really thankful for every single opportunity I’ve had, and I hope you’ve found my posts interesting. See you in the skies! -Carly

This is so much better than watching Top Gun!

As mentioned during the Sun n’ Fun post, I went to the Orlando Air Show! It was part of the Air Dot Show tour that went across the United States, and it stopped at the Orlando Sanford (KSFB) airport. I was definitely excited to go. While it had a few of the same performers from Sun n’ Fun, it also had a bunch of different ones. Instead of the Thunderbirds, the Blue Angels performed, and I’ve only seen them once before.

There weren’t as many static displays to look at, but I got to get a lot closer than I did at Sun n’ Fun. They had an F-18 and a few older aircraft on display, and there were long lines to climb into the older aircraft. Of course, I took that opportunity.

The airshow itself was awesome. The acrobatic performers were, as always, amazing to watch, but they also had plenty of things I’d never seen before. One of them was the Coast Guard demonstration of a water rescue from a helicopter. It was amazing to watch- they lowered the rescue swimmer down to the ground with a basket, collected a test dummy, and then safely brought everything back into the helicopter. I honestly haven’t been around helicopters much since we don’t have a helicopter program.

The F-22 Raptor demonstration team was also there, and I’ve never seen them before. I enjoyed the airshow- the F-22 has very powerful engines, and you can definitely feel their power. They also did heritage flight, and it was awesome to see historic and modern-day aircraft flying together.

The Blue Angels were the final act, and they were awesome as ever to see. Their airshow was similar to the Thunderbirds in the fact that they had a diamond and two soloists, but the maneuvers were different. They were as majestic as ever, and I really enjoyed watching them in the heat. In my opinion, an airshow is worth the heat- as long as I use plenty of sunscreen!

Having airshows in the area is one of my favorite parts about ERAU. I love aviation (even though I’m in the astronautics track!) and coming here has enabled me to go to a few different ones. I’ve had a lesser credit load this semester so I’m able to spend more time doing things outside of class, which has been a whole lot of fun. I’m graduating soon, but this isn’t the last post. So… I’ll see you in the next one!

Honestly, graduation seems years (not weeks!) away still…

Sometimes I look around and wonder where the time went, since college seemed to flash by in the blink of an eye. Other times it felt so slow- waiting for the weekend, excited for the next trip I was taking, waiting for an internship. But here I am now just weeks away from graduating, and I’ve been thinking a bit about what I’ve done right vs wrong during my time here. When I work at admissions events, I get a lot of questions, including “What would you change if you could do it all again?” So here’s my advice.

GET INVOLVED. Join an organization you’re passionate about. Here’s how.
It can be intimidating walking into a club meeting where everyone seems to know everyone and you don’t. However, that’s exactly what you should do! ERAU hosts the activities fair every semester a month or so in, and that’s usually when club meeting attendance spikes. You can also get involved in things like Greek life, but I’ve found that most people who go Greek stay Greek.

My challenge to you is as follows: walk around the activity fair (especially to collect free stuff) and make note of every registered student organization (RSO) you’re interested in. If it’s a non-Greek and non-honor society organization, the meetings should be free and open to all. Go to one meeting to see what the club is about – just one. If you like the club, maybe join and go to more meetings! If you’re unsure, go to another meeting to figure it out. Finally, if you don’t like the club, no harm and no foul, it was just one meeting. I will note that some clubs do have a small membership fee, but that’s usually to get heavily involved- our rocketry clubs typically do that.

I personally think that there’s something for everyone here. We have honor societies based on major (usually they’re invite or application-based), professional organizations (like the Society of Women Engineers or Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers), and fun organizations (sailing club, hockey club, tennis club, etc) as well as Division II and intramural sports.

Studies are important but so is experience.
Your GPA is not everything. Obviously don’t neglect your studies, but it’s not an end-all be-all for internships and jobs. If you get a C in one class, it won’t be the end of the world- heck, it’s even happened to me! What I’ve found to be equally as important is the experience and skills you have. They don’t even have to be super technical. Half of engineering is the technical problem, and the other half is being able to work with people. I haven’t gotten a very heavy technical question, but I have gotten a lot of behavioral “tell me about a time when” questions. From my experience, getting your first internship is the hardest.

Don’t just go to class- make sure you understand.
Like I mentioned, your GPA isn’t everything- but it’s still important. Go to tutoring, email your professors, go to their office hours, get the help you need when you need it, not the day before the test. This will enable you to get stuff done early so you can do more cool things. It’ll also lower your stress!

Leave your dorm for fun events, too!
And by fun, I mean do something that you find fun. That could be the beach, airshows, club events, the Skyline Social events on Fridays… anything. In the real world they talk about a work-like balance, but I think it’s important to have a school-life balance too. It’s also something that I struggled with a bit (since I’m a bit of a workaholic) but I’ve enjoyed the times that I got out and did something fun. This was made possible in part by me starting my homework early!

If you’re not an aeronautical science student… try and go on a flight with someone.
Where else are you going to find a university where a good chunk of the students are pilots? A fun fact about is ERAU is that you can shadow a flight in one of the Riddle planes. It’s pretty easy- all you need is a friend who’s a flight student and your student ID card, the EagleCard. You go to the flight operations building with your friend and ask to shadow the flight and as long as it’s fine with the flight instructor and flight supervisor, you can do it. I’ve done this in the ERAU Diamond DA-42s and those things are very nice to fly in.

If your friends aren’t aeronautical science, or you feel like a very expensive meal, there are several flight schools in the area you can rent a plane from. I’ve also done this– I’m not a pilot, but several of my friends are, which means that I’ve paid for my share of the flight costs and gone flying with them.

Volunteer!
Volunteer in a way that’s fun and fulfilling for YOU. Most of my volunteering time was done with the Society of Women Engineers. I spent three years on the Introduce a Girl to Engineering Workshop (IGEW) committee before transitioning to a different leadership role in SWE, but I volunteered for IGEW all three years I was on the committee. ERAU even wrote an article about it! I’ve also volunteered in other capacities, such as for Preview Day and Open House.

Finally… This is your college experience. Make the most of it.
My college experience is vastly different from some other people, and that’s okay. College will help you figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life and give you amazing memories to last a lifetime. I’m a very social person, so I enjoyed social clubs, but if you’re more solitary you may not like all of the activities that I did, and that’s okay.

Change majors if you aren’t happy with the major you’re in. Switch classes if you realize that there’s a professor whose teaching style better matches your learning style. Do things that make you happy and surround yourself with people that have similar interests. I’ve had the time of my life at ERAU, and it’s hard to think that it’s coming to an end. This isn’t my last post quite yet, so I’ll see you in the next post!

With love from a senior.

The aerospace engineering program here at ERAU allows you to pick from between four tracks: aeronautics (airplanes), astronautics (space vehicles), jet propulsion, and rocket propulsion. Currently I’m in the astronautics track, and here are a few of my favorite classes I’ve taken so far:

AE 313 (Space Mechanics)
This was my favorite class I’ve ever taken. It’s an introductory orbital mechanics class, so you get to learn about transfer orbits and creating trajectories. I also got to learn Systems Tool Kit (STK), which is a software that helps visualize the orbit. It’s a software I’m using right now in my senior design class. My professor was funny and engaging, so that was a plus too!

AE 427/425 (Senior Design)
I really like my senior design class- it’s broken into preliminary and detail design classes, but you’re supposed to stay with your team in the same class for a whole year. Our project deals with space situational awareness and we are designing a theoretical CubeSat to take pictures of objects in the geostationary orbit belt. I also have a great group that’s full of hard-working friends, which makes the class so much more fun.

AE 315 (Experimental Aerodynamics Lab)
Although I’m more of a space person, I loved my experimental aerodynamics lab. The professor who runs the lab requires a do-it-yourself group project, and my group chose to put a model 737 fuselage in the wind tunnel. This project takes place after you do five pre-designed experiments and you split each lab section of 10 students into 2 groups.

AE 426 (Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics)
I loved this class- even though people abbreviate it at SAD. My professor taught it in a real-world application method, letting us do a final project to put together what we’d learned. It was a fully theoretical do it yourself and like a miniature senior design class without all of the requirements. The class builds on AE 313 and talks more about an individual spacecraft’s attitude rather than an orbital dynamic.

AE 434 (Spacecraft Controls)
This class builds on AE 426, and my professor did a semester-long project to go along with the class. He gave us a scenario about a satellite and had us model controllers for it, starting with the attitude control and moving to basic controller design.

I am more of a project lover than a test lover as you can probably tell, but I find them less stressful and more applicable to the real world. People aren’t going to hide your textbooks, and engineering is a group effort, so you can ask other engineers if you need help. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I’ll see you in the next one… and hopefully at Riddle!