A: FROM MENTOR BRENDA WOLFE IN CO
Dear Francisca,

Well-rounded means that you do more than just study. Don't load up on AP classes to the point that you don't have time to participate in extra curricular activities such as band, drama, sports, student gov't or something.

To be an engineer, take as much Math as you can and a lot of science. Take keyboarding - so you can function on the computer in the real world.
Skip AP English.

Hope this helps.
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A: FROM MENTOR DENISE HARBERT IN IL
Hi Francisca! It sounds like you've already started down the right track with
your summer internship. Many students don't even consider internships until
the end of their Junior year, so you have a year's headstart on them already!
It also sounds like you learned some valuable information at your internship.
The "professional side of the job" is sometimes just as important or more
important than the work itself and that's something that traditional academic
courses simply don't teach. I think the reason why you hear so often about
the importance of being "well rounded" is because being successful in
engineering is dependent on a person's ability to be good at the "professional
side" as well as the "technical side" of the job. Your report card and course
selection can easily show whether you would be good at the "technical side",
but whether you would be good at the "professional side" is a lot more
difficult to evaluate. For that, many schools and employers assume that the
situations you encounter during extra curricular activities are similar to
those you would encounter professionally in a job. If you can get along with
many different types of people well enough to be successful in a few extra
curricular activities, then you will probably be good enough at those skills
to be successful in the "professional side" of any job you might have later.
Becoming involved in extra curricular activities will help you develop the
personality skills you will need to be good in an engineering career.

Although any extra activity would be an asset on college/employment
applications, I think WHAT activities you choose and WHY are very important.
For example, joining the chess team would be an extra activity, but chess is a
game you would play by yourself against one other person. Your entire team
would collect points for an overall total, but the underlying skills taught on
a chess team are basically all related to individual analytical thinking,
which is not a whole lot different than what you do in the classroom. That's
great if you want to be a teacher, professor, or researcher, but it is not the
right set of skills to focus on if you want to work in industry for a large
company. Now consider a group activity like soccer. To be good at soccer,
you would need to perform well as an individual, while simultaneously
performing well within the context of a team environment. You could be the
best soccer player in the world as an individual, but you will not win games
if you cannot depend on and interact with the other people on your team. The
same would be true of any extra curricular science group where the goal was to
create a group project or do a group experiment. The group interaction part
is what you need to know to be successful in the "professional side" of an
engineering career and it is what employers are looking for on a resume.

I think it's extremely important to strike a balance with your activities in
high school. Including church, work, volunteer, and school activities, two to
four activities are enough if you do them well and have a strong commitment to
them. I joined everything I wanted to join in high school and ended up with
over a dozen extra curricular activities. Every minute of every day was
planned months in advance and there were times when I had to compete in two
different activities on the same night, leaving one activity early and running
to the other late! I almost never had time to stop and think about what I was
doing or where I was headed or why. As a result, I learned to put my head
down, dig in, and focus on the details of what was due next, without learning
to laugh, relax, and look at the "big picture" (namely, rethink whether what I
was doing was logical or important enough to be worth the cost). I was
somewhat ahead of my time. Teenagers often over schedule themselves today,
but it wasn't very common when I was doing it. I thought I was achieving and
being successful and so did everyone around me. I didn't know it was
unhealthy until I reached 30 and suddenly realized how exhausted and stressed
out I was all the time. I had simply accepted exhaustion and stress as a way
of life. Psychologists and various medical doctors have now "caught on" and
are writing books about how unhealthy it is physically and mentally to be so
over scheduled all the time. They now recommend that parents monitor their
children's activities and limit them to the ones that their kids are really
interested in and good at. Life is about choices. It's not possible to do
everything, so learn to choose the things that are most important to you and
learn to say "no" to the other things! Trust me, you'll be a much happier
person for it! I know I am! Best of luck!
********************
A: FROM MENTOR BARB KONTOGIANNIS IN CO
It's not unusual as a Junior in high school to be undecided about what you want to do, and what field you would like to go into. Don't worry, you have plenty of time to make up your mind. The fact that you are interested in engineering is great! In high school, I took AP Calculus, AP Chemistry and AP Physics. Those courses prepared me very well for college, and enabled me to even test out of some of the college courses and get credit. That was very helpful in the long run, because then I could take more in-depth courses in my specialty during my senior year of college when I really did know what I wanted to do. So, being prepared academically by taking challenging course work is important. I also took a drafting class and a computer programming class too (I'm sure there are much more in-depth courses about computers now than when I was in high school). And I worked hard at all the "softer" non-technical courses too - like English and social sciences. They are important for a well-rounded person, and believe it or not, engineers DO need to know how to read, write, and speak articulately! Not all engineers are like Dilbert, really! More on this "well-roundedness"... Colleges tend to admit a diverse population of students. Each person should show an interest in something outside of academics, in a way demonstrating a love for life and learning. That doesn't mean you have to go out and join every club, or run yourself ragged in sports or volunteer work, but it really helps to have one or two extracurricular activities. You get exposed to issues in your community, or team dynamics, something other than classroom work. I was involved in music in high school - jazz band, marching band, and pit-orchestras for musicals. I was also a one-sport letterman in diving (it seemed most students involved in sports participated in something each season, but you don't have to do that). And I participated in one club focused on community outreach. Not a huge resume of activities, but enough to have a larger focus than just the classroom, and to be a "well-rounded" person. Looking back, I don't think there is much I would change about my high school preparation for college and becoming an engineer.

Now, about choosing a field. Usually the first year, if not first two years, of college engineering is not specialized. You will take the typical calculus, physics, statics, dynamics, and maybe chemistry and intro to circuits, etc. By the middle of your second year, most likely, you will probably start to get a feel for what you like and dislike, as far as fields of study. It was very clear to me after intro to circuits that I was not going to be an electrical engineer. By middle of my sophomore year, I had decided on mechanical engineering, after also seriously thinking about civil or aerospace engineering. I later went on to get a Master's degree in aerospace engineering, but liked the flexibility of a first degree in mechanical engineering - that's a whole separate discussion!

So, don't hurry to make up your mind about your field of study - that'll come as you are exposed to various engineering related topics. Take challenging math and science courses in high school, and get involved in activities that really interest you, don't just fill your resume. I hope that helps you. Good luck!