I’m a born Yooper who grew up in a small town in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan
and came back to the UP for school. I love the Copper Country and MTU students so
much, I managed to persuade my husband to come back to Houghton five years ago. Now
I live near campus with my husband, daughter, our Torbie cat and our curly-haired
dog. We read science fiction and fantasy stories; play board games; kayak on the canals
and lakes while watching for signs of wildlife; make new things out of yarn, fabric,
wood, and plastic (though not all at the same time) and practice herbology and potions in the garden and kitchen.
I first became interested in engineering in high school when I learned it was a way
to combine math and science to solve problems. I loved math and science and thought
that sounded brilliant. However, I didn’t understand at the time what that really
meant. I thought “problems” meant the types of problems you solve in math class. Since
then I’ve learned these problems are major issues that are faced by all of humanity,
such as: How do we enable widespread access to clean energy? How do we produce sufficient
amounts of safe vaccines and medicine, particularly in a crisis? How do we process
food products, while maintaining safety and nutritional quality? As a chemical engineer I am able to combine my love of biology, chemistry, physics, and math to create novel
solutions to society’s problems.
One thing I love about MTU is that the university gives students tons of hands-on opportunities to solve real problems, not just problems out of a textbook (though we still do a fair number of those!). These are the types of problems our students will be solving when they go on to their future careers. –Rebecca Ong, assistant professor, chemical engineering
#mtuhumans #mtugrad
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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