My second great experience of college was joining MADE at TU. MADE stands for Make A Difference Engineering which is a club/organization that works primarily with the Little Light House to provide toys and accommodating tools for children with both mental and physical disabilities.
I heard about this organization during the activities fair and thought it was a great opportunity to start getting hands on experience with mechanical engineering. I went to the first meeting and was amazed by some of the previous projects that were conducted. I loved the community service I would have the opportunity to do while at the same time developing my engineering skills. My first project that I joined taught me a lot. I joined a project group that was developing a hands free walker for a girl with cerebral palsy. This girl loved to dance and wanted a hands free walker that would support her while she danced.
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spent a semester with this project group and learned a lot from this experience. I learned the importance of communicating with a client, the benefits of teamwork, and how to best support a team.
After this semester I decided to join another project group that I found more intriguing. I joined the Walk the Walk project group that was building a walker for a child with visual disabilities. The goal of this project was to develop a series of guided tiles with a walker to help a little girl better understand how to move in free space.
I spent two semesters with this group and we actually had the opportunity to deliver this walker this past semester which was a great experience. I had a great sense of fulfillment and found that I have a passion for applying my mechanical engineering knowledge to community service projects.