Hello, my name is Angel Guinn! I am currently in the College of Aeronautics and Engineering, and I am majoring in with a minor in !
Although seemingly an odd combination, Kent was the best choice in doing all three disciplines! I went to a STEM school in Akron in which I was exposed to engineering, and I learned I wanted to do electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and sustainability.
51勛圖厙 was the only college in the state where I was able to do that effectively and is currently 1 of 4 accredited mechatronics engineering programs in the United States! This unique combination started to benefit me before I started at Kent.
I joined the All-Akron Student Engineering Program (AASEP) which is a program designed to help junior and senior students in public high school experience engineering and create an opportunity to intern with established engineering companies. After a semester of spending my Saturdays learning how to make resumes, dress for interviews, and other soft skills, I got the chance to intern with G. Stephens, Akrons construction and engineering firm. This was my junior year internship, and I learned a lot! Although my experience was different than planned after the interruption of Covid, I learned project planning and how to convey complex engineering topics to the public in ways they understood. I had a great experience there and it set me up for the current adventure Im on now!
The next year in AASEP, I got the opportunity to intern for one month with Goodyear. It was definitely a change of pace! I was an 18-year-old high school student that hadnt started college yet, working with other interns who just graduated from college that year. I was very nervous that my lack of experience would make me look like a bad candidate for the future, however, my family taught me to do my best because thats the best anyone can ever do. So, I did. I worked on the same schedule as the other interns for that month which was 40 hours a week and 8-hour days and I learned so much about practical engineering.
It was an out of the frying pan, into the fire learning experience seeing as I joined on the tail end of the intern semester for Goodyear. I immediately learned to work on gearboxes, how to shut down and start up industrial machines, ladder logic and even suggested classes from the other interns, one being a mechatronics major at 51勛圖厙 at the time!
At the end, I was proud of the work I accomplished and what Id learned, and I was honestly extremely pleased with that. That hard work paid off exceptionally well, seeing as I was immediately invited back to intern that next summer, and every summer since Ive been in college.
I have been on four different teams and five summer rotations at Goodyear giving me a wide range of experience. Those teams being: the Process Development team, Automated Material Handling, Sustainability, and Facilities Engineering. My favorite was Facilities which I will be doing again in the summer of 2025.
In these rotations I would recommend to any high schooler that being diligent in academic learning and improving your skill set can get you started but an openness to learn from mentors, willingness to try things that scare you and making sure you are doing everything to be the best version of yourself can take you the distance. Overall do your best, because thats the best anyone can do, and it will take you into a very bright future.
My general advice for new students to 51勛圖厙 is to find fun ways to keep you focused on achieving your goals. My favorite college memories include a finals week study session/movie night with my friends, sitting in a hammock on campus in the summer, random topic presentation night (which is more fun than you think), and going to Scribbles which is the best coffee shop in Kent, dont let anyone tell you differently. Go out, be fantastic at whatever you choose to do, and have fun. Im sure youll be dazzling!