I took engineering once. It was a four-hour class, the summer before my sophomore year in high school. My teacher was an old, gender-biased man who never smiled or prepared for the class. In addition, the room was cold-refrigerator cold. I’m from Hawaii, and I am not a big fan of cold. I didn’t learn much in the class, except that I don’t want to pursue an engineering career.
Nonetheless, I find myself every school night studying my life away in McDonnell Douglas Hall with friends who pick on the fact that I am “just a political science major.”
I find myself intrigued by the history of Parks College, amazed by the timeline on the wall celebrating 80 years of aeronautical education and achievement. I am affiliating, more and more, with people from the Society of Physics Students. However, the time I spend with physics students is not directly related to my enthusiasm for anime or Super Smash Brothers. I also find myself dating an aerospace engineer.
Boyfriend aside, my friends and I have made many memories in one of the physics research rooms (the one with the ancient physics library) of McDonnell Douglas. Nightly trips to “shady” Shell, greetings from Janitor Dre, coin collection in the Godiva bottle and the feeling of productivity at 3 in the morning all work together to make it a worthwhile place-great enough to come back, night after night. Even though I will never grasp the concepts of advanced classical mechanics or figure out point charge, by the end of a night in McD Hall, I can better grasp the themes presented in Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and the trends historically calculated in Stalin’s regime. It goes to show that you can get your work done while, at the same time, having “phriendly physics phun.”
It wasn’t until recently that I finally recognized the history of both Parks College and Saint Louis University. Attention in the press, as well as at Homecoming Weekend, excellently showcased the strong, proud history of Parks College. Coming from a school founded in 1887, I definitely value the deep roots of educational tradition. Until I took a few moments to investigate the timeline in the hall of McDonnell Douglas, I neither regarded the aviation sciences as interesting nor paid close attention to the well-recognized reputation the institution.
The built-in dictionary on my laptop defines physics as “the branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. distinguished from that of chemistry and biology, includes mechanics, heat, light . sound, electricity, magnetism and the structure of atoms.”
Even though I will not take a physics class until next semester, I pretty much fit right in with members of the Society of Physics Students. On SLU’s Make a Difference Day, I shall make a difference with some of the physics majors and minors at the University. It’s such a great opportunity for students to meet members of the SLU community. Most excitingly, I will meet Professor Comer-the professor of the physics class I intend to take next semester. I don’t think you could ask for a more fun crowd with whom to make a difference.
Despite my affiliation with the College of Arts and Sciences, I’ve begun to appreciate the areas of concentration offered in Parks College-and the students who study them. Though not often studio art majors, many students of engineering are innovative, insightful people who bring a precise and technological creativity to social situations. Their academic home base at SLU, in McDonnell Douglas Hall, provides an intellectually stimulating atmosphere, comfortable and accepting to those-Parks and non-Parks alike-who blossom in a social scene atypical of the stereotypical college experience.
But I still don’t plan on becoming an engineer anytime soon.
Allison Reilly is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
