On Monday morning, our instructors gave us a challenge that looked impossible. By Friday, it looked like a prototype. That transformation from “I have no idea how to do this” to “let’s test the next version” is the best way I can describe my week at Engineering New Frontiers.
Catholic University’s residential pre-college engineering program ran July 19–24, with the academic week beginning July 20. The Institute combines modern laboratory exercises, engineering design workshops, coding boot camps, and prototyping with guidance from faculty members who work in these fields every day. We did not spend the week listening to people describe engineering. We practiced the habits engineers use: define a problem, identify constraints, build, test, fail safely, revise, and explain the result.
The residential experience mattered too. College stopped being an abstract future and became a schedule I could experience: breakfast, class, lab, group work, dinner, and conversations with students who were excited by the same questions I was. During the same week, Catholic University was also hosting the second Summer Nursing Institute session, while the High School Drama Institute continued its work in voice, movement, acting, and rehearsal. The campus felt like a crossroads of possible futures: engineering in one direction, nursing in another, theatre somewhere down the path, and University students continuing their summer courses all around us.
Washington made the week larger than the campus. Engineering New Frontiers includes cultural and technical experiences in the D.C. area, and the city is full of examples of systems working together: transportation, museums, public spaces, communication networks, historic structures, and new technologies.
My prototype was not perfect. That may be the most encouraging part. I learned that engineering is not reserved for people who produce the correct answer instantly. It belongs to people willing to examine a problem closely, collaborate, and improve an idea one version at a time. I arrived hoping to find out whether I could imagine studying engineering in college. I left with a stronger thought: "I can imagine contributing something."