Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose Your Own Adventure

The Student Life within the McBride program is so wide ranging and unique that the best way to explain it is by showing student profiles that demonstrate that being in McBride is like participating in a Choose Your Own Adventure.

Aloha! My name is Claire and I’m a junior in Mechanical Engineering from Colleyville, TX. The greatest adventure McBride has helped me through is my study abroad in Madrid, Spain the spring of 2018.

Studying abroad was the hardest and best adventure I’ve ever been on. I took seven classes in English but lived with Spaniards. That meant that if I wanted to talk to my roommate or contribute to the conversation at meals, I had to process and speak Spanish. It made for lots of frustration but also immense growth. In Madrid, I not only learned how to communicate across cultural barriers, but I also learned more about myself and being independent than I ever thought possible. Along with self growth, I also traveled every weekend across Europe with the amazing friends I made there. Over that semester I hit 18 different cities and 9 different countries, effectively making me amazing at packing in under 20 minutes. McBride made this possible as they helped me with a significant award to help pay for my expenses abroad. McBride gives me the latitude to explore my passions and gave me a great set of friends to go along with it.

Hello! My name is Catherine Gable, I am a junior in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering (a mouthful, I know) and I am from Lafayette, Colorado. When I first joined the McBride Honors Program, I truly thought it was just going to be some liberal arts classes to keep people who come from a liberal arts background sane. At this point in time, I had no idea that McBride would soon become the most important part of my education, and my life, at Mines and so much more than just “classes”.

I always battled with myself by putting myself into a strictly STEM school. Growing up, I had always wanted to go into science, but I loved designing things, painting, creative writing, etc. I felt that I had given up my dreams when I committed to Mines. However, when I joined the McBride Honors Program, that mindset completely changed. In one of my classes, it was encouraged that I create something non-textual to describe the intrinsic value of puzzles, just for example! No path taken McBride is confining, every option is personally tailored to who you are as an individual. For example, I wanted to teach design and continue feeding that passion; this semester I am a TA for engineering design recitation and traveled to Barcelona to continue that teaching and learning. I have been able to relate all my major-specific course work back to my McBride classes and vice versa, something that gives me that extra edge in class and the ability to communicate more than just the numbers.

I proudly say that I am a member of the McBride Honors Program, but important to me personally, I can say that I did not abandon my dreams. McBride has allowed me to explore my own world in ways that I never thought I could, and I know that there is so much more in store for me on this journey through this phenomenal program.

Hi! My name is Seth and I am a Computer Science major with an emphasis on Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Some might believe that an Honors program that is writing and reading heavy would not mesh well with someone who is so focused on computers and technical software problems, but in terms of McBride, they would be wrong. McBride does not lock students in to one path, instead they allow us to flourish and grow inside the program and follow the path that we seek out.

To demonstrate this, I will describe the path I sought out. First off, I decided to perform my practicum over the summer by visiting Kenya and teaching robotics to underprivileged kids. McBride gave me financial support for this endeavor that without it I most likely would not have been able to attend this trip. Next I pursued a on-campus job working in the Honors House, which has turned out to be a truly amazing and extremely fun experience. When it comes to choosing classes, not only do I base my choice on the choice of my friends, since a substantial amount of my friends come from the McBride community, but I also get to seek out something in line with what I enjoy. From planning Service Learning trips for Nepal to studying robotics and technology in the modern era using Confucian ethics, my choices seem limitless. Moving forward, I have no doubt that this program has a lot waiting for me, and that is what brings me the most joy.