Written by Raygan Mills
Freshman year is a crazy time as 
a college student; it is even crazier when you are an engineering major. Thankfully the University of Arkansas came up with a great idea, the freshman engineering program. This program was a huge help to me as a freshman engineering major because it provided me with a sense of community among my engineering peers.
The freshman engineering program has three main parts. The class room portion is where you learn valuable information about becoming an engineer. The lecture series is a great way find out about the different jobs and opportunities available for engineering majors. Finally the mentor program that helps you talk to an older engineering student about classes and get advice about your specific major.
The class room portion was my favorite part of the freshman engineering program. It allowed me to see all the different types of engineering and work on the projects that I found interesting, which included anything from building models of bridges to making pills to test drug diffusion. These projects showed me that perseverance is a much needed trait in the field of engineering.
Another great part of the program is the mentor program. This program paired me with a great mentor who was a bio-medical engineer and allowed me to ask questions about that path and get answers to all of my inquiries. While you had to attend weekly meetings for grades, it was good to have someone who understood your struggles and even helped me understand concepts about my calculus classes.
The final part of the program is the Friday lectures. Ever Friday we would have a different person come and talk to us about the different jobs and opportunities each specific engineering track offered. I found this part of the program helpful because it showed me what each different type of engineering had to offer. The lectures were really a big part of why I decided to go with bio-medical engineering over biological.
The freshman engineering program was a great experience and I was thankful to be awarded one of the Freshman Mentees of the Month. This really showed me that when you do something that you love and really put your heart into it, good things tend to follow. All in all, my freshman year was a blast and I am thankful that I was a part of the freshman engineering program.
