Sedano, Whole Life Paper 1
Life Concepts Essay
By: Andrew Sedano
ENGR 1201
Professor Blackmon
09/20/2012
I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any violation
of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.
09/19/2012
Sedano, Whole Life Paper 2
Introduction
As we continue to work on our second part of our Whole Life Concept Paper we are trying to get
a good understanding on the knowledge and skills that we will need to achieve in order to successfully
accomplish our impact. Of course our over all goal is to become professional engineers. This solely is
one of the hardest tasks that we hope to accomplish. Every step that we take in order to accomplish this
goal will truly prepare us for achieving our individual impact on the world. After the first part of the Whole
Life Concept paper, I have developed my passion and my impact. Now the question is how do I feel about
this choice? Is this truly what I hope to accomplish? Am I willing to take the necessary steps to
accomplish these tasks that I have set for my self? I hope to be able to answer these questions by the
end of this paper. I know that they are very complex and maybe can’t be answered in full but at lest they
will give me a general understanding on where I stand on my approach towards my passion.
Review of Part 1
My passion is to become a successful and well-known Civil Engineer, who will be able to make a
difference on the world. Ever since I can remember whenever I would plan my future career I knew that
Engineering would definitely be the major I would choose. I did not really know which field in Engineering
I would be specializing in since a career in Engineering is so vast and covers so many aspects of our
lives. Finally after researching the many different fields I felt that a career in Civil Engineering really
matched my interest and what I hoped to accomplish in the later future. After seeing all the amazing and
beautiful things that Civil Engineers have been able to help design and build, I really couldn’t help but to
be interested in this field.
The impact on the world I hope to accomplish is only limited by time. I will focus my studies in the
field of infrastructure. A big goal I have set for myself is to not limit my work to here in the United States. I
really want to be able to go out and help other countries. Being able to help improve foreign and
developing countries’ infrastructure has to be the biggest impact I hope to achieve. Many of these
countries infrastructures can’t withstand even the slightest form of natural disasters. Therefore being able
to say that some of the projects that I took place in have saved the life of many would be a privilege.
Another thing I hope to accomplish is to help in the design and building of an Olympic, FIFA World Cup,
or NFL stadium. I believe in the design of one of these structures we would help a community to prosper
by the revenue that these stadiums bring.
As hundreds and thousands of new Civil Engineers are entering the work force the amount of
skills, knowledge, and abilities is increasing drastically. Some of the skills that will be required in this field
include communication, monitor expenses, mathematics, and comprehension of design packages. All
these are forms of skills that as a future Civil Engineer I will need to master. The knowledge that is
required of us is very immense. Some of this knowledge really focuses on: having a very concentrated
study in mathematics, an ample amount of knowledge in the design process itself, being able to read and
write blueprints, and last but not least being able to achieve all the projects that are assigned in the safest
manner but in a adequate manner as well. All of these are essentials in some of the jobs that I came
across. For example: Civil Engineer managers would focus on monitor expenses and communication
skills while the Civil/Structural Engineers would focus on being able to read blue prints and working
adequately. Of course these are not all, this field is a very competitive field and a field that never stops
growing. Ever year new things are developed or discovered, so any future Civil Engineer can never really
stop learning if they hope to be able to compete with other upcoming Civil Engineers.
The non-technical skills that I will need to acquire to become a successful Civil Engineer include
well-developed project management skills, proper and formal communication skills, and acquiring formal
skills for presentations. All of these skills I will develop over time and practice but are all essentials to
becoming a well respected professional Civil Engineer. These are all very important skills that I will need
to become a professional Civil Engineer.
Knowledge and Skills
My major is Civil Engineering, and I hope to concentrate my studies in Structural Engineering. I
will more than likely have to continue my studies after receiving my Bachelors Degree and further my
education by enrolling in a Masters program. In the past few years most companies have made having
Sedano, Whole Life Paper 3
your Masters Degree a requirement. Of course this makes the task at hand much more challenging, and
a much longer process. However, at the same time I feel that the benefits that I will get from this is well
worth the extra two years. After receiving my masters in Civil Engineering, I hope to find a job that will pay
for me to return to graduate school so that I may receive my Ph.D. I feel that I will not be able to fully live
out my passion until I have received my Ph.D. By earning my Ph.D. this will open up tons of opportunities
that I hope to take advantage of and truly make a difference in this world.
Of course these are not easy tasks or simple goals. They will take countless hours, months, and
even years to accomplish, but the payoffs are indescribable. In order for me to fully reach my passion and
to turn it into impact, I will be require to take multiple courses that will shape me and broaden my
knowledge towards my specific field. As a Civil Engineer at the University of Charlotte, I have my whole
schedule for the next four years already laid out. I have somewhat of an input when it comes to my liberal
studies classes, but as for the main courses they are already set up. As a freshman, I must take all my
prerequisite courses, which include Calculus, Introduction to Engineering, and Chemistry. These courses
are basic courses, but at the same time are very essential courses. If I were to fail one of these courses it
will not only ruin my GPA, but it will set me so far behind. Failing one of these courses limits me from
being eligible to take other courses. In the field of Engineering there really isn’t any room for setbacks.
Other courses that are necessary include; English, Statics, Physics, Physics Lab, and Chemistry Lab. All
of these courses are basic courses but are also meant to be tough. This helps to determine which people
will fully be able to accomplish their passion. It takes true determination and devotion to one’s passion in
order to succeed in these courses and move onto the next level of college. Succeeding in these courses
doesn’t mean passing with the bear minimal which a “C.” By succeeding in a course I mean actually
succeeding and making an “A.” By earning an “A” this shows that you fully grasp the concept of that
course and that you are prepared to face real life situations. After taking all the basic courses will be
begin to focus our studies in the direction of our major. These courses focus on the fundamentals and
expectations that you will be required to achieve in the outside world no matter the major. As for me these
courses include Structures, transportation, and more concentrated labs. Since I hope to become a
Structural/Civil Engineer these course will allow me more hands on experience. These courses are
essential if I hope to become a certified professional Structural/Civil Engineer anywhere.
These course will not only help me in achieving my desired impact on the world, but it will
broaden my knowledge on a lot of other aspects that I might not use in my future passion. The impact I
hope to have on my community and the world around me is to improve our infrastructure. I will use all the
skills acquired in college in order to reach my impact on society. Some of the courses that will greatly help
me greatly in accomplishing this include all of our Engineering courses. These courses will not only
introduce us to the steps that current Engineers take in solving problems or designing things, but it will
teach us crucial techniques, and skills that all Engineers should know how to do. One of these skills
includes teamwork. It sounds like an easy concept since we have always done things in the past as a
team but have all of these experiences been positive? In Engineering 1201 they inform us of crucial steps
that we must take in order to form an efficient team. Working in a team will be a bulk of my work as a Civil
Engineer. Projects are performed in teams and in order for the projects to be completed the team working
on it must have a well-established relationship with one another. Working as a team allows us to have
input from a large and diverse group. We all don’t think the same and having input from other Engineers
offers teams opportunities to prosper. With these benefits also comes a negative. Since we all think
differently we sometimes don’t agree on all topics or ideas. This makes it hard on groups to finalize things
but these things that can be over come when we are trained to act like professionals. Just because we
disagree on things doesn’t mean that we can no longer work together. Engineering 1201 teaches us all
techniques and rules that teams should follow in order for teams to disagree on ideas but to make the
best out of it. Our Engineering courses will also prepare us for the business aspect of Engineering.
Engineering we will not always be just using our hands and getting dirty, this does cover a big part but not
all of the things that Engineers are expected to do. As a Civil Engineer I will have to make proposals,
have to create documents, and have to make presentations. All of these things are formally done and
have to follow very specific criteria. Every document, proposal, and presentation will never be the same
but the steps I will have to take to complete them are basically the same. In Engineering 1201 we have
already made a design package and had a formal presentation. These things allow me to get a realistic
feel of the process that I will have to take in the later future as a Structural/Civil Engineer.
Structures I will probably have the biggest role on my impact. As a future Structural/Civil Engineer
this course will really make me familiar with the type of work that I will have to be doing as well as the
Sedano, Whole Life Paper 4
knowledge that is required in structures. Of course probably every little thing that i learn in that class I will
use to achieve my impact. This is a very essential course as of now I really don’t have lots of knowledge
about this topic. There are so many lurking variables when it comes to structures and things that you
must take into consideration as you begin to deign and build any form of structure. One of the biggest
problems facing infrastructure in today’s society is life span. Many structures are reaching the end of their
life span. I hope that in this class I figure out ways to build longer lasting structures this way countries
wouldn’t have to worry about the expense of repairing their infrastructure.
Calculus is also going to be a very influential course towards my impact. Mathematics is going to
be one of the biggest focuses in any form of engineering. I know that in order to achieve my impact I will
have to highly concentrated background in Calculus. As a Structural/Civil Engineer I will be ask to
conduct hundreds of test, calculations, and predictions. In order for my results to be accurate I most be
able to support them evidence and Calculus. Some of the areas in which Calculus will help me is in the
designing process of a structure. I will have to make numerous calculations. These calculations will take
many things to account for example, amount of weight the structure can support and will be required to
support, the forces of nature that it must withstand, and cost. All of these things can be calculated using
some form of Calculus. These calculations are very important because if you get one calculation wrong,
that could be the life of hundreds on the line. As a Engineer one of our biggest focuses is the safety of the
general public. Everything we do as Engineers is done with the safety of the general public in mind and
ignoring this is not tolerated at all.
The knowledge that I will acquire from chemistry will also help me achieve my impact. It is hard to
see the correlation between the two, but chemistry actually helps Structural Engineers decide what
materials to use in projects. One big factor to the deterioration of any infrastructure is acid rain. Not every
area’s acid rain has the same concentration so determining which material is adequate for that general
area is very important. If a Engineer uses the wrong type of material the structure could lead catastrophic
failure. As I said before as Engineers we work with the safety of the general public as our first priority and
by not knowing what materials are necessary in order to keep that structure up in that form of weather
could lead to injuries to many or even death. Either way none of these are expectable by professional
engineers. If I hope to have an impact on this world or my community I can never let stuff like this happen.
The knowledge that I will take from chemistry will keep me in the clear from making a bad decision.
Non-technical skills are very important and should be well developed and practiced before
interring the professional work force as an engineer. These include well-developed communication skills,
being able to work well with teams, being able to act in a professional manner, and being able to put
together and give a well developed presentation. All of the skills are almost as important as knowledge.
As a structural engineer I will be asked to work in a team that can be made up of people from all over the
world and being able to communicate with them is essential if we hope to complete any project. We also
must be able to act in a professional manner. There will be occasions in which we will disagree with
people or maybe even dislike people but we need to learn how to look past these things and get work
done. As professionals we can’t let things like this get in our way from achieving our impact.
Some of these skills can and will be established in our college life but others will not really be
emphasized. Well-developed communication skills are not really taught in school, which could be seen as
a negative because being able to communicate with people could determine weather or not you receive a
job in the later future. In a field where everything is done in teams it is crucial that teams can
communicate well. If a team has a well-established base for communication projects will flow much more
smoothly and countless issues can be avoided. These skills can really be established in extracurricular
activities. These include clubs, sports, and debate clubs, anything that really allows you to communicate
with a wide range of people who share different views.
These skills can also be well developed be doing Co-ops and internships. These programs will
help anyone establish great connections in the business world. Like people always say sometimes its not
what you know it’s who you know. This statement couldn’t me more truely. By having a well-developed list
of connections finding a job in the real world should be fairly easy. Besides establishing you in the
business world it also allows you to get hands on work at an early age. Over all the reason we come to
college is to be able to find a job that we could live a fairly well life doing something we love to do. All
these things allow you to start developing these essential skills before actually getting a full time job. By
working in Internships you can start learning what type of work you will be performing in your future
career. I mean you never know maybe by joining an intern you will find out that maybe this isn’t the field
Sedano, Whole Life Paper 5
you hope to pursue in the future. Either way you begin acquiring skills like teamwork and communication
skills that really can’t be taught.
Another form of establishing these skills include really any form of job. Jobs are once again a
great way of establishing communication skills. Although the job has nothing related to your major the
skills that you can acquire once again are essentials in the work force. Large companies like to see that
students are involved in their community. Jobs can also help with your professionalism. Dressing and
acting professionally can either make or break your attempt to acquire a job. Businesses want people
who can represent their company formally and someone that will make a good representation of the
company.
Reflection and Conclusion
After fully immersing myself in the Whole Life Concept Model I have realized that it has allowed
me to get a good grasp on my future potential and the steps necessary to achieve my impact on society.
Growing up I has been thought to believe the more you know the more you can do. According to the Life
Concept Model this is partially true. In order for anyone to actually be able to have an impact on society
we must first have a well-established passion. As for a lot of people their “passion” is really influenced by
parents or other factors which is a great thing, But as for in college this has to really be up to you and only
you. This is your life. After this you will be in this career for 30-40 years. No one wants to be doing
something that they truly are not passionate about. Determining ones passion as an eighteen year old
isn’t an easy task maybe not an easy task for any one no matter the age, but if we really sit down and
think about the things we enjoy and the things we hope to see our self doing in the later future it seems to
come much easier. The Whole Life Concept was a reminder to why I choose this major to begin with. It
was somewhat of a motivation to strive in my classes. These papers were a reminder of all the amazing
things that I could achieve if I received my degree as a Civil Engineer. I know that to be successful in this
field I have to be at the top of my game. So after writing this paper it has given me a vision of what to look
forward to, a reason to strive to do great, and reason for not giving up. So far it has paid off and I feel that
I have a established a good foundation for the next years to come. Another reason why the whole Life
concept plays a big role on any freshman engineer including me is that it ask us to answer questions that
maybe before we have not considered. By asking us to answer these questions it helps us realize
whether or not the major we are pursuing is really what we want to do. This is a perfect time in our career
in college to make a change. If we come to realize from this paper that Engineering really isn’t the field in
which I hope to pursue, well its not to late to change our major. At this point changing our major would not
set us back in our course hours. As for me after really studying the Whole Life Concept Model I have
grown stronger towards my passion and I have no intentions on switching.
At the end of the day Civil Engineering wasn’t my first major choice. When I was younger I never
imagined my self-becoming an Engineer. Deciding to major in Structural/Civil Engineering was not one of
those over night decisions. It took a lot of time and consideration. As of right now I couldn’t be happier
with my choice to pursue my career in Civil Engineering. After spending ample hours behind a keyboard
and typing the Whole Life Concept Paper I fell that it has truly made me understand why I choose this
field in the first place. It really has helped me in establishing my passion in life. Before this paper I felt that
this major would get to hard and maybe I would consider changing my major towards business. Then
halfway trough this paper and the semester I decided that business wasn’t what I wanted to do in the
future. They do say that business isn’t as complicated as Engineering but how to I hope to succeed at
anything if I just give up when times get hard. As I struggled trough this paper I found out more about
myself than what I had expected to get from it. I realized that the impact I hope to have on society is really
helping in foreign and developing countries. I knew that as a Civil Engineer i would be helping
communities by designing efficient ways of transportation or safer forms of transportation. After the first
part of the Life Concept Paper I decided that my impact was so true but the only change was that it
wouldn’t be here in the United States. From this process I have come to the realization of how immense
the field of Engineering really is. Not to mention all the sub categories that each major has. After
researching job opportunities and the kind of job that is required from professional Civil Engineers, I
realized that concentrating my studies in Structural/Civil Engineering really fit my passion and impact. The
impact this paper has had on my future is enormous. I learned that in order to become a Civil Engineer
now in days it is almost required to get your masters. This helps me in knowing how much time I should
prepare to spend in college in order to succeed in accomplishing my impact.
Sedano, Whole Life Paper 6
Over all this paper has had such a big impact on me as an individual in college. It has shown me
sides of Engineering and my major that I hadn’t planned for. This assignment was in no way shape or
form an easy assignment. I could’ve mad it easy if I would’ve just stuck to he format and just wing it. I
mean everyone can type a paper and a lot of this stuff is personal so we can ramble on about these
topics. I took it into my hands to make the best out of it. I really sat down and focused on what this
assignment was meant to do. It actually showed me a lot about my self-things that maybe I would’ve
never taken into consideration if it weren’t for this assignment. Don’t get me wrong I complained the
whole time trough out this paper. For example why are we writing we are just Engineers, why do we have
to type in size ten fonts, or maybe why is this so long. Now as I approach the end of this paper I can’t
believe I would even debate weather or not to do an assignment like this. For many this assignment
helped people decide weather or not they wanted to continue pursuing a career in Engineering as for me
it brought me so much closer to enjoying my passion. It has increased my commitment to engineering
tremendously. I don’t see myself ever giving up this passion but we never know the things that life throws
at us. This assignment has also help me in affirming that UNC Charlotte was a great choice for a school.
Before the semester started I said to my self that I would transfer to NC State after my first year, but now I
know that will not happen. I hope to continue my studies here at Charlotte. If one assignment can
influence me so much I couldn’t imagine missing out on the assignments that this school has to offer me.
This will not be a walk in the park, but thanks to the Life Concept Model I know now that steps and
process that i will need to take in order to be successful in this field.
Conclusion
Over all I feel that this paper has served its purpose. Anyone who took advantage of this
assignment will greatly be reward as I’m. By writing this paper I have established a passion. Which that
itself has been a great accomplishment but I have also developed a plan for how I hope to impact my
society and the world in the later future. This assignment has helped me develop a great foundation for
my future. Of course I still have a long road ahead for me but I don’t feel like nothing is out of my reach. I
will continue striving to do my best in my entire course and by doing so I know that these next six years
will go by faster than I think. I know that the reward of achieving my impact will be one of the most
rewarding things in life so as I set off to accomplish this goal I will always keep the end in mind.