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Tim Jones III
Instructor Sara Alvarez
English 101-28
22 October 2014
Students at Speed School of Engineering: Community Profile
Being tasked with researching a community for English 101, I figured I would have to go
out and perform interviews with people in the community I picked. In my case, the University of
Louisville Speed School of Engineering. Although I could ask several of my friends in Speed
School, I feel like I am intruding on them when I ask them to sit down for a moment and talk
professionally. However, I had an idea on where to start with my interviews; a freshman to the
Speed School who, until recently, I became acquainted with named Eric.
I sit next to Eric in my 10 am calculus class. Eric has a large frame, about 6 foot 3 inches
tall, and has short, dirty-blond hair that barely reaches halfway down his forehead. He has a
medium body type build with blue eyes and chapped lips. After calculus let out we walked down
the white steps on the left side of the J.B. Speed building. We carried on a casual conversation
about buying a new video game that had come out recently called Super Smash Bros. 3DS.
While we were waiting for the walk sign to change at the intersection of Eastern Parkway, I
asked him if he would not mind me interviewing him for my community profile on Speed School
students. He generously accepted so we set up a time for when we could meet up and exchanged
phone numbers.
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I would like to make a quick note at the rapport I built up leading to my request of the
interview with Eric. I first requested an interview with a young adult man who I do not think
would want me to use his name, so I will call him Tom. Tom had a smaller, thinner build, about
5 foot 6 inches, brown hair, glasses, and wore a large zip-up hoodie. Without any prior
conversation or introduction, I asked Tom if he wanted to help me by giving me an interview for
this paper. He responded with a cold and disheartening “No.” and went on his stormy way.
Maybe I caught him on a bad day. However, this helped me to realize that simply asking for
something will not earn you your goal. I needed to work for my interviews. This led me to look
up casual ways of connecting with strangers. By the result of a successfully procured interview,
you can assume that those methods worked out.
So, later that day I received a text from Eric explaining that he had free time, so I made
my way towards Threlkeld Hall where we had planned for the interview to take place via text.
Dusk approached as I walked towards the hall to find Eric waiting for me on the green bench
next to the bike rack close to the main entrance. We exchanged friendly hellos and walked on
into Threlkeld and up to his room on the second floor. His room wasn’t anything to marvel at, as
it lacked any posters, color, or general personalization what so ever.
We sat across from each other on the separate beds and I began to send questions his
way.
Tim: “What about Speed school in Louisville brought you here rather than other universities?”
Eric: “Well U of L offered me a decent scholarship and their also one of the few colleges with an
accredited bioengineering program so when I so when I leave here I’ll be able to say I graduated
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from s school with an accredited bioengineering program which is something I wouldn’t be able
to say if I headed somewhere else.”
This raises two very valid points that need to be discussed but the first point, regarding
the scholarship Eric received, I will bring back up later on. Right now I want to focus on the
accredited program Eric mentioned. Although University of Louisville’s Speed School had only
been ranked #124 on the top Engineering Schools in the nation (U.S. News), it still has received
duel-level accreditation for its Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in the field of Biomedical
Engineering. This became very important as it gives it international appeal to students looking to
come to America and study in the field of bioengineering. It could definitely contribute as one of
the factors that brings foreign students to University of Louisville over another college or
university.
I only had one more question for Eric:
Tim: “What made you decide on engineering as a major altogether?”
Eric: “I’ve always had an interest in science and math and engineering is something I’ve always
wanted to do; my dad was an engineer so there’s that.”
Tim: “Like a parental influence?”
Eric: “Well there’s a lot of factors that go into it but parental influence was defiantly there.”
Parental influence has proven itself as big factor in what students have decided as their
best course of action while at University of Louisville or even colleges and universities in
general. One of my close personal friends enrolled in the college of business because his father
wanted him to become a business man. In my personal opinion, parents should not be able to
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dictate what their children do in college. When a student reaches their college career, it should
be up to them to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives and parents should take a
backseat and support their child’s decisions: so long as those decisions follow common sense.
After the interview, I headed on over to my second informant named Cameron. I knew
him prior to coming to college and he had agreed to do an interview for the paper. Cameron also
lived in Threlkeld and had finished his classes for the day by the time my interview with Eric had
concluded. Naturally, meeting with him became a simple matter of stair climbing. I ascended the
next four flights of stairs with the sharp smell of propane in my nostrils and I wondered if the
faculty should check their gas lines for a leak. Cameron greeted me at the fourth floor entrance
and we proceeded to his room for the interview. Cameron has a tall and skinny frame, roughly 6
feet tall, and 180 pounds. He has short brown hair which he typically gels to the side to look
nice. Cameron also wears glasses and a fairly soft spoken personality, but intellectual
nonetheless.
Cameron’s room felt like the polar opposite of Eric’s room. Cameron and his roommate
Tyler (currently napping in the bottom bunk of their bunk beds) had completely personalized
their domain. They had a key board set, a drum set, two guitars, and a mandolin all set up as if
they rehearsed band practice every night. They also had records and music artist posters hanging
on all four walls. To top it all off, there were a pair of crescent chairs set up in the center of the
room facing a small 20 inch television plugged into three separate game systems. Not
surprisingly, it became rather hard to move around in their room without bumping into
something once I had entered.
Cameron and I set the two crescent chairs facing toward each other, I rustled in my bag to
retrieve my cheat sheet of questions, and we began the interview.
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Tim: “Do you think you’ll be changing your major in the future?”
Cameron: “Yeah, I think I will switch to Electrical Engineering in the near future.”
Tim: “Any reason for that?”
Cameron: “Well the line of work I work I want to go into is better suited for an Electrical
Engineering degree.”
Cameron: “What brought you to Speed school in Louisville rather than other universities?”
Tim: “It was cheaper than other colleges but it also produced a higher quality education in its
program.”
High quality for low cost. The underlining motive as to why each of my informants
chose University of Louisville’s Speed School over another college or universities engineering
program . Even my third informant, Tyler (Cameron’s roommate), answered in accordance to
University of Louisville’s affordable education with high marks in the quality produced by it.
Tyler has a short stature, probably about 5 foot 4 inches, with long, curly “strawberry-blonde”
hair. He usually has peach fuzz on his chin and likes to wear a navy blue beanie. Tyler sat in the
chair Cameron previously did and I asked him:
Tim: “What brought you to Speed School rather than other universities?”
Tyler: “The program was the best in the state and, compared to other programs in other states, I
was going to get the most money at U of L.”
It seemed strange to me that other engineering students would pick University of
Louisville’s Speed School simply because they gave more money or they were a cheaper
alternative. But I can support this claim as well. Being an engineering student at Speed School, I
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wanted to get a degree from a well-known school program without selling my soul to the bank.
Many other students in the Speed Program also seem to follow this trend. However, despite all
this, Speed School has proven itself as the perfect fit for several students in this community.
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Works Cited
King, Cameron. "Community Profile." Personal interview. 22 Oct. 2014.
Latz, Eric. "Community Profile." Personal interview. 22 Oct. 2014.
McLemore, Tyler. "Community Profile." Personal interview. 22 Oct. 2014.
"University of Louisville (Speed)." U.S. News & World Report: News, Rankings and Analysis on
Politics, Education, Healthcare and More. U.S. News, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.