James Herner

 

Well in some sense Wright State, or more broadly the Dayton area chose me. Through the extensive scholarship opportunities I found at Wright State and the internships I was poised to capitalize on during my undergraduate education when it came time to pick, Wright State was simply my most logical choice. Wright State further offered me the opportunity to count a significant portion of the university coursework that I'd completed during high school towards my degree, thus allowing me to pursue courses in multiple colleges at Wright State and still graduate on time. 

 

From an early age, I had something of a fascination with STEM pursuits. I always loved solving little puzzles about how things worked, was captivated by learning about the world, and felt a kinship with the intellectual community around me. I joined a robotics team in the 4th grade which helped to inspire a lifelong love of STEM. My peers and mentors further nurtured that sprig of interest as I progressed through adolescence and by the time I was poised to choose a degree which would best suit my forte, an affinity for all things electrical had come to the fore.  

 

But more specifically as to why I picked physics, I had a mentor in high school who encouraged me to investigate the possibility of engaging in what was once Wright State's Engineering Physics program. That program, in particular, has since been reworked and rolled into a focus in the EE college, but through that investigation, I discovered that I could have my cake and eat it too by getting an Electrical Engineering degree and a Physics degree at the same time! Delighted as I was to be able to not only build and design neat gadgets but also fundamentally understand how they worked, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Over the course of my university education, I've fallen more and more deeply in love with physics and intend to pursue it for graduate work in the near future. 

 

To be honest, the thing that surprised me most was how pretty much everything in physics, engineering, math, and so forth is basically some form of e^x. 

 

Apply and receive an internship, they give you real-world experience in the field you're interested in pursuing and more than that they further get you into the community of people investigating the same things you find fascinating. I've been fortunate enough to intern on base at their graduate school, the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) for the entirety of my undergraduate education and I've learned just as much there solving problems of interest to their various sponsors and research groups as I have to grind through yet another set of problems for [insert course name]. So that's one way.  

 

I've made a habit of doing personal projects. If I think I'm lacking in a particular skill area that my courses aren't cultivating, then I design a project which will force me to learn some portion of the skill and go do it. This is something folks can do while on the job too and can help graduates stay abreast of developments in their field so that their degrees don't become antiquated by new technology (although that's more of a concern in fast-evolving programs like EE). Anyway, I've designed vacuum-tube clocks, pads for playing Dance Dance Revolution, drones, robot-spiders, lightning generators and much much more all during my undergraduate career in what little free time I have between my internship, research pursuits, and coursework. All have been super fun projects and each one has shown me a little more about the different disciplines within Electrical Engineering and Physics. Honestly, who doesn't want to be the guy like "Yeah, I built my own DDR arcade machine. Party's at my place y'all." So personal projects are highly educational, intensely enjoyable, massively cool, and completely tailorable to your needs and interests. 

 

Oh dear... That's a little embarrassing. It's changed over the course of my university career. You change a lot as you go through university and so your priorities (and course loads) shift and make your experience radically different from semester to semester. I've had semesters where I got up at 6:30 every day, ran for 30 minutes and showered before an 8:00 class, classed until lunch after which I went to work for a bit, came back to class and was done around 6:30 and ready for some leisure activities, whether those are hitting the gym, playing some video games with friends, or catching up on the latest anime. I've had semesters where I had all evening classes, so sleeping in until noon before heading over to work and then studying late into the morning was a regular occurrence. It really depends. With senior year winding down, I've been taking things pretty lightly and making sure I've got lots of time to pursue personal projects while gearing up for continuing working without coursework hanging over my head. 

 

First of all, anything taught by Dr. Brent Foy is a delight. Man's a hero. I'm partial to a good old fashioned whiteboard (or chalkboard) lecture format. It really gels with my learning style, and at the end of it, I've got a nice handbook of all the material we covered to refer to with all my little annotations to help jog my memory. Lots of folks don't care for that lecture style, but it's always been my favorite. 

 

Over the past few years, I've been spending a lot of time helping support Dr. Brown's research in the Terahertz Physics group over in the NEC building. Research is something I'd highly recommend getting into as an undergraduate. It gives you a taste of what the graduate life is going to be like and more importantly it allows you to get into the community. Graduate schools want you to already be a part of the research community you're looking to enter, kind of like how engineering jobs prefer it if you've already got work experience when applying for their entry level positions. The chicken-egg problem there I know, but that's kinda the way it is, and undergraduate research opportunities let you get that research experience.  

 

Further, they let you figure out what kinds of things you like. I'm in the process of finding a graduate research topic that I can wake up every Saturday morning and put another 10 hours into for a few years and for that to be the case that topic damn well better fascinate the crap out of me! My undergraduate research pursuits (coupled with the coursework and internship I've been doing over the course of my degree) have helped dramatically to focus that search and ultimately allow me to pick a topic and then a school and research advisor who will be able to support me on my mad quest for a graduate degree. 

 

Wright State has fostered a community of researchers and interested people who aren't afraid of new blood entering the mix. Professors can freely work on projects across departmental borders, and interested students can easily become team members with little to no hang-ups. Students interested in pursuing research can do it. Students interested in pursuing internships have the opportunities available. Wright State tries its best to be a place where students can pursue whatever they want and for the most part, they can.  

 

More than that though, Wright State just has a lot of pleasant people hanging out there. Some universities tend to attract folks with over-inflated opinions of themselves or the communities they're a part of but Wright State doesn't seem to have much of that. Folks are pleasant pretty much all the time, and when you're in a foul mood over an exam so is everyone else, so everyone can grouse together and then it's a great time! Everyone I've spoken to has either been super helpful or willing to point me in the direction of someone who could be. When I've had administrative issues, the system has bent over backward to make life easy for me (although sometimes it requires some gentle prodding). Lots of great people forming a wonderful community. 

 

If you've got a passion for it, do it! There’s literally never been a time when I regretted my choice of majors. But just be aware that the followup after getting an undergraduate degree in a pure science or math field is to get another degree. Graduate work is a must for scientists and mathematicians. If you're interested in following the rabbit hole all the way down (like most scientists are) then this was probably already on your list, to begin with, so like, do it!