Recently, I met with my academic advisor, Mrs. Jennifer Lachendro, to discuss my future in my intended major of Mechanical Engineering. In doing this she made me feel much more confident that I was going into the right major. I explained to her that I wanted to either go into the car industry, designing manufacture’s engines or safety products, or go into more of the construction aspect in helping with the design and construction of buildings. Mrs. Lachendro assured me that going into mechanical engineering would help me get into either of these fields because this engineering field deals specifically with the design, construction, use of machineries. She also went over what classes that I do have to take in order to qualify for my major. I she also discussed the classes that I don’t have to take so I wouldn’t waste my time or money with unnecessary classes. While explaining this to me she also explained the gpa requirement’s that I needed to enter my intended major, which is a 3.10 due to the competitive nature of all the students that want to enter the mechanical engineering major. So, we set some goals in order for me to prosper in college and achieve my goal of entering into the major that I want to go into.
We started off by analyzing my current classes and how they were going. I explained to her that it has been a challenge to adjust to the workload of the course heavy summer classes. But she reassured me that it was totally normal and it’s actually a good thing that I have been getting a lot of assignments over the summer because it will get me ahead of the students attending here in the fall. She also gave me some valuable time management tips in that I should start scheduling out my week according to my assignments on Sunday’s instead out every day like I have been doing. This will help me to keep track of all of my assignments ahead of time and get way ahead of my work. She said that I will actually be surprised with how beneficial scheduling out my week will be to help to reduce the stress of classes tremendously. After she gave me advice on managing my time, we discussed my goals on how I wanted to go about school. After talking for a while, we both agreed that a 3.5 gpa is attainable and even if I fell below that mark, I could still get into the major that I wanted. I also discussed with her that I wanted to get into Greek life at Penn State and she advised me to check back in with her before pledge week and she would help me to pick a Fraternity that would best suit me.
I also wanted to meet with her to discuss some of my classes in the fall and make sure that I had all of the classes that I needed. This was very beneficial because I found out that I had a class scheduled that isn’t required for my major. She advised me to take an engineering design class and that even though they’re all full right now, there’s a chance I can get in with the class swap system. She walked me through how I can do it and advised me to start checking LionPath daily in the following weeks to see if a class spot opens up. Mrs.Lachendro advised me to just schedule a gen ed that I need anyway to fill the spot for now and then go and try and swap the classes later. She was very helpful and even emailed me instructions on what we talked about in case I would forget.
In talking to Mrs.Lachendro, I can really tell that she loves what she does and cares for the students she advises at Penn State. I found out that she attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Education and has worked with kids diagnosed with autism for a major part of her life. That wasn’t a surprise to me though because of how dedicated she was to me in just the short time I was in her office. She was very helpful in giving me insight into my career path and with giving me advice for classes and my major. Also, with her taking the time out of her busy schedule to email me the information on my classes helped to show me that she doesn’t see me as just another student. Now I know that if I ever needed help with anything in the future all I have to do is schedule an appointment with her and she’ll help me to the best of her ability. Mrs. Lachendro really helped to reassure me that the major I’m in is right for me and also made me and I’m glad that I have her as my adviser.
Contact me at…
Twitter: @CalebHershey1
Email: cjh6118@psu.edu