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Submission information
Submission Number: 16
Submission ID: 257
Submission UUID: 60718478-7f69-4865-b498-140e68adb504
Created: Tue, 03/16/2021 - 18:31
Completed: Tue, 03/16/2021 - 18:31
Changed: Thu, 05/08/2025 - 01:43
Remote IP address: 68.227.143.129
Submitted by:Anonymous
Language: English
Is draft: No
Flagged: Yes
Locked: Yes
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Emily
Boldor
She/her/hers
Baton Rouge
LA
United States
70808
Civil Engineering
English (5), Romanian (5), Spanish (3), French (1)
“Scrie.”
That’s what Romanian teachers say at the beginning of each class. “Scrie,” (“write”) and off they go, lecturing for the entire class period. This is what I was met with when I attended school there the second semester of my fifth grade year. My family was lucky enough to take a sabbatical in Brasov, Romania, where I would complete the school year.
Growing up with Romanian as my first language, I considered it my “secret language.” I found it especially entertaining to speak a language nobody else knew. However, even though I could speak Romanian fluently, I had no clue how to write nor read, and was definitely not aware of its complicated grammar rules!
My first day of school, I plopped myself down in my seat, notebook and pencil at the ready, excited to see how school here would differ from my elementary school in the United States. Unfortunately for me, my first class— world history— involved my teacher arriving, saying “scrie” and lecturing to no end about ancient Egyptian civilizations.
As the teacher’s very, very long monologue began, I struggled to keep up with the speed of her speaking. As a result, I decided not to focus on the words she said, but rather the sounds she made. I would write every sound I heard down, and at the end of the hour, my notes consisted of a singular word spanning pages and pages. It was as if my space bar stopped working. After school, I would go through my notes and separate the words from each other, a slow process, only to then rewrite them in a neater fashion.
Since fifth graders only attended school from noon onwards, I had time to do homework in the morning, not just in the evening like I did back in the United States. Determined to do just as well in my Romanian class as my peers, the majority of my day was spent studying Romanian and working on homework. For hours at a time, both in the mornings and afternoons, I would pour over my seemingly endless notes, trying to comprehend them… then repeat the process again the next day. There were a lot of crying sessions, as I was angry at myself for not understanding.
After a few weeks, I realized that it wasn’t the Romanian language itself that was hindering my ability to learn, but rather, I had set a boundary for myself, doubting my own learning potential. Once my competitive nature took over, not only did I venture across this boundary, but I destroyed it completely. I could soon comfortably listen to my teachers’ lectures in all subjects, write down what they were saying, and understand them all at the same time. Every month my test scores improved, and I became more outspoken in class, now confident in my answers.
Despite almost giving up at times, I wanted to prove— not just to others, but especially to myself— that through perseverance, I could overcome any barriers my mind may set for itself. While I currently do not read nor write Romanian often, my grammar and accent are nearly perfect because of the semester I spent there, and I am proud to say that I am one of the few kids of Romanian descent in my area who has a strong grasp on all aspects of the language.
Overcoming this challenge in my childhood pushed me to a new level of competitiveness, allowing me to address situations in daily life with resilience and competency. Furthermore, if I ever find myself in stressful or unfamiliar circumstances, I can look back on this frustrating, yet rewarding experience to give myself the motivation and confidence I need to take control of the situation at hand and triumph.
Additionally, the time I spent in Romania learning about my native language helped me in my future foreign languages courses, as I took both French and Spanish throughout middle school, and later won state awards for my Spanish knowledge in high school. Ever since, we have returned to Romania every summer of my lifetime (with the exception of 2020 due to the travel ban), where I get to re-enforce my culture. While we are there, we also visit neighboring countries, so my family is exposed to other cultures and languages as well. Over the years, we have been to the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, and many more countries as well!
By learning about different cultures, I have learned the perspectives that each region has. By learning those perspectives, when presented with a problem, I can address it from a variety of angles rather than one narrow-minded point of view.
My European travels have also prepared me to tackle problems that I may encounter in my major, civil engineering. Different places have different environmental problems. By learning about said problems, whether through online research or study abroad, students can learn how each country has their own solutions. That knowledge can then be used in the future to come up with solutions to unexpected problems that may arise in my professional career.
That’s what Romanian teachers say at the beginning of each class. “Scrie,” (“write”) and off they go, lecturing for the entire class period. This is what I was met with when I attended school there the second semester of my fifth grade year. My family was lucky enough to take a sabbatical in Brasov, Romania, where I would complete the school year.
Growing up with Romanian as my first language, I considered it my “secret language.” I found it especially entertaining to speak a language nobody else knew. However, even though I could speak Romanian fluently, I had no clue how to write nor read, and was definitely not aware of its complicated grammar rules!
My first day of school, I plopped myself down in my seat, notebook and pencil at the ready, excited to see how school here would differ from my elementary school in the United States. Unfortunately for me, my first class— world history— involved my teacher arriving, saying “scrie” and lecturing to no end about ancient Egyptian civilizations.
As the teacher’s very, very long monologue began, I struggled to keep up with the speed of her speaking. As a result, I decided not to focus on the words she said, but rather the sounds she made. I would write every sound I heard down, and at the end of the hour, my notes consisted of a singular word spanning pages and pages. It was as if my space bar stopped working. After school, I would go through my notes and separate the words from each other, a slow process, only to then rewrite them in a neater fashion.
Since fifth graders only attended school from noon onwards, I had time to do homework in the morning, not just in the evening like I did back in the United States. Determined to do just as well in my Romanian class as my peers, the majority of my day was spent studying Romanian and working on homework. For hours at a time, both in the mornings and afternoons, I would pour over my seemingly endless notes, trying to comprehend them… then repeat the process again the next day. There were a lot of crying sessions, as I was angry at myself for not understanding.
After a few weeks, I realized that it wasn’t the Romanian language itself that was hindering my ability to learn, but rather, I had set a boundary for myself, doubting my own learning potential. Once my competitive nature took over, not only did I venture across this boundary, but I destroyed it completely. I could soon comfortably listen to my teachers’ lectures in all subjects, write down what they were saying, and understand them all at the same time. Every month my test scores improved, and I became more outspoken in class, now confident in my answers.
Despite almost giving up at times, I wanted to prove— not just to others, but especially to myself— that through perseverance, I could overcome any barriers my mind may set for itself. While I currently do not read nor write Romanian often, my grammar and accent are nearly perfect because of the semester I spent there, and I am proud to say that I am one of the few kids of Romanian descent in my area who has a strong grasp on all aspects of the language.
Overcoming this challenge in my childhood pushed me to a new level of competitiveness, allowing me to address situations in daily life with resilience and competency. Furthermore, if I ever find myself in stressful or unfamiliar circumstances, I can look back on this frustrating, yet rewarding experience to give myself the motivation and confidence I need to take control of the situation at hand and triumph.
Additionally, the time I spent in Romania learning about my native language helped me in my future foreign languages courses, as I took both French and Spanish throughout middle school, and later won state awards for my Spanish knowledge in high school. Ever since, we have returned to Romania every summer of my lifetime (with the exception of 2020 due to the travel ban), where I get to re-enforce my culture. While we are there, we also visit neighboring countries, so my family is exposed to other cultures and languages as well. Over the years, we have been to the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, and many more countries as well!
By learning about different cultures, I have learned the perspectives that each region has. By learning those perspectives, when presented with a problem, I can address it from a variety of angles rather than one narrow-minded point of view.
My European travels have also prepared me to tackle problems that I may encounter in my major, civil engineering. Different places have different environmental problems. By learning about said problems, whether through online research or study abroad, students can learn how each country has their own solutions. That knowledge can then be used in the future to come up with solutions to unexpected problems that may arise in my professional career.
I can walk down the hall, knock on their door, and say "let's go exploring." Whether we go search for new hole-in-the-wall food places we can find in Boulder, or drive deep into the mountains to go camping, they are always down for an adventure.
Being engineering majors, we would then apply any knowledge we have learned to our explorations, and come up with new questions to ask our professor when we return. Since I'm a civil engineering major, as we drive on the winding roads of the mountains, I may wonder, "How did they calculate the mass of the car, the friction along the pavement, and the radius of the curve to give us a safe speeding limit?" My hall-mate, who might be in a different major, such as material science engineering, may respond with their own question about the water-proof qualities of our tents, and what kind of nanotechnology went into their development.
This is what distinguishes engineers from other majors. The unbelievable amount of curiosity, especially once they realize that engineering applies to nearly everything in their everyday surroundings.
Even if we never leave the dorm, we can still have an adventure. Using our engineering skills, my hall-mate and I, along with other engineering majors, can create a slide of sorts from one of our rooms to the other's. Built out of empty paper towel rolls, connected with tape, and hung by string from the ceiling, we can create a way for us to send candy or other small snacks to one another in a fun and interesting way.
Overall, my hall-mate is not just excited to explore, but excited to learn. Our adventures would always consist of learning experiences. And even if we have exams, I'll know that I can walk down the hall and tell my hallmate "let's go exploring," even if we are only exploring the library to find the most secluded corner possible to study in silence.
Being engineering majors, we would then apply any knowledge we have learned to our explorations, and come up with new questions to ask our professor when we return. Since I'm a civil engineering major, as we drive on the winding roads of the mountains, I may wonder, "How did they calculate the mass of the car, the friction along the pavement, and the radius of the curve to give us a safe speeding limit?" My hall-mate, who might be in a different major, such as material science engineering, may respond with their own question about the water-proof qualities of our tents, and what kind of nanotechnology went into their development.
This is what distinguishes engineers from other majors. The unbelievable amount of curiosity, especially once they realize that engineering applies to nearly everything in their everyday surroundings.
Even if we never leave the dorm, we can still have an adventure. Using our engineering skills, my hall-mate and I, along with other engineering majors, can create a slide of sorts from one of our rooms to the other's. Built out of empty paper towel rolls, connected with tape, and hung by string from the ceiling, we can create a way for us to send candy or other small snacks to one another in a fun and interesting way.
Overall, my hall-mate is not just excited to explore, but excited to learn. Our adventures would always consist of learning experiences. And even if we have exams, I'll know that I can walk down the hall and tell my hallmate "let's go exploring," even if we are only exploring the library to find the most secluded corner possible to study in silence.
The Global Engineering RAP provides me with the ability to learn new solution for ever-rising problems. Instead of learning one narrow-minded way of addressing problems, a global view can help me learn to address it from different angles, in ways I hadn't realized were possible. Being in a community full of engineers will allow me to bond with like-minded people, who have the same passion for learning. However, being in different majors, we will all still be diverse, and I will never stop learning new things from my fellow Global Engineering RAP members.
Personally, as someone who identifies as both multilingual and multicultural, from a country that many don't know actually exists, I strongly believe that I can help my fellow members improve as well. I will provide them with a new perspective on global issues, whether civil engineering or otherwise.
Essentially, Global Engineering RAP allows for me to help others constantly grow and improve, as I do the same, whether it is in my personal or professional life.
Personally, as someone who identifies as both multilingual and multicultural, from a country that many don't know actually exists, I strongly believe that I can help my fellow members improve as well. I will provide them with a new perspective on global issues, whether civil engineering or otherwise.
Essentially, Global Engineering RAP allows for me to help others constantly grow and improve, as I do the same, whether it is in my personal or professional life.
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