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Name: Charlotte Mitchell
Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska
Program: Architectural Engineering

"Learning how to ask for help is the best thing I’ve done for myself since getting to college."

My name is Charlotte Mitchell, and I am from Anchorage, Alaska. I am in my second year here and plan to graduate in May of 2021, or possibly a semester later. I am an Architectural Engineering major and think I will choose construction management as my concentration. At the end of this semester, my proudest educational accomplishment will be surviving APPM. I am passionate about the arts, living an environmentally-friendly lifestyle, and social dance (it’s good for the soul!). My favorite place on campus is either the BioLounge, the art museum, or the Mary Rippon outdoor theater. 

How did you choose to study Architectural Engineering at CU? What sets apart CU’s Architectural Engineering Program?

I chose to study Architectural Engineering because of a project a friend of mine was working on for an AREN course. He asked me to walk through it with him, so we got dinner in the C4C and worked on it for an hour or two. I realized I was having more fun working on that than I’d had working on any of my homework all semester, so I went to my advisor the next week and told her I wanted to change majors.

What enrichment activities (including internships, research, study abroad, etc) have you been involved in at CU? How have these affected your experience here?

I am the treasurer of the CU Boulder student chapter of the Architectural Engineering Institute. I love that, because it has given me a much better idea of just how many types of jobs are out there for Architectural Engineers. It’s also a fantastic community and support system of people who are taking or have taken the courses I am taking, so they understand any struggles I face with material or professors. I also participated in the first year of the Voices of Vienna Maymester course in the summer of 2018. That was a fantastic way to get an upper division humanities credit, travel, and make new friends who I know I will hold onto for a while. It opened my eyes to the huge amount of options the university has for studying abroad. 

What is a highlight of your academic career at CU? This could be a class, lab, project or research.

The highlight of my academic career so far has been my Thermodynamics course. I had some major difficulties with the material, so I had to learn to take advantage of the resources I had. I used to hate studying with other people, but Thermodynamics taught me that it can be necessary. It was also the first course I went to my professor’s office hours for. Learning how to ask for help is the best thing I’ve done for myself since getting to college.

What do you plan to do after graduating from CU? How has your educational experience helped you prepare for this?

Although I am not yet sure what I want to do after I graduate, I think I want to work in construction management. Most of the courses I’m currently enrolled in focus heavily on practical skills within different concentrations of the Architectural Engineering department. This is helping me see if I actually am interested in construction management, or if another path is better for me.