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Before I came to Tufts, I was all over the place. I was considering going on the pre-dental track. I also had interests in engineering, while still wondering if computer science was something I wanted to pursue. By the time I committed to Tufts, I had mostly settled on biomedical engineering because I loved the idea of designing medical technologies and eventually returning home to Zimbabwe after my education to help improve struggling healthcare systems. One thing I appreciated once I got here was that I wasn't expected to commit to one strict path immediately. First-year engineering courses are designed to expose students to different fields while giving us time to explore our options, since they’re intentionally more general.

I had originally hoped to take an introductory course focused on reproductive engineering because it sounded much more aligned with my biomedical engineering interests. Unfortunately, it didn't fit into my schedule, so I ended up enrolling in Patents of the Future: Sci-Fi Tech in the Making. If I'm being honest, I was not very excited for this class. I'm not a huge sci-fi movie fan so I remember thinking I’d much rather be doing reproductive engineering instead.

 It turned out to be one of my favorite classes that semester. We watched sci-fi movies like Back to the Future and Iron Man, then discussed the feasibility of the technologies they featured. We were split into groups, and at the end of the semester, each group presented a speculative patent project on any innovative technology that could benefit society. My group presented on nanobots, focusing on tiny robots injected into the bloodstream to target and kill cancer cells. We did a lot of research on this, exploring the science behind how the mechanism would work, as well as the potential limitations.

This class really opened my eyes to what I was interested in. We visited labs through site tours around campus, including the renewable energy and photonics labs. We also did our own hands-on lab experiments, such as using a cloud chamber to visualize the paths of tiny charged particles that are normally invisible. Although I had no idea what I was doing in these labs or which two things to put together, learning these concepts for the first time made me realize something: I didn't want to specialize in biomedical engineering too early.

 Although I still want to use my engineering skills to benefit healthcare systems in my community in the future, I still want to learn about the different kinds of skill sets within engineering like optics, electric circuits and robotics etc. The more I reflected, the more mechanical engineering seemed like the right fit for me. It would still allow me to work on medical devices and healthcare technologies, but it would also give me a strong foundation in design, manufacturing, mechanics, and problem-solving that could be applied across many different industries.

Even now, I don't have everything figured out. I'm still exploring possible minors in community health and entrepreneurship, and that's one of the things I appreciate most about Tufts. I've learned that your major doesn't have to define every interest you have.

Looking back, the class I was least excited about taking my first-year ended up changing the trajectory of my engineering journey. If I'd gotten my first choice that semester, I'm not sure I'd have discovered the same things about myself.

Photo Credits: Aaron Gruen/The Tufts Daily