School of Engineering

Meet Kristina Chu!

Pronouns: She series
Class Year: 2019
Hometown: East Setauket, New York
Major: Environmental Engineering

Read our interview with Kristina here!

Favorite Engineering Classes

I took so many cool classes at Tufts, some that were required for my major and others that were not. One of my favorite environmental engineering classes was Public Health Engineering with Daniele Lantagne. We learned about the efficacy in connecting policy-making with engineering to tackle public health issues like natural disasters/outbreaks, population displacement, gun violence, and malnutrition.

Another major concentration course that I loved was Intro to GIS. I came out of the class with both a useful skill and huge appreciation for/fascination with the power of data visualization.

*See here for my final GIS poster!

Favorite Non-Engineering Classes

Even though it was not required, I made sure to take at least one liberal arts course each semester. I guess I am a learning nerd, because I would scroll through all the course options on SIS when they were released each semester and end up with tons of potential courses in my cart. I think being able to take liberal arts courses like Waste Management (with the Ex-College department) and Writing Asian American Diaspora was a huge part of why I loved my undergrad experience. It was so refreshing to use other parts of my brain and not be confined to the SEC all day every day. I also know that they were just as formative for me as my engineering curriculum.

Favorite Extracurricular Activity

Tufts Society of Women Engineers (SWE) had played a huge role in my professional/academic development while I was at Tufts. SWE organized networking nights, women in engineering panel discussions, major advising, and events to bring the Tufts SWE community closer. With Tufts SWE, I attended a few annual, national SWE conferences--one of which landed me my summer internship following junior year.

Why Tufts Engineering?

When applying for college, I did not really know what I wanted to major in. For me, all I knew was that I really wanted to go to Tufts after my first campus visit and tour. When I was filling out my application for the ED1 cycle and came to the question about major selection, Environmental Engineering caught my eye. I had not heard of the field before and was curious to know more; so, I ended up on the Tufts Civil and Environmental Engineering webpage. Clicking around, I was captivated by the department’s work tied to human health and renewable energy. Even though I was not 100% certain this was what I wanted to study, I figured environmental engineering would not be a bad place to start!