XLIX

Engineering Design Firm

9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223

Transmittal
Date:
Section:
To:

Friday, November 04, 2016

1201 013
Professor Lindsay
Lexey Carswell

From:
Subject:

Laurel Shakespeare
Whole Life Concept 3

We are submitting:

Memorandum

Design Package

Problem Set

Report - Draft

Test Data Sheet

Extra Credit

Report - Final

Other: Enter Other Item

Date

Description

11/4/2016

Final Submittal

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These are transmitted as checked below:

Individual Assignment
For grading
For review/comment
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Team Assignment -- Team No. ___ ___-_

To:

Mr. Lindsay, Lexey Carswell

From: Laurel Shakespeare

Date: Friday November 4, 2016
RE:

Whole Life Concept Project Part 3

In parts 1 and 2 of the Whole Life Concept Project I have identified and developed my passion in life and
worked out what courses I need to take to use my passion and apply it through my career as an engineer.
Based on the information gathered and the evaluation of the last two parts I can now choose my
educational major and identify what course material will directly impact my goals and passion. I am also
able to identify non-academic programs that would be beneficial to me in reaching my goals.
Through the identification of my passion and research into how I can implement this through engineering,
I have found that civil engineering is the best choice of educational major for me. I thought I knew
coming in to college that I wanted to major in civil engineering but through the Whole Life Concept
Project I am more certain of this decision. In completing parts 1 and 2 of the Whole Life Concept Project
I have found that my passion of helping those with disabilities will be best implemented through
developing basic infrastructure in areas that have little. This would allow for people with disabilities from
poor, rural areas to reach cities where they would be able to receive the help they needed. The
development of infrastructure directly relates to the major of civil engineering.
I believe I have identified the most applicable major for my passion and goals but there are still some
questions and concerns I have. One of the largest concerns I must learn how to communicate with people
in different field of work. When working on projects in the field, I am going to have to communicate with
the laborers working on my project as well as the management of group funding the projects effectively.
This is something that I am not very used to. To go along with effective communication, I am concerned
that I may need to learn a foreign language. Whether I am working in the United States or internationally,
I may be faced with the challenge of communicating with someone who does not know English. I will
need to be able to communicate effectively to complete projects, but I do not know how I would be able
to do this without knowing the same language. I am also concerned with getting stuck in one specific
facet of civil engineering. For example, almost every professional civil engineer I know deals with
concrete and that is basically it. I do not want to get to the point where I am not able to branch out and
learn new skills.
I believe that civil engineering is the best major to help me accomplish my goals and work through my
passion for many reasons. First, my three, five, and ten year goals are all involvement in the organization
Engineers Without Borders. This organization has specific programs that involve developing
infrastructure in under-developed areas of the world; a civil engineering major would allow me to be
highly effective in the technical skills required to complete these projects. Second, being a civil engineer
and involved with developing infrastructure would allow me to be on the ground, interacting with the
people from the region my project is in. With this major I will be able to make a more direct human
impact just through communicating and interacting with people. This also allows me to further my
passion as many times people with disabilities are viewed as outcasts in society, but I may be able to
break this view in some areas by going out of my way to interact and communicate with people with
disabilities.
In order to complete the goals I have set for myself through the Whole Life project, there are certain
course materials that I will need to have a mastery of. Because I will be working to construct roads and
bridges in under-developed areas, one course material I will need to understand is how transportation
engineering works. This will assist me in where to place intersections and the best pathway for the roads.

I will also need to understand how to construct bridges. Bridges are one of the main projects in underdeveloped countries for Engineers Without Borders as rivers often separate people from the main city.
Lastly I will need to understand how to manage money and stick to a budget. This will be imperative
when I work with Engineers Without Borders because it is a non-profit and the funding comes only from
donations.
A non-technical program that I believe would greatly increase my effectiveness in working with
Engineers Without Borders is Young Life. Young Life is an organization that works to show the love of
God specifically to middle and high school children. This also includes people with disabilities in a group
called Capernaum. Young Life uses college students to minister to these groups of people by facilitating
relationships with the kids. I am currently going through training to become a Young Life leader for the
University City and Cabarrus County region. This organization will provide me with important nontechnical and non-academic skills.
For one, being a leader in this organization will teach me how to talk to different kinds of people. I will
have to talk to middle or high school students all the time when I am a leader. Simply talking and
interacting with kids is the best way to minister to them so I will be doing this a lot. I will also have to
communicate effectively with the other leaders at the school I am assigned to as well as those from other
schools. Young Life also has an annual banquet where they invite people from the community to learn
about what Young Life has done and try to get them to donate money or other resources to the
organization. Many leaders are required to speak at this event and all are required to attend. Speaking at
an event like this would give me experience in trying to get clients to fund my project or donate money to
Engineers Without Borders.
Being a Young Life leader will also give me experience in building my leadership skills. As a leader, I
must put myself out there so people feel welcomed and respect me. Similarly, as a professional civil
engineer I will have to gain the respect of my peers as well as those that are working to construct the
project I have designed.
Lastly, I would like to be placed in Capernaum when I officially become a Young Life leader in the
Spring. This would give me a lot of useful practice with interacting with students with varying levels of
disabilities. In working with this part of Young Life I will not only have to work to foster a relationship
between myself and the students in the group, I will also have to encourage interaction between those
with and without disabilities that are a part of Young Life.
I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any
violation of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.