Alan Githens
	2012
	Engineering Science
	University of Michigan
	Graduate Student

What do you do in your current position? I just finished an 2012 summer internship at Otis Elevator as part of the UTC Ambassador program. Now I'm transitioning to graduate school and exploring different advisors and projects to begin research.

How has your PSU engineering education/experiences helped to get you where you are today? The consistently high standards of the Penn State College of Engineering helped me understand the importance of professional development and experience while in the undergraduate program. My participation in four aerospace related internships (including one with GE Aviation) made my entrance into the industry extremely easy.

How has your experience as an EA impacted your professional life so far? I might not have been able to admit my appreciation for the Penn State slogan "Success with Honor" if it had not been for Engineering Ambassadors. EA is an organization that acts on that saying. EA is not only a collection of individuals who are successful in the College of Engineering and have particular skills that make them stand out from their peers. The service that the group does for the engineering profession, for young people, and for the University shows that we (I say that because I think of myself as a lifelong Ambassador...) have Success with Honor.

Since graduating, that new sense of Success with Honor has traveled with me as I start my career with GE Aviation. GE Aviation has a mission statement "We invent the future of Flight, lift people up, and bring them home safely". This statement is much like Penn State's own Success with Honor. I have lived Success with Honor, and I choose to continuing living it as a professional because of my experience with Engineering Ambassadors.