Shane Haydt
	Mechanical Engineering
	Class of 2013

Hometown: Lehighton, Pennsylvania

High School: Lehighton Area High School

Extracurricular Activities: Blue Band, Math tutoring, Penn State Theme Park Engineering Group, Engineering Ambassadors

Internship/Co-op Experience: Pratt & Whitney

Research Experience: E-Nano Laboratory, Penn State Experimental and Computational Convection Laboratory (ExCCL) - Internal cooling of gas turbine blades

Why did you choose to come to Penn State? It's the biggest small school in the world. Joining clubs, getting to know your professor through research, and meeting friends in your major gives Penn State that inclusive small school feeling, but as a large research university there's hundreds of opportunities for research, travel, and involvement that small schools can't offer.

What has been your best memory as an engineering student? For my junior design class, my team designed and built a wind turbine kit to teach kids about wind energy. The design and construction processes were so eye-opening and fun, but the best part was taking the kit into elementary schools and seeing the kids get excited about alternative energy and engineering.

What advice would you give a first-year engineer? The transition from high school to college is a tough one, but there's a lot of resources at Penn State to help. Take advantage of them! Go to free math tutoring, your professor's office hours, and involvement fairs.

What do you plan to do after graduation? After graduation, I plan to go straight to graduate school, get my doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, and become an engineering professor (hopefully at Penn State!)

What has been your best experience outside of engineering at Penn State? Blue Band has hands down been the greatest thing I've done at Penn State. I've had so many amazing opportunities for friendship, travel, performance, and leadership.