My group was the first TAPTL group to meet. On September 18, four freshman chemical engineering majors got the chance to talk with Dr. Stephanie Loveland. Talking with someone who did all three of their degrees at Iowa State was eye-opening. We were only able to talk to her for an hour because she had to go to a conference for her children but we all meet at the art café and ate behind the building. I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend Ploi Learner in our group and got the chance to meet two more new people, Vincent Anderson and Drake Martin.
Dr. Loveland had the unique experience of getting her bachelor, masters, and doctorate at Iowa State, all in chemical engineering. She shared her past fear of not having ISU employ her as a professor because they traditionally do not employ their own students as professors. But she got the job and has been here for a long time. She called herself boomerang student. Her professors gave her that nickname because after getting each degree she would work a few years and then come back to Iowa State again to further her education.
I’m a part of TEAM and give the Sweeney stop on both the EIS and daily tours and found out that the study aboard and labs I always talk about are taught by Dr. Loveland. That made the experience even better for me because I got to learn more about them. I got to ask her tons of questions and now my tours are even better than before.
Besides learning about the distillation experiment, we learned about her personal life. She talked candidly about her family. Dr. Loveland spoke about what it was like going to school with children and how her family situation was with her working. She also spoke about her husband being a stay at home dad. That meant a lot of me because that might be a situation I have to face in the future with my future family.
She explained what chemical engineers did in the field, using her own previous job experience to make us understand. She also gave us great advice. Dr. Loveland really encouraged us to pursue internships and co-ops during our time at ISU and too take advantage of all the campus had to offer.
What I’ve noticed about the gen eds that I’ve taken so far at ISU is that I don’t really get a chance to know my professors. They always seem like an enigma with office hours I can’t go to because I have class. But having a lunch with a professor made all me realize that my professors with all their degrees are just real people. Really smart people with families and their own unique perspective on life. I realized that getting to know your professors is really important so that you can learn from them and let them mentor you. You never know if it could led to an internship, a job, or a research opportunity! You have to take every opportunity you can to get to know your professors and I’ll further my relationship with Dr. Loveland. I can’t wait until my junior year to have lab with her!