Jennifer Macaulay

Becoming a rocket scientist is not easy, but when you enjoy high-level academic challenges as much as Jennifer does, the fun makes it possible.

“Even though the difficulty has increased, I still have a blast in my math, science and engineering classes. Along with my structural engineering/aerospace classes, I am also taking mechanical engineering courses as my electives so that I can expand my knowledge and abilities to contribute to many different areas in engineering. I’ve always felt like I’m having fun rather than working whenever I do my math homework. I often find myself singing the songs I write while I’m working on math.”

In her time at UC San Diego, this young woman has designed a shock absorber for an epsilometer (to measure ocean temperature and turbulence) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and her favorite project was using AutoCAD and SolidWorks “to design the starting-gate mechanism of a Rube Goldberg-like machine that transported a metal ball from start to finish in the most complicated manner possible.”

Jennifer stays busy working as a lab assistant, playing on a club water polo team and is an officer for Tau Beta Pi, the honors engineering society. She also gives back. “My family has been impacted by cancer several times, and as a result, I am very passionate about community service events that are centered around fighting cancer. In high school, I worked with organizations such as Team in Training, which raised money to fight Leukemia. And now as an officer of Tau Beta Pi, I am planning to organize several events that help people who are affected by cancer. I am also looking to organize an outreach program with a homeless shelter in Oceanside that takes in families and single mothers.”

Jennifer’s plans touch on a wide swath of the universe. “I intend to grow my work experience and expand my professional network by doing more internships and potentially some research projects throughout my college career. I have also set the goal for myself to apply to the masters-bachelors program for structural engineers at UC San Diego and to other aerospace and mechanical engineering master’s programs. I plan to use my education to become a design engineer and use 3D modeling software to work on a variety of projects, ranging from space travel and exploration to cleaning Earth’s polluted oceans.”