As the school year comes to an end, many seniors have decided on which majors they will pursue in college. Seniors Teresa Harkins, Emma Cannon, and Colette Minton have chosen to focus their studies on engineering. These seniors hope to bring the engineering skills they have learned at Sacred Heart Greenwich to the colleges they are attending in the fall.
Next school year, Emma will attend the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where she will study environmental engineering. She chose to major in engineering because she enjoys the blend of creativity and logic. Her interest in engineering started after completing an internship at the Long Beach Township Field Station last summer in New Jersey. During this internship, she engineered her own project focused on water waste management and filtration. As lead engineer on the project, Emma felt excited to create solutions that help to better the environment in her own way. This experience strengthened her desire to become an engineer. Emma expanded on why she has chosen to study environmental engineering.
“I am not just drawn to understanding how systems work.” Emma said. “I love the idea of designing real world solutions, especially ones that have the potential to improve lives. Whatever I decide to pursue in the future, engineering feels like the path where I can make the most impact while constantly learning and building. I look forward to continuing this journey into college and beyond.”
Colette plans to study mechanical engineering with a specialization in aerospace engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas this fall. Colette’s interest in engineering started when she had the opportunity to visit the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for the anniversary of Apollo 11 and to attend Advanced Space Camp. She practiced imagining life on Mars, building a rocket, creating a heat shield, and using scuba diving to execute crew tasks in simulated weightlessness. Colette further described what made her want to major in engineering.
“My interest in space exploration, my fascination with problem solving, and my passion for lego sets are the three biggest influences of my desire to major in engineering,” Colette said. “Watching the Perseverance rover land safely on Mars alongside the Ingenuity helicopter on TV in real time filled me with such awe and curiosity that furthered my goal of studying engineering.”
This fall, Teresa will attend the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana where she will major in electrical engineering. Teresa has had an interest in building and design since she was young. She remembers how invested she was in an elementary school competition to build the fastest paper airplane, and since then, she has always enjoyed taking classes that incorporate multiple subjects. At Sacred Heart, she has taken courses such as Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry and AP Physics, which combine real world observations and theoretical math. Additionally, she took Senior Seminar this year, a blend of theology, philosophy, and English. Teresa explained why she wants to pursue engineering at a higher level in college.
“Engineering synthesizes so many different fields of study to figure out the how and the why of the way things work, with the ultimate goal of solving problems and improving processes,” Teresa said. “I’ve always loved trying to improve the way things function, and I think that’s what engineering is all about.”
Featured Image by Gabrielle Arredondo ’27
