Name: Charles College Rank: Senior Major: Engineering Technology Hometown: Rutherfordton, NC About Me: I am highly involved in my church's youth group.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Posted 1 year, 6 months, 1 week, 1 day, 6 hours, 19 minutes ago

These past few weeks have been very exciting.  I have been making preparations for graduation which will be December 16--wow I am finally geting to the end!  Monday, I ordered my graduation announcements.  One more month and I will be done with this stage of my education.  In the spring, I will start my master of engineering degree at NC State University.  That will definitely be a new challenge.
In the midst of this, I have been involved in helping our congressman, Charles H. Taylor win the election this year.  It is because of his educational visions that Western Carolina has grown leaps and bounds in the area of engineering and technology.  Today, I went to campaign rally where I was able to meet the First Lady Laura Bush.  I even had the opportunity to shake hands with her.  She came to Asheville today to give the Taylor effort her moral support.  That was an exciting event.
Well, I better log off now its about time to go to bed so I can be fresh for work in the morning.

Charles

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Posted 1 year, 7 months, 4 days, 20 hours, 14 minutes ago

Well, despite the fact that I am only taking two classes this semester, I have been extremely busy.  I have spent a lot of time trying to make sure that everything gets lined up for graduation in December.  This Monday, I paid for the graduation fee.  Now it is starting to set in that I will be graduating in two and a half months.
Both of my classes have been going very well.  Today, I am having to do some research for my quality class.  The teacher wants us to find other applications besides manufacturing in which quality can be used.  At the present, I am attempting to do a paper on how quality can be applied to orange growing.  So that should be very interesting.  I think this semester is going to be quite the learning experience.

Charles

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Posted 1 year, 7 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 21 hours, 17 minutes ago

These past few weeks have been very busy.  I am now working part time at the facility where I did my internship this summer.  I work there Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  On Tuesday and Thursday I have classes.  I only taking two classes this fall--Engineering Technology Seminar and Quality Systems.  The seminar class involves mostly reading articles on current trends in technology and doing discussion and debate on these issues in class.  The discussions can get pretty interesting sometimes, especially when ethical issues are brought up.  The quality class is very enjoyable.  I never realized the extreme importance of assuring quality.  Much to my utter amazement, I have learned that quality is not something that is implemented solely by the quality department within an organization, but rather it is a factor that must be taken into consideration at all levels--from the CEO down to the laborer.  Through this class I have been able to read about ISO documentation and prodecures.  I think that is really interesting.
And in the midst of all this ,I am tentatively preparing to begin graduate school in the spring.  I think I might carry on this phase of my education at a slower pace as compared to my undergraduate studies.

Charles

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Posted 1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours, 57 minutes ago

This week I start my last lap in aquiring my degree and then I graduate. This semester I am only taking two classes - Engineering Technology Seminar and Quality Systems.  Tomorrow night I start the seminar class at A-B Tech in Ashville and on Tuesday night I start the Quality class at the Isothermal sight in Rutherfordton.  In the midst of all this, I am still working part time at the lock manufacturing facility in Greenville, SC where I did my internship this past summer.  So, I think its going to be a relatively busy semester, but the good news is that I am graduating in December.  This last lap will be the best yet, because soon I cross the finish line.

Charles

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Posted 1 year, 8 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes ago

Well, I had an eventful and exciting trip to Brazil.  I spent a lot of time in the country side near Sao Paulo.  There are a variety of unique trees.  One day, I went on a trip to Mogi which is just beyond Sao Paulo.  Going through Sao Paulo was quite the adventure.  Skyscrapers were all over.  In major cities of the US skyscrapers are usually located in clusters.  In Sao Paulo, skyscrapers line the city’s landscape for miles. Cars were all over the road and motorcycles drove where ever there was space especially in between cars that were side by side.  It was quite often that I would hear a little beep-beep and then all of a sudden a motorcycle would go on the double yellow line whizzing by our car.
I also spent a lot of time in Belo Horizonte.  That is quite a beautiful city.  Trees line both sides of the road including the median.  The main part of the city is well laid out.  One Brazilian told me that the city plan was copied from the lay out of Washington D.C.  Needless to say, I also ate a lot of delicious food.  We went to several high end restaurants that served flavorful cuts of meat.  I could keep going and going on all the highlights of the trip but I better get to bed since I just got home today.

Charles