Maya Thompson and Aisha Sharif

Maya: I just want younger engineering students to know that ‘you can do it.’ Your classes are going to be hard, for sure, but find people who you can work with and be successful with, where you can say, ‘We can do it.’ I feel like that makes all the difference. If I didn’t have Aisha, these past couple of years would have been a lot harder.

Aisha: So much harder. I don’t know what I would have done without Maya. I also want students to know that there are other people who are going through the same struggles. Like when you sit in classes and think that everyone else understands it, they don’t. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to say when you don’t understand something. And finding other people to support you makes it so much easier.

Maya: Ever since junior year, we’ve been taking as many classes as we could together. One of my favorite projects was our work with the Chicago Public School System for MS&E 125.

Aisha: Oh yeah, I loved that project! Seeing the skills that we’d learned in the classroom applied to real life was so cool. And I’m so glad we got to complete our senior project together.

Maya: I know, but now we’re graduating and it’s sad … because there’s no more Maya and Aisha just going to class, doing p-sets all the time. But it’s exciting because it just means we’ll have more adventures to share.