Hello Class of 2022!
On behalf of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL), welcome to Rice! My name is Saurabh Harohalli, and I am a senior studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I am also the RCEL Student Director for the 2018-2019 school year. In my role, I plan to build a strong RCEL student community with members that help each other in their endeavors.
Rice is a place full of opportunities to pursue and experiences to enjoy. I want to take a moment to share the importance of leadership in these pursuits and to tell you how RCEL can help.
Rice is a school that gives a lot of power to students. Engineering students have managed $50,000 budgets for their residential colleges, written policies affecting the entire university for years to come and traveled around the world implementing solutions they designed. Being able to do these things well requires an ability to set a long-term vision, effectively manage resources and people, and develop strong self-awareness. It requires leadership.
The RCEL certificate program has helped me develop my own leadership skills.
Here are some of my favorite things about RCEL:
- RCEL is a general framework, not a specific recipe. At Rice, we are all so diverse. RCEL understands this and helps you find out what being a leader means to you. That’s where the one-on-one mentoring, leadership labs, and Leadership Development Plan come into play. They guide you in introspection and practicing the skills, so you can develop your personal leadership style.
- RCEL is about practicing in a safe space. In the same way doing a chemistry lab experiment might help you understand a concept better, RCEL classes have labs to help you see and practice different skills. It’s not about reading a textbook and hoping that strategy works in real life. You get to put the skills to the test and figure out what it means for you. That way, when you have to create a work breakdown structure or do a risk assessment in real life, you have the confidence to step up and do it.
- RCEL is not just in the classroom. Students have one-on-one mentorships with alumni. They have gone to leadership conferences at the Air Force and Naval Academies. They have spent spring breaks in Liverpool, England, to see engineering around the world. They have had internships all over the globe, taught kids about the science of drones, and mentored other students. They have caused change in the world around them. Joining the RCEL program quite literally opens a world of opportunities and has helped many students find their place on campus and in internships and jobs off campus.
- RCEL is flexible. It requires 11 credit hours over the course of four years. The curricular and extracurricular opportunities are easy to fit into your time at Rice.
I held several leadership roles in high school, and they all helped me grow. I continued holding roles on campus once I got here, but I had RCEL helping me through them. That extra support has helped me be more effective in these positions and helped me process how each role has affected me as a person.
I am confident that many of you will have similar experiences with RCEL, so I encourage you to talk to us once you get to campus. Be sure to register here for Engineering Liftoff (September 8th) as well to get a feel for RCEL in action! Please feel free to contact me (ssh3@rice.edu) or any of the student leaders (rcelstudents@rice.edu). We are happy to answer your questions. Hope to meet you soon!
Sarah Harohalli is a senior, chemical and bimolecular engineering major from in McMurtry College.