Annalise is a Jamaican American from Fayetteville, GA. She was a business administration major with a concentration human capital. Annalise entered the Georgia Institute of Technology as a first generation college student without a clear vision of what she wanted to do with her time at college, but was open to trying to new things. Annalise tended to go with the flow and did what her mentors and respected adults told her to do.
‘Engineering sounded cool and is a wide field’
so she began as a biomedical engineering major.
Spring semester of her sophomore year, Annalise failed all of her classes. Through battling poor mental health and financial issues from losing her scholarships, Annalise persevered and returned to school despite being advised not to reenroll. She changed her major to business administration.
Initially, Annalise was not very involved at Georgia Tech. One day during her freshman year, her friends invited her to a Georgia Tech’s Society of Black Engineers (GTSBE) meeting, she reluctantly went. This was the start of Annalise’s passion for the National Society of the Black Engineers (NSBE). GTSBE helped Annalise grow out of her shell, make friends and travel around the country. Annalise served in many leadership roles within GTSBE. She was the conference planning chair and practically chartered a plane to Anaheim, CA for the NSBE national convention for students to attend. Annalise later went on to become the president of GTSBE. As the president of a professional engineering organization as business administration major she faced some challenges such as could not move forward into regional or national leadership despite her undeniable passion for NSBE. A benefit of her contradictory major was that she recruited more people to join GTSBE because not being an engineering major was no longer an excuse.
Annalise’s work in NSBE, team leader advisory board, and student government association also led to her major change. She realized:
I could make a career out of this.
Although by degree Annalise is not an engineer, she is a problem solver through her experience at Georgia Tech, which has helped her excel in leadership positions a professional endeavor. Despite having a horrible semester her sophomore year Annalise solved her problems to graduate and secure a job with Amazon.
Based her time at GT, Annalise, a graduating senior, describes GT culture as hard work and tradition.
‘Old tradition is not always good tradition.’
For example, most of the homecoming activities are rooted in Greek life and makes it hard to others to fully participate. Georgia Tech’s love for tradition is interesting in that we are focused on ‘creating the next’. If something could be changed about this student’s experience here Annalise said
‘I would make students more proud to attend this school.’
Georgia Tech has a diverse community, but the focus should not be on the numbers. ‘There is a difference between exclusion, tolerance, and inclusion.’ So what if we have diverse community by numbers, if the people are unhappy? Annalise believe GT should work to make the campus a more positive environment