Hello! My name is Audrey Alligood. My major is electrical engineering and I also plan to minor in Japanese. I am a licensed emergency medical technician, and I love working with emergency services. After studying emergency medicine in my hometown of Carlisle, PA, I realized I wanted to do more to help people. I decided that studying engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering would help me in my goal of always putting forth my best efforts and helping others.

My goals and inspiration grew from learning more and more about my parents. My mother is from Panama, and my father is from the United States. My father joined the Air Force for a better life, and through traveling with the Air Force, he met my mother in Panama. Shortly after they met, my mother moved to the United States with my father. Despite not being able to speak English, she still was able to work three jobs to support her family. Shortly after, they were then separated because my father had to travel to Alaska for the Air Force. My mother then went back to Panama, however, she was unable to leave for quite some time due to the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega. Even with these hardships, my parent’s faced their challenges with strength and took large risks to reach their goals, which was to support their family.

My parents truly inspired me to do the same; to take chances and to have determination with all of my goals. I saw myself starting to take risks. First with learning Japanese, then becoming a volunteer firefighter, becoming a licensed emergency medical technician, traveling alone to Japan, and now studying engineering at university. Though my experiences, I have discovered my love of helping people, confidence in my work, and strengthening determination for my goals. I also believe that you must learn more about other cultures and places to be able to understand problems that people face around the world.

I am extremely excited to visit China through the Plus3 China program and to continue learning more about people around the world. Although I am personally extremely excited to learn about other people, other cultures, and new foods, I also believe that this experience will teach me more about business and engineering than I could possibly learn inside of a class room. Previously, I have traveled to Japan and realized that I really want to travel more. Visiting China while also learning more about engineering and business will give me an ever more fulfilling experience. Having real life experiences in engineering will enhance my education and give me more confidence in the professional world and let me excel academically in the Swanson School of Engineering. Applying knowledge learned through this program into my work in class will also allow me to have better grades than before. Through learning more about international business, I am confident that I will be a better engineer. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and I plan to become more confident in professional communication and with working in real life scenarios. I also want to enjoy my time abroad and create long-lasting memories.