Hello,

My name is Franklin, and I am from Garden Grove which is in Orange County. I am a first year Mechanical Engineering major at the University of California Santa Barbara. Originally, I was not going to be in an engineering major; I wanted to do Environmental Studies, however, I felt that I would lack the skills and knowledge to create machines or products to help the environment if I did not choose an engineering major. Some have asked me why I had not done Environmental Engineering; the reason I did not choose this major is because I researched some of the courses one would have to take in that major. Most of the courses had to do with environmental science which made sense, but the major also involved a lot of statistics and analyzing classes. After I saw that, I changed my major to Mechanical Engineering because at least from there I would learn more about the building of products in which I could incorporate an environmental approach to.  What I want to do exactly to help the environment I am still unsure. At Santa Barbara, I want to learn about the mechanics of vehicles and the process of creating machines that capture renewable energy. I am unsure if I will persist on the use of electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, solar panels, windmills, etc. Hopefully, I will have a narrower view into what I want to focus on by the end of my undergraduate study. Until then, I will just stick with the idea of helping the environment.