Brett Strauss

Class of 2025
Major:  Civil & Environmental Engineering
Hometown: Rockville, MD
High School:  Thomas S. Wootton High School

What inspired you to become a ClarkLEADER?
I had received an email about this event a while ago, but sort of nudged it off. That was until I heard that my friend was doing it, after which I spoke to him and he was able to convince me to do it as well by helping me see what a great opportunity it is.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with new Maryland Engineering students? 
I would tell all of the new students to be open to all opportunities that come their way! This school offers so many interesting classes and other resources that can help you grow as a person, student, and professional, and I highly advise that everyone takes advantage of them.

What are some organizations or extracurricular activities you are involved with on campus?  
The campus offers so many cool and diverse organizations that you can be a part of. As a freshman, I was involved with Engineers Without Borders, a great body of students and faculty who want to help the World and less fortunate countries with their engineering troubles. Along with this, I have played intramural flag football and joined a fraternity, all of which have helped me grow into who I am today.

What is a cool engineering experience you've had? 
In your first year as an engineering student, there is a mandatory class that challenges your group with creating an autonomous vehicle that can accomplish a specific feat. For my group, this meant traversing a small terrain with roadblocks in order to pick up a metal ball, test what type of metal it was, and weigh it. I will concede that my group's vehicle was not able to accomplish this all. However, I still had a ton of fun building and coding it with my classmates.