Sammy Sadel (BSE, '20) routinely leads prospective students on tours of Temple College of Engineering. Alongside speaking to facts and figures about campus and student outcomes, the Scotch Plains, New Jersey native also speaks to his own experience in a number of engineering programs.

"My fascination was always with how things work, but that meant I couldn't really decide on a specific path. I started as a bioengineering major, then moved to mechanical," Sadel said. "I was actually about to switch to electrical engineering when I found the engineering program with an electromechanical focus, while also carrying a computer science minor. It turned out to be the best of both."

The interdisciplinary program helped to prepare Sadel for his internship working as a system safety engineer at Lockheed Martin, and an offer for a full-time systems engineering position there after he graduates.

At Lockheed Martin, Sadel relied on his experience in courses like Technical Communication to write, edit and maintain system safety documents for multiple programs, and to propose risk mitigation strategies. He also led a team of fellow interns on a satellite launching project competition. The team placed second among the other intern teams, and the project cemented another lesson for Sadel: project management and communication.

"I like meeting and communicating with people, and being in that role really validated those skills for me," Sadel said. "In addition to the technical side, where I got a good foundation in electrical and mechanical engineering, bridging those gaps between different disciplines is valuable, I think."

Sadel also validated that skill through Theta Tau, the professional engineering fraternity that he helped to grow shortly after coming to Temple, when the group had about 10 members. According to Sadel, their most recent initiation welcomed 20 new members, bringing the group's total roster to 90.

It's an interesting journey for a student who, originally, considered other schools. But after a tour, something clicked.

"There's an energy on campus. A lot of it had to do with Temple being so diverse," he said. "I kept the tour guide's card, and still have it in my wallet just to remind me that, yeah, Temple was the right place for me."

That, he described, is part of the larger sense of community felt at Temple Engineering.

"It's a really unique place," Sadel said. "I say that to prospective students on tours all the time: You get out what you put in. Majoring in engineering with an electromechanical focus made me the most well-rounded I could be, but it helped being part of a group like Theta Tau, to go through this experience with other students like me, too."

To learn more about the Engineering program, visit https://www.temple.edu/academics/degree-programs/engineering-major-en-en....