Overcoming Struggles

Some students struggle with trauma, mental health, mental disabilities, and negative peers and adults; and yet, with the right decisions and the right help, they still will become successful engineers. Hector is a computer engineer who has such a story. Although engineering and computers interested him early on, he faced several major obstacles on his path to getting an engineering degree. Hector talks about self-reflection, accommodations, and other supports that helped him overcome these obstacles. Mentioned in this episode: • Wolfenstein video game series, starting in 1981 to today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenstein_(series) • Info on accommodations for college students with disabilities, from the American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/pi/disability/dart/toolkit-three.aspx • “Working Together: K12 Teachers and Students with Disabilities,” article from the University of Washington: http://www.washington.edu/doit/working-together-k12-teachers-and-students-disabilities • Online discussion on Reddit in 2016 about engineers with ADHD: https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/comments/4d9293/engineers_with_adhd_how_does_it_affect_you/ Mentioned in the post-show notes: • Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs • Join a workshop with me at CAST in Houston 2017? Info at: http://www.statweb.org/ Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com. Help Pios Labs continue! You can donate at: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs Also check out these projects from Pios Labs: • Engineering Word Of The Day (EWOTD) podcast: http://engineeringwordoftheday.com • Guidebook “Engineer’s Guide to Improv and Art Games” by Pius Wong, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers: http://www.pioslabs.com/improv4design.html • Improv Professional Development (ImprovPD) project: http://www.improvpd.com/