Introduction: Tracie Teo

A warm hello to everyone reading this blog!

Like Ian and Tom, I am a student in the Engineering Global Leadership (EGL) Honors Program and a representative on the Tauber Institute Student Advisory Board SAB). I am in my 4th year of studies but am a graduate student in the Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) department. I know most of you are thinking, 4th year, graduate school, how? Well, EGL students typically go through a 5-year program at Michigan (U-M) and graduate with both a B.S.E and M.S.E degree. However, because I studied in Singapore (more on this later) and took the GCE A-Level examinations, I came into Michigan in my freshman year with more than 30 credits already on my transcript and had achieved second language proficiency (a requirement for all EGL students) in Mandarin, which made it possible for me to finish the EGL program in 8.5 semesters. Hence, I will be graduating this semester (Winter 2011) and entering the real working world really soon!

Like I mentioned previously, I was born and bred in Singapore, just like Weicheng. I lived in Singapore until I finished high school but fortunate for me (as a girl), I did not have to serve in the army, so I came to Michigan for college in Fall 2007. Subsequently, I was admitted into the EGL Program in my sophomore year, and through the program and the Tauber Institute, have learned, grown and matured beyond what I could ever have expected. The EGL program's emphasis on cross-cultural exposure and competency, opportunities for leadership and international experiences, along with the Tauber Institute's professional development avenues, industry exposure, numerous networking opportunities, and Leadership Advantage modules, have been instrumental in my development as a student and as an individual. Looking back on the past 4 years of my education at the University of Michigan, I am certain that I would not have traded any bit of it for being anywhere else.

In addition to Tauber and EGL, I was also on the APM (Alpha Pi Mu, the National IOE Honor Society) Board and served as tutoring chair and then Executive Vice President, where we achieved third place as the best executive board and society across all chapters in the United States!

Of course, being a graduating student means that I have completed my Tauber project, and indeed I have! Last summer, I worked at BorgWarner Thermal Systems in a small town called Markdorf (meaning Mark Village) in Southern Germany. Needless to say, I had a fantastic experience not just on the project, but also travelling around a lot of Europe, a dream come true! As the SAB students embark on their projects, I shall be sharing some of my on-hindsight project experiences along with them, so stay tuned! At the same time, you can perhaps look forward to hearing some of my travel experiences as I head to Turkey, Vienna and Budapest with a few other EGL and IOE students this summer!