Aero engineering takes off this fall at app
Ava Ibrahim, a sophomore from Whitinsville, Massachusetts, is a part of the recently added aerospace engineering program at app.
Starting this fall, an aerospace engineering concentration is now being offered at app. The addition adds strength to an already nationally respected engineering program, which recently rose to its highest ranking ever (#38) on U.S. News & World Report’s best undergraduate engineering programs list.
Since the program was officially announced last fall, it’s drawn a lot of interest from both incoming and current students.
An unique opportunity
“I was looking at other smaller Christian schools and a lot of them didn’t have engineering in general, and I specifically wanted to go into aerospace,” said Kyle Chakery ’29, a first-year student from Grand Prairie, Texas. “So, app’s program drew me in and knowing it was the first year was really exciting.”
“I think it’s the first Christian college to have an aero program,” said Juan Moon ’27, a junior who grew up in South Korea and Thailand. “Tying aerospace engineering and Christian values together is so valuable when you go into industry because it helps set your heart posture to appropriately focus on the right things.”
A seasoned first-year program
While the program is in its infancy, aerospace engineering majors at app are encouraged that the professors they are learning from have vast industry experience. Ken Visser spent a decade working at NASA and Boeing, including helping design the Boeing 767-400ER. His groundbreaking contributions to the field of aerodynamics led to him being honored as an Associate Fellow of the AIAA earlier this year. While Visser assumes a leading role in launching the new aerospace engineering program, he is part of a team of faculty colleagues with aerospace experience, including Matt Heun, who worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before teaching at app, and Fred Haan, whose specialty is experimental aerodynamics, to name a couple.
“I am excited about learning aero here because the profs who are part of the aero program have a lot of experience up their sleeves. They’ve been everywhere, done everything,” said Ava Ibrahim, a sophomore from Whitinsville, Massachusetts. “The education I am going to get is going to be valuable, which is a solid foundation.”
Christ-centered values add value
But students say it’s more than just being prepared with all the technical skills.
“There are a lot of profs here who I believe are overqualified based on what they’ve achieved in industry, but they are here because they found God was calling them to be here in the first place and I feel that’s a gift for the students,” said Moon. “They teach more than just technical things. Yes, the profs are qualified to teach those aspects, but they go beyond to relate these technical aspects to Christian values, showing us how to live in industry guided by what you believe in.”
Passionate professors, caring mentors
What the students in the aero program find most valuable is something common to all disciplines at app—professors who are passionate about their field and committed to personally knowing each of their students.
“I really appreciate the passion of the professors that I have. They care a lot about the material and it’s easy to follow along with lectures when you can tell they have a passion in what they are doing and a lot of real world experience to share with the class,” said Michael Liggett, a junior from Rockford, Michigan.
“On my visit to campus last year, I got to have a one-on-one visit with Ken Visser, and we chatted for 20-30 minutes, and he was amazing to talk to. We talked about planes, some of the Apollo missions, and it was really exciting. You could see the passion he has for aerospace. I love that he has a major passion for exploration, design, creativity, and critical thinking,” said Chakery. “Now, as a student, I feel the professors are very easy to talk to, specifically Visser, and I’m not afraid to ask questions if I’m confused.”
Going beyond aero helps other skills take off
Beyond the proximity to professors who serve as both industry experts and mentors, students in app’s aero program also see the immense value of a liberal arts education.
“I think a lot of engineering requires good written and verbal communication, and I know that the liberal arts education I’m getting at app will be most helpful in those areas: reading, writing, and speaking,” said Ibrahim. “So, it’s been so good to have an oral rhetoric class for engineers.”
Ibrahim is also grateful for the opportunity to take sociology and psychology classes. “Learning the way people around you think is really helpful and I think some people would miss out on having that knowledge, how to integrate into society without a liberal arts education.”
“It [a liberal arts education] just expands your broadness of thought. You get a wider scope of what there is out there theologically and philosophically, which I think is unique and important in understanding engineering design as well,” said Chakery. “We talk about moral norms in engineering design which means stuff has to be up to code morally, ethically, and physically, because some of the stuff you build will have an impact on other people, so you would have to build that with a broad scope in mind.”