cadet blogs

I’m Back!

(Academics, Class of 2012) Permanent link All Posts

Hello prospective cadets and endearing parents of aspiring Coasties! After a long and rude hiatus, I am back on the blogging scene and eager to share my experiences with you. I believe last that the last time we spoke, I had just returned from my 2/c summer and was beginning 2/c year. Well, here I am now, halfway through fall semester of 1/c year! The time has flown by and I have had a lot of great experiences. I hope to catch you up on all of them, but first off, I will shed some light on my academic situation.

In short, whoa. Whoa, these classes are hard, whoa, there are a lot of them, and whoa, I didn’t see this coming. Here we are, the 16 civil engineering majors of the class of 2012, showing up for another semester of engineering fun. Little did we know that this semester would be an onslaught of design classes, group work, throwback formulas from 3/c year, and an electrical engineering class just to make things interesting! It’s sort of like I am a one man engineering firm. Designing sheet piles (metal pieces in the ground that keep groundwater out of a construction site), planning construction projects, designing reinforced concrete, playing with electrical components not having any clue of what is going on, and my favorite and what makes the workload a little more bearable, learning the basics of flight.

That’s right; I am enrolled in the Academy’s first ever Private Pilot Ground School Course. It’s awesome, and will be great preparation for flight school should I make the cut. But for now, it is helpful in my endeavor to obtain a private pilot certificate. (During my recess from blogging I acquired 33 hours of flight time in a single engine trainer, and am hoping to get my certificate this year).

Yes, the classes are tough and the homework is endless, but that’s just the way things go here. With 16 people in the major, we are a tight and we get through it together. As with most things here, everyone around me can relate and we get move forward as a group. We are going to power through this semester and are looking forward to our senior design projects (I am designing a fire house for Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina). I will keep you posted as things develop.

As always, feel free to email me! Michael.G.Klakring@uscga.edu.

More about Mick.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/10/2012 1:38 PM