When Connor Nee started at CWRU in 2018, the unstructured nature of college and having to study for exams independently came as a bit of a shock.  “I struggled a lot learning what it means to be a college student,” said Nee.  “As a result, my first few exams went kind of rough and I spent the rest of that first semester fighting back against the set-back those exams put me in.”

Now a junior and in their first semester as one of the CSE peer advisors, Nee hopes to help make the transition to college easier for other students.  “I really have a passion for helping students avoid those same mistakes I made and helping to make the transition to college level learning easier,” said Nee.  “I also love helping undeclared students discover their passion in engineering and what really makes them excited to learn!”

The peer advising program is in its third year and is composed of twelve students representing all engineering departments.  “A lot of other advising programs rely on faculty members to help students through any questions you have, and that can be understandably a bit daunting for students to ask for a one-on-one meeting with a professor or other Case employee,” said Nee. “When students instead meet to get advice from other students, it helps to make the interaction feel a lot less formal and scary to approach while still providing valuable advice on a wide range of subjects: from study abroad, to co-ops and internships, to course selection and more.”  

The peer advisors serve as the “student-level hub” for academic resources for undergraduates.  The peer advisors frequently meet with faculty from the different departments to seek input and stay up to date on services that are available and what the requirements are for each major.  The advisors also meet with the Dean to share concerns raised by advisees and learn about future CSE plans. 

In addition to becoming a peer advisor in 2020, Nee spent the summer as a metallurgical engineering intern at Howmet Aerospace in Cleveland.  At Howmet, they learned about the facets of the manufacturing process of special aluminum aerospace forgings.  Some of their tasks at Howmet included obsolete item die file review to return retired forgings back to full-scale production, conducting in-process audits to ensure product quality and assisting in preparing for both NADCAP Heat Treat and Non-Destructive Testing audits.  They also discovered a way to reduce usage of in-process additives by up to 94% while conducting a historical review of usage.

Nee's internship at Howmet, which they described as a “fantastic experience,” made them more interested in an industry career rather than a career in research and development after graduation.  Their main interests in materials science are materials for high-temperature and extreme applications, high-temperature ceramics, glasses, and weapons engineering.  “I've actually been fascinated with the ideas and principles of materials science since early high school,” Nee said.  “I've always wondered what made one material or structure stronger than another, what causes things to crack and why we choose things like concrete for the foundations of buildings.”  They entered CWRU planning to major in chemical engineering, but when they discovered the field of materials science, “I knew immediately that it was exactly what I wanted to do for a career and really fell in love with the field right away.”

As a peer advisor, Nee, who is from Rochester, Minn., hopes to help other engineering students find their passion as well.  “The peer advising program is designed to help students of all levels plan out their goals on a huge range of subjects and we welcome advisees of all grade levels and engineering majors,” they said.

The CSE peer advisers have office hours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.  Students can make appointments and learn more about the peer advising program on the program website.