Title: Ensuring Safe, Clean Water: Jessica Olsen ‘21 [Music Playing] [00:00:06,620] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Welcome to the engineering career conversations. I'm Christa Downey, director of the Engineering Career Center at Cornell University.  [00:00:14,610] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: And I'm Tracy Nathans-Kelly, director of the engineering communications program. We are excited to bring you this forum where we will host lively conversations that we hope will inspire you.  [Music Playing] [00:00:29,600] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Today we have Jessica Olson who graduated in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering. Jessica is currently in infrastructure design engineer for the US Air Force and tutors local community college students in math and chemistry. Welcome Jessica. [00:00:46,685] JESSICA OLSEN: Hi, Thank you for having me.  [00:00:52,085] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Our pleasure. Jessica, can you please talk with us about the work that you are currently doing? [00:00:58,100] JESSICA OLSEN: Sure. So right now, I am working under the Palace Acquire program through the US Air Force. I worked as an infrastructure design engineer for portable water systems. So I'm currently stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in central New Jersey. And the base is really interesting because it has army, navy, and FBI, and Air Force all located on the same base. So I'm responsible for designing the infrastructure that allows us to get water out of our taps. So anytime there's a rupture in a line, any new construction is going on, I'm able to go in and actually design how that water gets from our water treatment facilities to our buildings. I'm also undergoing a water quality study that's looking at how to improve the quality of water that we provide to everybody on base.  [00:01:50,710] CHRISTA DOWNEY: I love it.  [00:01:52,760]: TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Now, we were interested in how you got to this spot. So let's go back in time a little bit. Engineering training at Cornell was no doubt rigorous. But can you explore for us what it's like to transition from being a student into being a practicing professional. [00:02:10,895] JESSICA OLSEN: Sure. So I actually participated in the co-op partnership while I was at Cornell. It was really influential for me to take a break in my education and understand what an office environment is like. So I did my co-op with Langdon Engineering and Environmental Services, which is a private consulting firm. So there's also a dichotomy there between my government practice now and then private consulting. So that was a different experience in a way that we were the client where we were contracted out to do work all over the country. So we were building Amazon warehouses in Colorado, to monitoring landfills, right in New Jersey. And now working for the government, we are the owners were able to execute whatever work need be. I’ve now transitioned from my education to working full time has been really interesting for me because when you're at school, you kinda have short-term goals setup. I have this assignment due by this date I'm going to be taking these classes next semester. Now I'm working on years-long projects. So I have to transition my short-term thinking to long-term thinking. And it also tried to keep up to date in the field. Now that I'm kinda separated from learning all these advanced technology, I have to put an effort upfront to worry about what's going on in academia wall and sequestered away in my cubicle.  [00:03:43,850] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: As an instructor. That's a really interesting point, right? Like things are chosen and we give them to the students and they read them. Now, you have to be really self-directed. How do you choose to read or where to plant your, your time and keeping up to date.  [00:04:01,025] JESSICA OLSEN: So I've actually joined a lot of email lists through universities that I'm interested in their research and they'll send out monthly reports on what they're doing in their labs. And I find that really informative to be able to read up on the research that is actively ongoing because by the time of that information is disseminated into the public via the news or textbook or some sort of magazine that's sent out to a professional society, it could be years before that information comes to professionals in that way. So I think it's important to be invested in that source of information.  [00:04:37,850] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That's a really interesting play about that lag time. That the newsletters where they're basically bragging on the research that is being done in the moment is a much different thing than waiting for the journals to come out. That's a great point.  CHRISTA DOWNEY: I love that. That's so great for our faculty to hear, but also for our students who are thinking about undergraduate research and thinking about the impact that might have. I love that. Excellent. Speaking of students. So you tutor students at a community college. It's a wonderful way to reach out. And I'm wondering, what is it about that work that you find invigorating and exciting and maybe even challenging.  [00:05:17,585] JESSICA OLSEN: Sure. So the major challenge that we're seeing now is there's still a lag from pandemic style learning. Students that didn't connect with the online modality are having trouble as they're progressing into their more advanced courses. It's challenging for me to sit down and see if they may be taking calculus one, but they're struggling with pre-calc concepts. So I really have to sit and think about the progression of a math or chemistry based education and find those building blocks. Because as you get older, you learn more, you go into the workforce and you're doing this stuff regularly, you kinda jump over steps in your head and you don't necessarily think about every single minute calculation that you're doing or even how you developed those units of thinking. So to be able to sit down and think about each individual step is really helpful for me to understand how I’ve gotten to this point and then just being able to help these students. They're kind of in similar situations as I am where a lot of them are working full-time, taking classes at night, which I've done before, they have families. So it's really interesting in the community college environment to see how everyone is still reaching out for education and how we could help them achieve that.  [00:06:40,415] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I think that connection to the community in that way, it's just so important and interesting. And I applaud you for doing that work. It's hard work, isn't it? To walk in and do that tutoring, It's different every time.  [00:06:54,680] JESSICA OLSEN: Exactly. In the community college, we actually have our own tutoring center. So students can have walk-in appointments, scheduled appointments, and someone's always there to help. So it's unique experience compared to some universities where you have to reach out to a TA, may be busy with their own research or teaching other courses. So being able to be available is really important the students.  [00:07:14,300] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So did you, I just, I'm curious more than anything, you chose to do this tutoring and the community college because fill in the blank.  [00:07:27,680] JESSICA OLSEN: Sure. I had taking classes there ever since high school. So I'm actually my hometown right now. So I was taking environmental science courses, their biology, the community college. On my summer breaks at Cornell, I'd be coming back and taking courses and topics that I just didn't have the time to investigate while I was at Cornell. It was psychology courses, philosophy courses, things that didn't necessarily fit into my engineering curriculum. And so now coming back home and working my full-time job, another adjustment that I've been going through is you don't necessarily have homework. You go 9-5 and then you have this empty space that you have the opportunity to fill. And it was challenging at first because when you're at school, you can always find something to study or another assignment to get started on. Being able to actually explore. Anything that I want to do is really valuable to me. Just looking for things to volunteer with, ways to get involved in my community, in ways that I've missed out on for the four years that I was gone, it was really important to me to be able to help out institution that helps me for so many years.  [00:08:42,130] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Such a generous, positive growth mindset, wonderful thing for it for all of us to hear. Thank you for that.  [00:08:51,605] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Yeah, I love that these students that you are tutoring and also thinking back to yourself when you were one of those high school students or your first or second year student at Cornell, what, what do you wish you knew back then?  [00:09:09,275] JESSICA OLSEN: I wish that I knew that it’s okay to take time to make decisions. I always felt like I was pressured by the semester schedule or coming in and saying you're the class of 2021. That's when we're checking you out in a way you have to be done with all of your learning by that, all of your exploration of these different topics. And I think when I was younger, I was so focused on getting those classes done, joining a research lab, joining a project team, that maybe I missed out on reflecting on some of that personal growth that came along with that. So now that I've been able to take continuing education courses outside of my undergraduate degree and kind of reflect on what education means to me, it's important to, to that time and understand what your goal is. And if you have to readjust, readjust what you signed up for your major during your freshman year; or what you write your common application essay about isn't written in stone.  [00:10:10,210] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Yeah, So what do you think about your goals and your you know, your goals for your career, your vision for your career. What do you think about?  [00:10:19,175] JESSICA OLSEN: I'm really interested in going back to graduate school. I actually applied for master's programs for the upcoming academic year. So I'm hoping to transition my focus into more hands-on work. What I do now is partly designed were on the computer, mixed in with some field work going out and seeing with actual construction is like with these facilities are like. But I loved being in the lab. That was really the hallmark of my undergraduate experience. So I'm looking to go back and do more research in water quality, whether it be emerging contaminants concern or water management. And then trying to transition that to my career with DoD where you can research she in national laboratories or you can work hands-on at any of their facilities. Coastal resilience projects is another sector that I'm interested in delving into. Or you can stay within this environmental civil sector.  [00:11:16,540] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I have a question that comes. It's not on anything that we have thought about before, but as you've been talking, I'm recalling some work that I did with water remediation people. There's a private company, water remediation people with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and water remediation people with the army inside the Department of Defense actually on-site in Afghanistan. So I'm thinking about these three folks that I worked with in the past and your point about having the time when you were in school, there's the semester blocks or here's your midterm or whatever. But having these expensive projects that are multi-year, how does that mindset change the way that you do the problem-solving?  [00:12:06,580] JESSICA OLSEN: When I think about these projects, now, I have to think about the regulations and the research that's going into it. So we're at a really interesting nexus of water research now because we're starting to understand these emerging contaminants of concern about the PFAS or benzene, things that we've been using for decades, but within the last few years have realized the negative impact on human health accumulation in the environment. So it's interesting with having a balance the work that's been done previously with all these new findings that are coming about so quickly. So your projects, they're never really done. They change day by day, making sure you're staying up to date with these federal regulations. So in that case, I am a student of water policy where I have to keep referencing these websites, keep referencing these same laws that are updated with different addendums, maybe every year now. So even within the next ten years, I think the way that we do things will speed but will also become more challenging and that we have to face these remediation concerns.  [00:13:33,635] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That's really thank you for that. And because I've noticed it's such a big difference here. Christa has a question for you now.  [00:13:44,740] CHRISTA DOWNEY: I’m impressed with your growth mindset, your openness to learning, your eagerness to learn really is coming out and shining through all of this. And knowing that there's so much more out there to learn and that information is changing as we go along. That's an important message for all of us in every field. But for your field, it sounds like you are particularly drawn toward a vision of clean water for everybody. There's something there about water, and some related issues. And I'm wondering what are some other organizations that are important collaborators toward this brighter future, this greater vision of yours.  [00:14:30,980] JESSICA OLSEN: So the issue with water policy and maybe the benefit in some situations is that there's the federal umbrella for the EPA ofwho, you know, formally decides and all these regulations. And then there's state-level regulations, even down to the local level. And then private organizations like the World Health Organization or the water initiatives that come in to influence the work. But where I've done most of my work in New Jersey, New Jersey, and California are considered some of the most progressive states for water legislature. So that feeds into a history of a lot of water pollution, unfortunately. So being able to work in a place where you have to consider your state, maybe regulating these contaminants, but other states aren’t, it’s interesting to see the level of privilege that we have, that we can provide or have to provide a water.  [00:15:43,385] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: We have another question that we wanted to ask links up perfectly with what you were just saying. But what's the most significant challenge you faced in your work then? How do you overcome that?  [00:15:53,435] JESSICA OLSEN: Sure, the most significant challenge is really just the unknown health issues that come along with these contaminants. So we're just learning that PFAS kinda accumulates in human body. 95% of us have it within us at levels that are dangerous. They're carcinogenic and they don't degrade and the environment. A lot of these newer chemicals or chemicals that were created to be used in fire retardants. They're using our food packaging to be anti-grease agents. They don't degrade. So we're trying to figure out the technology and the equipment to break those down into non-harmful components. That work will take decades to actually implement that in the environment. And because they move with the groundwater, they move with the soil, you can lose track of them in a way; they pull them out and they infiltrate every aspect of ecosystem.  [00:16:51,320] CHRISTA DOWNEY: It's important and fascinating work. So what advice or insight would you share with a student who is interested in learning more or following along on a similar path.  [00:17:04,565] JESSICA OLSEN: I think it was really important to me to go and do a co-op to see what projects are out there. And you can learn about it in the classroom, which we do a lot as well, which is great, but being able to actually go out there and do sampling on a landfill or the monitor these volatile substances in somebody's home. That's really important to understand what you can actually do. And when you go and do these types of internships, they usually don't require you say on one project you could do a little bit of everything. So that minimizes the pressure and the stress of having to execute and be successful on one project, which I think I was worried about because at that point I had almost taken two semesters, three semesters of college work. So I didn't feel necessarily qualified and working as an engineer. But they give you just a little bit of a sample of what we can do. And that provides a lot of contexts and informs what elective courses you want to take, what research you want to go into. And like I said previously, the program I’m in now is a two-year rotation internship where I'm taking courses during the Air Force about environmental management, stormwater management, things like that, and also working on multiple projects. So if you really don't feel like you know exactly what you want to do, which is not really what I know what I want you to do. I want to work in this general sector, improving water quality, but that can mean 1 million different, specific work. So it's important to go in and just try everything you can. And so Cornell does a great job at allowing you to do all these different types of opportunities through lab work, project teams and then going out on your co-op.  [00:18:54,185] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Yeah, great advice. [00:18:57,050] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: As we, as we end each of these, we have a little series of quick round of fun, more fun questions. So one of them though we'd like to ask everybody is, well, what do you like to do all this hard work? What do you do to relax or have fun or re-energize herself as you move through your day?  [00:19:14,135] JESSICA OLSEN: Sure. Well, I grew up dancing, so I loved to still go do dance classes, Pilates, things like that. I'm grateful to still live by the ocean, so I love to- I cant swim this time of year unfortunately- but it would be swimming or taking walks on the beach, just being in the environment. And I love to read.  [00:19:34,220] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I've been on a Jersey beach in wintertime. It's a little chilly.  [00:19:38,360] JESSICA OLSEN: But it's, yes, the polar plunge is coming up. [00:19:41,390 ] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: It’s a really nice though, right? It's a beach. Whatever.  [00:19:50] CHRISTA DOWNEY: You have any favorite books you've read this year that you recommend?  [00:19:53,045] JESSICA OLSEN: Yeah, Actually, I brought one here. I wrote it down on our intake form, but it's Water 4.0 by Professor David Sedlak. So he is a professor at UC Berkeley and he also came to speak to my class. I took a continuing education course and wastewater management at Princeton last spring. We were tasked to read this book. He came into talk to us about his development of it. And it's a really interesting read for anyone that's interested in the field. It brings you from ancient Roman water infrastructure to the bucket era, which will be considered like Tudor England, using buckets for wastewater and freshwater all the way up to today and how we're using these wild, wastewater treatment facilities. And really never have to address the idea of dirty water ever again in more privileged countries.  [00:20:47,855] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Sound like I'm putting it on my mental list right now. I obviously love working with people that do water things, including the projects here on campus as well. So that was really fun. [00:21:04,340] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Good. One more question. If you were not doing the work right now, what would you be doing?  [00:21:10,550] JESSICA OLSEN: I think that I would have taken the environmental science route and I think I was working with coral or coastal species. I just love working in the field. I’d love to have more of that. [00:21:25,150] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Excellent. Jessica, this has been a fun conversation. We invited you here because we were inspired by the work that you're doing. You're working to make the world a healthier, more sustainable and more equitable place. And to meet you, well, I already knew you, but to chat with you now, where you are now, and just see what a lifelong learner you are is very inspiring.  [00:21:49,925] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Thank you. [00:21:52,370] JESSICA OLSEN: Thank you for this conversation. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed the conversation.  [Music Playing] [00:21:59,020 ] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Join us for the next episode where we will be celebrating excellence and innovation among engineers whose impact contributes to a healthier, more equitable and more sustainable world. [Music Playing]