Setting goals and finding space

My name is Lucy Zhang, I’m a senior in agricultural engineering, and I the director of engineering for Illini Solar Car. Over my years at college, I’ve set many goals for myself before I graduate both professionally and personally.

As for some personal goals, I want to talk to more people and being in a large college allowed me to do this. With speaking to new people and learning from them, I’ve been able to make more friends and it even landed me a position in Illini Solar Car. In ISC, I talk to many people including university students and business professionals. I think this is an ongoing goal and something I have to keep improving on even after I graduate but I’ve made great improvement since starting college.

One more tangible but also the largest goal I hope to achieve before I graduate is to see our new solar car, Brizo, drive and race. I have spent over a year and a half working and hundreds of hours on this car. We are currently about 70% there and with the current COVID-19 pandemic, our work has slowed down. Despite the setbacks, I will continue to work hard and believe that this goal is achievable.

The university provides an abundance of places to study and hangout with friends varying from the bustling Illini Union to the quiet ACES Library. My favorite place to study would be the Grainger Engineering Library but many students have a love-hate relationship with the place. I remember the times where I stayed up past 2am chugging coffee and trying to finish a design project with a group of friends. The late night days were the most memorable yet painful but in the end, I appreciate and value Grainger Library for its almost 24hr open hours! As for relaxing with my friends, I love going to the Illini Union to grab a snack and hang out with friends. I take an in-between class breather at the basement of the Union and sometimes I bump into friends I haven’t seen in a while. Those moments are the best because I get to catch up with friends I haven’t seen since freshman orientation and it feels as if we never stopped talking.