So have I been doing post-graduation?

It's a loaded question really. My answer (and the required length of it) always catches people off guard. Grad school, full-time job, still hopelessly looking...they're all comon answers. Well, I guess this is another instance of where I'm just not your typical person. I'll try to keep you in the loop here.

The shortest answer I have is that I took a year to explore the world and career options by engaging in a series of international internships, volunteering, and shadowing experiences. Through this, I sought to gain a greater global context to my studies and to be able to give back what I have learned in a way which I could not do if I was balancing a full-time job. This “gap-year” has brought me around the world on various projects involving user research and design for treadle pumps in Ethiopia, developing technical strategy for electric- and hybrid-automotive system design for a major German OEM, and developing a device to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission through breastfeeding.

Here's a little bit more about what I was up to...