By Kel Hahn
What ties Isabel Moore to the University of Kentucky College of Engineering is, and has always been, people.
People made Isabel and her family feel welcome when she visited campus as a prospective student from Effingham, Illinois.
“I toured a lot of universities when I was in high school. When I first visited UK, I spent a lot of time with the recruiters, and they remembered me every time I came back. Whenever we were lost on campus, students came up and helped us. I spent a lot of time with freshman advisors Diane Freeman and Jennifer Doerge. I felt like this was an inclusive community from the start, and that only intensified throughout my time there.”
People invited Isabel into research experiences and demonstrated passion for their areas of expertise.
“Although I was an electrical engineering major, I’ve always had an interest in biomedical engineering and neuroscience. That combination led me to spend two semesters working in biomedical engineering professor Sridhar Sunderam’s Neural Signals and Systems Lab. And I can’t say enough about electrical engineering professor, Janet Lumpp. She is an example of a professor who can bring material to life. She got me excited about topics I didn’t know I could find interesting.”
People connected Isabel to an industry she had never considered exploring—but now absolutely loves.
“I worked part-time at Space Tango in Lexington, which develops experiments for microgravity environments and sends them to the International Space Station. I never thought I would be doing this in Kentucky or anywhere, and now I’m a Cubelab Engineer here!”
People are the main reason Isabel served part-time in the Dean’s Suite for nearly three years.
“I cannot count the number of times that the Recruitment team, Career Services, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering or the Dean’s Suite made me feel heard and valued. The people definitely kept me there.”
As a College of Engineering Ambassador, Isabel shared her experiences with potential students during tours and open houses.
“My experience made it easy to get excited about recruiting students,” she says.
Maybe one day, a UK College of Engineering student will reflect that meeting Isabel, and catching her authentic enthusiasm, convinced them to make UK their Engineering destination.
