There are amazing opportunities offered by the American higher education system, and I have made sure to take advantage of many of those opportunities. However, like any system, there are weaknesses that deserve to be pointed out and addressed. One of the weaknesses in the American college education system is a lack of practical skillsets within some curricula. There is a bright line between theory and practice; for most disciplines, one can easily discern between such theory and its complementary practice. OK, we have established something: Theory and practice are complementary to each other; they are the two sides of the same coin. Yet, many curricula lack teachings on how to apply their learned theory to practical applications. This is especially alarming within engineering school, a highly practical and critical professional field.

One of Dr. Branson’s most memorable types of moments were about him applying hands-on experiments and demonstrations showcasing theory learned in his and other classes and relating these to current applications within industries. They were interactive, fun, and useful ways to relate often obscure concepts to the brighter real world. Why is the real world “brighter”? Because it is human nature to better focus and learn information when relating such information to scenarios that we are familiar with (i.e., the real world). By nature, it gives us much more motivation and reasoning capabilities to digest and comprehend the subject at hand. This is what teaching practice does to the human brain. Dr. Branson’s work on incorporating that task to his academics left a highlighted mark on me out from engineering school, one that I can easily develop on to become a successful professional in many industries. I am grateful for having him as an instructor and mentor for a special topic course as well as the guiding figure of my team for our final project in engineering school.