18 MOMENTUM • VIRGINIA TECH MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
“ I have lots of interests ,” she said . “ It started with the science fair in high school . I knew I wanted to do mechanical engineering . I really enjoyed economics in high school as well , since my AP Economics teacher was amazing . I kept taking those classes , and I found that because I brought in so many credits , I was able to take a bunch more classes than normal . I wanted to maintain my Spanish fluency from high school , so I took a few of those classes here and there . That made it possible for me to get the extra degrees .”
Schloer ’ s au pair growing up was from Costa Rica , so speaking Spanish was already part of her childhood . She values the ability to converse with people in other languages and has participated in the study abroad program to immerse herself in more Spanish-speaking cultures . While in Costa Rica , she even gave an engineering-related presentation in Spanish .
“ It was really cool to bring my passion for engineering into my world of studying abroad ,” she said . “ It also showed me the importance of being able to translate engineering work into other languages .”
Within the next year , Schloer will also add two graduate degrees to her three undergraduate diplomas , having also capitalized on Virginia Tech ’ s accelerated master ’ s program to get graduate credit for many of her undergraduate courses .
Personal connections
The support Schloer has received from those closest to her has helped her become the person she is , strong and capable of handling a heavier class load than most of her peers . Of those people , she especially credits her father , a software engineer , for supporting her .
Growing up , she and her father would often engage in small projects together . The two built a mechanical keyboard shortly before she left for college , which equipped her with skills such as soldering . A 3D printer built by her father became the printer she used to create parts for the microgravity simulator that won the science fair award . She still calls on his expertise , especially when working on projects in his field .
“ I can remember a distinct moment this semester when my senior design team got caught up on this code bug for hours and hours ,” said Schloer . “ I called my dad , and immediately after describing the issue , he knew how to debug the code . I don ’ t
Schloer leads a team meeting .