Inaugural Engineering Academies program brings engineering students from Texas to Doha
Published Jul 27, 2023
A group of Texas A&M Engineering Academies students from all over Texas traveled to Doha for the inaugural experiential education program. At Texas A&M at Qatar, the students were involved in research with faculty members or rotated between the four engineering disciplines available in the Doha campus during their 10-week stay.
This opportunity meant the students could delve deeper into their chosen field and also explore different concentrations they could pursue in their engineering education journey.
Although Dylan Contreras '25 was initially nervous about how his time in Qatar would go, he's appreciated how welcoming the students, professors and staff at Texas A&M University at Qatar has been and how they've helped him adapt and settle in.
He recommends everyone from home to come to Qatar and get to know the culture out here. "It was an amazing opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone to forge new relationships, develop my skills as an engineer, and experience a whole new culture," said Dylan.
Apart from taking lessons at the university, the students also had opportunities to immerse themselves in the local culture.
Jason Diemont '26 to Qatar to learn more about the culture of the region and work with global engineers. He's glad he has also been able to learn more about different engineering majors that he may be interested in pursuing in the future.
Diemont also loves the people he's met so far at Texas A&M University at Qatar and said "I expected to mainly stick to my group that I traveled with and not really meet many new people and I'm so glad I was wrong."
Jonathan Peña (JP) '26 is another one of the Engineering Academies students here in Qatar for the summer semester. He came to Qatar to learn more about engineering and explore a new country. JP has been able to learn about the applications of engineering.
"I have learned the importance of meeting people from different cultures and being open to sharing life experiences. In turn, I learned that we have more in common than one might think, it has helped to better my understanding of the world around me," said JP.
