Oh, The People You'll Know: Tess Marsh

5/11/2018 Amanda Maher

Written by Amanda Maher

Tess Marsh
Tess Marsh

Tess Marsh is a graduating senior. She has dedicated so much of her time to giving back to the MechSE and general engineering community. She heard about ASME through quad day her freshman year, and assumed attendance was mandatory. She began attending meetings and realized this was not true, but enjoyed all of the events and sense of community ASME offered and became a dedicated member.

Tess studied abroad the summer after her freshman year in Pisa, Italy. While there, she took a class on energy systems, and an introduction to Italian class. She was able to travel to different power plants and see General Electric’s facility in Florence, Italy. This experience made her realize what a global field engineering is, and how important it is to have a worldly mindset. She was encouraged to study abroad a second time during her second semester of sophomore year in Dublin, Ireland.

With strong Irish roots, Tess was excited to go experience Ireland in person, and was delighted by the beauty of the land and the kindness she found in the people. During this time, she studied Dynamics, Solid Mechanics, Differential Equations, and Irish Culture. The course work was structured differently from what she was used to in the United States, but she felt the focus on independent study was a good exercise in time management.  

Her junior year, she was a member of both the Student Affairs and Outreach committees for ASME. In her senior year she went on to become the Vice President of Student Affairs. Tess stated that she believes Student Affairs is an excellent way to introduce the members of ASME to additional professional and technical skills.

Examples of workshops that have been held by Student Affairs include MATLAB, EXCEL, Study Abroad, Creo Mechanism, and Soldering.  Outreach was another committee that gives back to the community that Tess wanted to be a part of.  Within outreach committee, Tess volunteered to work with elementary school students at Booker T Washington Elementary School, performing science experiments with them. She said this experience of seeing the passion and excitement of the children reminded her why she went into engineering in the first place.

Also in her junior and senior years, Tess was an Engineering Learning Assistant. She said that this experience was one of the most rewarding things that she has done in college. There is a lot to take in as an incoming freshman, and Tess was happy to be able to teach a class that helps ground the freshman and show them the resources available to them, teach them of ways to get involved, and reach their potential. She mentioned that she has kept in touch with some of her students, and is hearing of them getting involved in research, getting internships in large engineering corporations, and she is proud of how far they’ve come.

Tess was also involved in the Women in Engineering Orientation her junior and senior years. I was an incoming freshman when she was a junior, and Tess was one of the first people to welcome me to this campus. She was incredibly kind and enthusiastic with everyone she worked with, and I know that she made a great positive impact on so many people, myself included.

On her time in MechSE at Illinois, Tess said, “The MechSE department has been like my family for the past four years. The people have been endlessly supportive, and have inspired me and always pushed me to do my best, they are so talented in so many unique ways. I wouldn’t be walking across the stage without the support from everyone.”

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This story was published May 11, 2018.