Inside the Classroom with GW Squash's Anna Porras
10/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Squash
Anna Gabriela Porras always knew she wanted to play squash in college. That was the easy part.
It was choosing a major that had left her undecided until she arrived on campus as a freshman in August 2012. She was debating on whether to pursue a major in either architecture or engineering when she thought back to her time growing up in Colombia.
"I was undecided before I came here," said Porras, now a senior and three-time College Squash Association (CSA) All-American. "When my parents were in the process of buying property in Colombia, I always wanted to go along and see the construction sites. I love to see the blue prints and the architectural and structural drawings. It was a long process but I was always interested in going with my dad to see the places they were thinking of buying. That is how I got interested in engineering and ultimately decided to major in it here at GW."
Three years later, Porras is embedded in her penultimate semester as a student-athlete and closing in on a degree in Civil Engineering. She worked through a tough freshman year of academics, embroiled in core classes that had her second-guessing her decision early on.
"At the beginning there are a lot of core classes like calculus and physics, so you don't really have much exposure to the real civil engineering courses," explained Porras. "So the first year or so I was still on the fence. I liked the course work, but I still wasn't completely sure it was what I wanted to major in."
Once she made it through that freshman academic year, things started to change. The coursework shifted from a more theoretic curriculum to an applied science approach. That is where Porras hit her stride.
"Engineering is a very visual major," said Porras. "Civil engineering deals with all the built environment and there are so many fields you could go into, such as structures, water treatment, geotechnical or transportation. It has a lot of fields and you see tangible results in the work you put in. That is what I like."
For the past two summers, Porras has been able to take what she has learned and apply it in the real world with Clark Construction, one of the most recognizable construction companies in the nation.
"GW offers a lot of networking events and I went to one and connected with Clark," explained Porras. "I applied for an internship and I had a couple of interviews. I thought I did really well in those and then they offered me the position."
Porras spent this past summer at a construction site across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. She has been working on a sprawling construction site that occupies one entire city block right next to the Rosslyn Metro station.
"There will be two buildings, one residential and the other will be an office building," explained Porras. "I worked for Clark concrete, a self-perform unit of big Clark. I worked on the office building side because Clark concrete was the subcontractor for that project. I saw all kinds of things in the field like concrete being poured and rebars being placed, but I also got exposure to technical issues, details of drawings, scheduling, budgeting and planning."
After grinding out classwork in the first part of her collegiate academic career, Porras was thrilled to finally get into the field and achieve real-world experience.
"Having an internship and finally getting into practical and tangible results was so exciting after a few years in the classroom," said Porras. "That part (the classroom) of it is great, but in a few years it starts to fade from your memory. Being in the field allows you to apply all of that knowledge that you learned into real-world situations."
After three years as a student-athlete, Porras has been able to walk the line between being on top of her studies in a very demanding major and being an elite All-American squash player.
"It is tough to strike a balance between the classroom and squash, but planning is the big key," explained Porras. "I have my agenda and I try to plan every part of my day beforehand. I feel like all majors are tough but the tough thing about engineering is that we have weekly assignments. Some majors have a large paper due at the end of the semester, but for us, we have an assignment every week for each class. So planning ahead is huge. I have to go to bed early so I can make sure I am ready for practice in the morning and then right into classwork for the rest of the day. Its all about planning when to do what."
Speaking of planning what to do next, Porras wants to play squash for as long as she is able. But she also has her next step in the world of engineering mapped out.
"I think I want to take the FE, which is the Fundamentals of Engineering, an exam you take right after graduating.There are multiple branches for this exam, like Mechanical FE or Civil FE. After I take that exam, I want to get my Masters before entering training for a few years to earn my PE, which is a license to become a Professional Engineer. Those are the first couple of steps towards a career in design field"
Players Mentioned
