{"id":56999,"date":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2015-degrees-in-engineering-chinese-math-provide-many-options-for-uri-senior\/"},"modified":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2015-degrees-in-engineering-chinese-math-provide-many-options-for-uri-senior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/04\/commencement-2015-degrees-in-engineering-chinese-math-provide-many-options-for-uri-senior\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2015: Degrees in engineering, Chinese, math provide many options for 溏心vlog免费B站 senior"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 21, 2015 \u2013 Alyssa Zisk took just five semesters to complete a bachelor\u2019s degree in mathematics at the 溏心vlog免费B站. But after graduation she stayed on campus for a couple more years to complete degrees in mechanical engineering and Chinese and to study and work in China for a year.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs the Sharon, Mass., resident prepares for her second 溏心vlog免费B站 commencement ceremony on May 17, Zisk is looking back proudly on a college career filled with accomplishments.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always liked science and math, and when I started to learn Chinese in middle school, I wanted to reach a point where I could do my math and science and engineering in Chinese,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to achieve a professional fluency.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tZisk said that she started taking Chinese language classes as a way of getting out of taking another English class in sixth grade, but once she started it, she found that she really enjoyed the language. \u201cMy dislike for English class had nothing to do with a dislike for languages,\u201d she said. Working through 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Chinese Language Flagship Program, she achieved the \u201cadvanced high\u201d level of proficiency in speaking Mandarin Chinese and reads at the superior level.<\/p>\n


\n\tEnrolled in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s International Engineering Program, Zisk spent a year abroad in China at Tianjin Normal University, taking Chinese language classes, living with Chinese roommates, and studying engineering in Chinese. It was her fourth trip to China, so she felt comfortable speaking the language. She even spent a semester as a teaching assistant in an undergraduate physics class at Tianjin\u2019s College of Physics and Information Technology.<\/p>\n


\n\tThat experience served her well when she returned from China and began teaching a pre-calculus course to undergraduates at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cI\u2019ve liked math forever,\u201d Zisk said. \u201cIt lines up well with the way I think. Math is a study of patterns, and I think in patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen she completed her math degree in the middle of her junior year, thanks in part to several advanced placement math classes she took in high school, she immediately enrolled in a graduate degree program in math. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be done taking math, so I kept taking classes and it\u2019s adding up to a master\u2019s degree,\u201d she said. \u201cAs far as math is concerned, I\u2019m a grad student, even though I\u2019m still an undergrad in everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tZisk\u2019s math proficiency came in handy during a nanotechnology research project she conducted with mechanical engineering and chemical engineering professors. Their aim was to build a liposome \u2013 a tiny bubble made from the same material as a cell membrane \u2013 covered in a thin gold layer that can be useful in delivering drugs to targeted areas in the body. \u201cI was the one who did the research to see how to do it, and then I ran the protocol in the lab to see if it would work,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I handed the project off to another student to do the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAlthough her busy schedule of classes, research and teaching might lead you to believe she had no time for anything else, Zisk made sure that her college career was not all work and no play. She played on the women\u2019s ultimate Frisbee team \u2013 including a spring break tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C. in March \u2013 competed on the club fencing team, served as secretary of the Society for Women Engineers as a freshman, and this year joined Rhody Hacks, the computer science club.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs she looks toward her future, she has several decisions to make. After completing her master\u2019s degree in math next year, Zisk plans to earn a doctorate in \u201csomething science or technology-ish, or maybe applied math.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAnd then what?<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a few different paths I could see myself going down,\u201d she said. \u201cI could see myself teaching at some level or doing research in technology. I could also see myself doing research in pure math, or even work in industry somewhere. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPhoto by Nora Lewis<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 21, 2015 \u2013 Alyssa Zisk took just five semesters to complete a bachelor\u2019s degree in mathematics at the 溏心vlog免费B站. But after graduation she stayed on campus for a couple more years to complete degrees in mechanical engineering and Chinese and to study and work in China for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}