The theme of the symposium was "Continuing Our Legacy of Excellence."

Since graduating in 1999, electrical engineer Kelly Kozdras has helped bring clean water to a Honduras village while serving in AmeriCorps, guided a Bronx-based all-girls high school team to compete in the FIRST Robotics competition and spent a year at the South Pole as an engineer with Raytheon. She now is an engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff.

"Looking back, I was surrounded at Rose-Hulman by an atmosphere where professors and students were passionate about engineering and science. That rubs off. Those things made me want to go to the ends of the earth in my engineering career," Kozdras stated.

Picking up on at theme, Wes Bolsen, a 2000 electrical engineering alumnus, told Rose-Hulman students that "you can do well by doing good."

Bryce Clark, a 2002 alumnus who taught physics to 750 students at a Tanzania high school as part of the Peace Corps program, added, "I gave a lot, but I got so much more in return." Clark plans to return to work with African health care organizations after working as a nurse at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

Giving Back To Others: Rose-Hulman alumnus Kelly Kozdras makes a point during a panel discussion with Wes Bolsen (left) and Bryce Clark on "Science, Technology and Social Needs -- Responsibilities and Rewards."

Four Indianapolis-based entrepreneurs passed along advice on how engineering skills have been an asset in developing multiple business ventures. Damon Richards (’84) is president of Port-to-Port Consulting; Jeff Ready (’96) is co-founder of four companies, president of Ready Consulting and Entrepreneur-In-Residence for the Indiana Venture Center; Marcie Morrison (’99) is co-founder and vice president of Streamline Designs; and Dustin Sapp (’01) is co-founder and president of Vontoo.

Ready, who developed his first business while a student at Rose-Hulman, stated that "entrepreneurship isn’t a career choice, it’s a lifestyle choice."

Sapp, who also has started several successful businesses, advised students to understand that "it’s not about who can build a circuit, it’s about who can solve a problem and work to meet the customers’ needs."

Looking At Big Picture: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology alumni Rosanne Forgione, engineering manager for FedEx Trade Networks, and Greg Holler, operations account manager for NEC Electronics, participated in a panel discussion on "Careers in the Global Marketplace."

"Engineering is a worldwide language," stated Holler, whose updated passport has already had 77 stamps from overseas business excursions. "If you’re well-rounded in the discipline of engineering you can get along anywhere in the world. People will have respect for you and your ideas, no matter if you can’t speak their language."

Forgione urged students to get international exposure and experience, through study abroad programs or trips to other countries.

"In my world (Federal Express), the world is flat. There are no borders," she said.

New noted that today's engineers need to be ready to leave -- many times at a moments notice -- to meet with an overseas client or supervisor. Appreciating and understanding other cultures is another key element in developing valuable relationships in today's global marketplace.

"When dealing with international businesses, you have to be flexible -- willing to come in early for a 5:30 a.m. conference call with your Japanese managers and, at the same time, be ready to leave on a plane to a production facility throughout the world, without much notice," New said.