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From the Alps to Appalachia

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Capitalizing on opportunities

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In the News • MSU Challenge X team shares No. 1 experiences with larger world

• Challenge X: Universities flex engineering and creative muscles in search of the next viable hybrid

• An Engineer Does the Math So Troops in Iraq Can Find Bombs

• Meridian native helping NASA to return to the moon

Awards & Recognition • CAVS Chair earns national honor

• Gateway to the West

• From ‘Honorable Mention’ to a Bronze Medal, each year Mississippi State’s iGEM team moves to a higher placing in international competition

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A degree in engineering offers many opportunities to young graduates. From industry to education to business or politics, the skills acquired through years of study in the BCoE can be applied to most fields. Following commencement this December, Elliott Flaggs, an industrial engineering graduate, plans to capitalize on these vast opportunities through an internship on Capitol Hill.

“I want to go to law school and get involved in politics somewhere down the line,” Flaggs, a native of Vicksburg, said. “I have always been interested in politics, so spending four months in Washington, D.C., is like a dream.”

Flaggs has been selected for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Wal-Mart Emerging Leaders Internship Program. A relatively new program, the internship offers students opportunities to work in all three branches of the federal government while receiving a stipend for housing and travel expenses. Selected students must be in good academic standing when they are accepted to the program and have a demonstrated interest in public service, policy and legislature.

Interest in government comes naturally for Flaggs, whose father has served as a state representative for many years. Knowing that he wanted to leave his mark on policy as well, he has supplemented his engineering education with courses in political science. In doing so, he immediately began to see the parallels between successful engineering and success in law.

“Industrial engineering and patent law work perfectly together because of the subject matter,” Flaggs explained. “In engineering you can’t do it all by yourself, so you have to learn teamwork and networking, which are also a valuable resource in politics.”