Hi! My name is Daniel Rosenstrauch. Some quick facts about me:
- Mechanical Engineering major w/ Engineering design and business minor.
- Bakerite
- Class of 2028
- From Houston TX
- If I never had to work or study again, I’d probably travel the World with friends.
I chose this Tokyo study abroad program because I think Tokyo is an incredible city. Also, I was so sick of driving around in Texas traffic, I needed some quality public transportation for a bit. The classes also peaked my interest and so far the Busi 220 class with Hesam has been an absolute blast. He’s done an incredible job of integrating Tokyo into the curriculum and giving us new ways to explore the city.
I think freshman Summer is an incredible time to study abroad for engineers because it puts you outside of your comfort zone and shows you what’s possible early on in your college career. On top of that, you’re not expected to have picked up an internship by this time.
Outside of my courses, I have also booked trips to explore Kyoto and Osaka on the weekends. This year Osaka is hosting the World expo, which only occurs every 5 years, so I am super excited to explore that and see some cutting edge technology!
Some recent activities from the past couple days of Busi 220 were the “noticing hunt”, where we split up into teams of three and observed different parts of Tokyo, and the “Shibuya Scramble”, where we had to create a prototype for a random prompt and go get people to test it and give feedback at Shibuya crossing.
These activities got us out of the classroom and into the city. The Shibuya Scramble especially pushed me outside of my comfort zone to go out, looking ridiculous with a half finished prototype, and find people who were willing to chat with the random American. Luckily, it turned out to be a bunch of fun, and I learned a lot about designing for a user and incorporating feedback on the fly.