Welcome Class of 2027!
On behalf of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL), I’m excited to welcome you to the Rice community and give you my best wishes as you start your journey as an Owl!
My name is Bryant Ruff and I have the amazing opportunity of being the RCEL Student Director for this upcoming year. I’m a senior studying chemical and biomolecular engineering and I’m looking forward to meeting and working with a lot of you soon! Throughout my time at Rice, I have yet to meet a student who does not amaze me with their accomplishments, dreams, hobbies, or talents and I want to congratulate you for making it here. You’ll soon find a community of students, faculty, and mentors who will support you, and do all they can to help you grow.
As the Student Director of RCEL, my primary goal is to help students build the interpersonal, and administrative skills that, together with their superb technical education, will set them apart throughout their careers.
The RCEL program is truly one of the most amazing programs offered to Rice engineers. Your engineering degree will make you a strong and competent engineer, but the RCEL program is the bridge that takes you from being a strong contributor to leading real change. I have participated in the RCEL program since my freshman year and want to share some of the opportunities the program offers:
- RCEL helps you define your identity as a leader
- The first courses in RCEL are all about discovering who you are, what you need to succeed, and how to communicate that effectively. As an exceptional student, you probably already have a pretty good idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are, but RCEL will help you dig deeper to understand what drives you, where you have room to grow, and how you respond under pressure. It is a completely safe environment to get out of your comfort zone and get honest feedback on how to lead more effectively.
- RCEL teaches you to stand out and communicate
- As you step into the university world, you’re also taking the first real step into looking at the job market, applying for research and internships, and making career decisions that will impact where you are going. RCEL provides exceptional guidance on how to stand out to recruiters, make good first impressions, and navigate interviews, meetings, and internships. As you progress in the program you will learn how to make business pitches, how to organize and manage large scale projects, and how to build high performing teams.
- RCEL provides you with mentorship and a network
- The RCEL program will put you into contact with very successful and inspiring mentors, from the faculty themselves, to the guest speakers and engineers who attend panels, class sessions, and other RCEL events. You will have the chance to be assigned mentors from your industry and receive consistent coaching and feedback from incredibly successful individuals. As a member of RCEL, you’ll develop into a leader along with your peers and build a strong network that you can leverage for the rest of your life. The RCEL program is a special family within the already tight-knit Rice community.
The program itself is only 11 credit hours which can be spaced over your four years at Rice, but it also offers a wide range of extracurricular activities where you can practice your leadership skills in practical and meaningful ways. From planning panels to traveling to the Air Force Academy for leadership conferences, to participating in ethics competitions, the doors that open through RCEL are endless.
I could say so much more about the RCEL program but what I’d like to leave you with is this thought: Your engineering degree will give you the technical base to succeed in your job, but RCEL will give you the skills to reach your dreams and change the world. You were accepted to Rice because you were a standout student, a leader, and showed the potential to truly make the world a better place. You’re not here at Rice simply to go where life takes you. You’re here because you have enormous potential and RCEL is here to transform that potential into a personal vision, and give you the skills to put it into motion.
If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me by emailing me at bdr4@rice.edu and I would be more than happy to help in any way that I can! I look forward to meeting you soon!
Bryant Ruff is a senior studying chemical and biomolecular engineering.