Triple-Major Achievement
The idea of getting college degrees simultaneously in engineering, mathematics and chemistry would be most people’s nightmare.
But for Jennifer Loo it’s a dream come true. The 23-year-old will graduate with honors from UC Irvine today with a triple major.
School officials said she is the first UCI student in 15 years to combine three majors in physical sciences and engineering, and one of only a handful of triple-major graduates in any field.
That’s not all: Loo is graduating magna cum laude in one major and cum laude in the other two, and she is giving one of the commencement speeches for her School of Engineering class.
“As early as I can remember, I loved school and always thought it was just so much fun,” Loo said this week. “Math wasn’t that hard for me and was one of my favorite subjects, so I always gravitated toward the career I’m pursuing.”
The Huntington Beach resident has her sights set on a career with IBM and may be moving to San Jose soon to accept a job as a manufacturing engineer with the technology company.
The inclination must run in the family. Her father, Henry, is an aerospace engineer, and her brother, Bryan, 24, is a civil engineer.
Loo said her father and mother, Lynda, never pushed her. “They have always been supportive of anything I chose,” she said. “Whatever seemed to make me the most happy is what they steered me toward.”
Her parents were a little concerned at first that she was taking on too much, she said. But eventually her family, including younger sisters Kelley and Tiffany, teased her and asked if she was planning to add a fourth major--physics, perhaps?
“Now that would have pushed me over the edge I think,” Loo said, laughing.
There have been mentors, too, who have encouraged and counseled her: public school teachers and UCI professors, particularly Harold Moore, a chemistry professor who taught Loo in a couple of classes.
“I’ve taught at UCI for many years, so we’re talking about thousands and thousands of students,” Moore said this week. “And I can tell you that I’d rank Jennifer right at the top of the list. She’s one of my favorite people.
“She’s just exceptional. Jennifer is a good person and, on top of that, has great people skills. Not to mention that she’s one heck of a trombone player to boot.”
Trombone? Yes, besides her studies, Loo plays several musical instruments--she started piano lessons when she was 5. And she performs with a local woodwind ensemble.
On a less serious note, she also collects Beanie Babies: “I have about 100 now and I can tell you every single store in Orange County that sells them.”
Extracurricular activities never interfered with academics for Loo, who will be leaving UCI with a 3.8 grade-point average. But she admits to having been stymied by one course: group theory.
“It was the first in a series of classes in abstract algebra,” she said. “It was the first time I ever went into finals with a failing grade. Actually, the entire class had failing grades.
“It’s a very different type of math, and I just couldn’t quite comprehend it. I didn’t get it. . . . But by the time finals came around, I finally understood. One day, I just went, ‘Oh, now I get it.’ But it was a very humbling experience.”
Everything else about her five years of college has been positive, though.
“I have no regrets about taking on triple majors,” she said. “Sure, it was a little stressful at times, but I knew what I was aiming for and what I wanted to do in the future.”
Eventually she wants to get a master’s in chemical engineering, then maybe an MBA. But she will wait a couple of years and won’t pursue those degrees simultaneously. Or will she?
“Oh, heavens,” she said. “I hadn’t even thought of that. There is absolutely no way I’d even think about attempting that. Gosh, that would be really crazy, wouldn’t it? But you’ve got me thinking now.”
