I’m Courtney Webb and I am a senior civil engineering student from Dallas Texas.  I chose the Lyle School of Engineering because the school promotes hands-on learning.  I always knew I wanted to work with designing buildings.  The Lyle School of Engineering not only has a great classroom atmosphere, but students were able to learn first-hand as the new engineering buildings at SMU were being built.  When I saw this, I knew I was at the right place as I knew I would get a chance to be involved in projects around campus.

Currently, I am working on my senior design project.  The project I am working on is with the company R.L Goodson. We are designing the structural part of one of the new dorms they are going to build here at SMU. The design has already been finished by the company and we will compare our final design to theirs to see how we did and possibly help them out. We will be putting this design in a 3D computer model that will be able to show us if a part of our design is failing or not. This is a large project (4 floors), which will take us the rest of the school year.   I am excited to see our design possibly being used in the construction.

In addition to my studies, I am also on the Women’s Soccer Team here at SMU.  Being a student-athlete has been a tough challenge, but a very rewarding experience. I have loved to play soccer my entire life and I will continue to do so for as long as I am able. I walked onto the women's soccer team and ended up as the starting goalkeeper my freshman year and held this position all 4 years of my eligibility. I was able to play many exciting games and help my team earn some great victories. We traveled all over the country to play a lot of these teams, and it was very exciting to see so many new places, even if it meant having to miss a lot of class time. I handled missing class by making sure I communicated with my professors, who were always willing to help me out and help me understand anything I missed.   I also took advantage of the free time we were given while on the road so we could focus on our homework. 

I found the balance not be too stressful because I knew I only had a certain amount of time to focus on school work.  Thus, I made sure I focused during this time on my studies. Overall, I believe soccer has helped me become a better student, and I know I can use my communication and teamwork skills to be a better engineer. I have a lot of confidence knowing that I can handle anything that is thrown at me (pun intended).