This month, five Park Scholars will earn undergraduate degrees. We caught up with the soon-to-be alumni to find out what experiences had the biggest impact during their time at NC State and where they are headed next.
Elizabeth Dogbe ’21
Hometown: Knightdale, NC
College of Engineering: B.S. Civil Engineering
Elizabeth served as the secretary of the Women’s Transportation Seminar, a Mental Health Ambassador, and a Co-op Program Ambassador. She also volunteered as a mentor for the Women and Minority Engineering Programs (WMEP) Student Advancement and Retention Teams Program. She completed a co-op at Kimley-Horn.
What is your favorite part of the Park Scholarships program?
The people in the program were what really made it worth it for me. Getting to know other Parks, working to form connections with the classes before and after me. I also really loved building relationships with the staff. There are some amazing people running the Park program, and I’m lucky to have gotten to know them.
What was the most defining experience or aspect of your time as an undergraduate?
The Co-op Program! I think I’d be a very different person doing something very different if I had never participated in the program. It changed my civil engineering focus, increased my confidence in my abilities, and I gained a lot of skills and experience that I couldn’t have gotten in the classroom. I’ve grown a lot through it, and I’m definitely better for it.
What is your advice for current underclassmen?
You have an incredibly large margin of error. As high achieving students who’ve gotten to this level, it’s easy to become absolutely terrified of failure. As someone who was terrified of it, but ended up experiencing a lot of it, it actually does make you a better person. So take a deep breath. No matter how badly you think you’ve messed up, you’ll be okay. You’ve done so many incredible things already, and you have so many more to do.
What advice would you offer high school students considering NC State and/or the Park Scholarships program?
Don’t overthink your application, for either State or Park! And if you’re on the fence, apply anyway. I never thought I would end up at State or as a Park, but I applied anyway and that was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
What’s next for you?
I’ll be working in the Raleigh office of Kimley-Horn as a civil analyst in their Division of Transportation Planning and Traffic Operations. My specific area of practice will be transit design.
Find out about all five Park Scholar fall 2021graduates