Alison Ignatowski, a Baltimore area-native, knew she wanted to study engineering at Johns Hopkins ever since her junior year of high school when she participated in the Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation summer program for high school students. This was Alison’s first experience on the Homewood Campus, which she immediately fell in love with. When it came time to apply to colleges, Hopkins was her first-choice school, and she applied and was accepted as early decision.
It was Alison’s passion for art, history and architecture that drew her to a major in Civil Engineering. Alison visited the department during one of Hopkins’ Open House Programs and was immediately struck by the small department size and the friendliness and openness of the faculty.
Once on campus—and especially during her junior and senior years—Alison found many opportunities to gain real-world engineering experience. She spent the summer of 2011 working side-by-side with an experienced on-site project engineer as an intern for the Whiting-Turner Construction Company.
In addition to this on-the-job experience, Alison has explored the world of experiential research, assisting a multidisciplinary research team investigating how humans respond during and immediately following a seismic event—a research focus she intends to expand and continue as a graduate student either here at Hopkins or at another research university.