Geek of the Week: Sarah Holmes, Senior, MME

Sarah Holmes is a very busy woman. When she is not working on her homework or helping someone else with their homework, she can be found doing a variety of activities that take up, well, essentially all of her time. In spite of this, the senior in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering found some spare time to meet up the “The Oredigger.”

[Oredigger] To be GOTW you have to be in some way, a geek. I would say that you’re a geek because you’re on Twitter you claim to like math.
[Holmes] Yeah, that’s why I retook Calc I and II again, because I enjoy them, not necessarily because I needed to. I love math. I actually came to school for math.

And then you ended up in the MME department, how did that work?
I ended up in MME because there were some girls in my sorority who told me me how much they loved how great the professors were. I looked into it, did my research, looked at the possibilities with metallurgy, and just talked to them about it. I’m pretty stubborn so I kind of set my mind to it, and pretty much on a whim decided to change my major. Then I had an internship with an oil and natural gas service company that pretty much sealed the deal for me. I worked between their metallurgy and elastomer departments.

You mentioned that you were in a sorority, which one would that be?
Alpha Phi

So that means you’re also the Greek of the Week?
[laughs]

Are you in any other clubs or organizations?
I’m in SWE, gotta be. [They have] free lunch and they bring in really cool speakers. I’m in Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, SME. I am president and historian of MSEC, Materials Science and Engineering Club. I’m a peer mentor. And I’m a senior so I’m getting ready for senior design.

Wow, that’s a lot of time commitment. Do you have a life outside of school?
Not really, haha. No, I do have some life outside of school. On the weekends during the ski season, when there is a season, I really like to go skiing.

Which pass are you getting?
I get the summit value pass. I have some friends with a place up in Breckenridge that makes it worth it. Also, being out of state, it’s really easy for me to get a pass that discounts for the fact that I can’t be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas anyway.

You just mentioned that you’re from out of state, where are you from?
Houston Texas, originally from Cyprus, it’s a suburb.

Colorado and Texas are pretty different, is that why you came here?
I actually came to Mines because a lot of my friends were going in-state. And I loved my friends, I loved what they brought to my life, but when I was looking for schools I knew I wanted to kind of branch out from Texas. I wanted to grow more, and I saw opportunity in leaving my group of friends. In meeting new people and starting new relationships. All that and the fact that Mines is a great school led me to come here.

Read any good books lately?
Umm, yeah actually, I finished “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. It’s probably one of the best books you can read as an engineer. It’s fantastic, it will get you stoked to go out in industry. A girl in my sorority, actually a couple of them suggested it. And I’m currently working on “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, which is pretty much just a great book in general. There are a lot of great quotes in it and I’m kind of a quote junkie.

Do you have any hobbies or life experiences that contributed to your geekiness?
Well, I really love being a peer mentor because my students will sometimes ask me for calc help. And I’m in multiple professional societies. My sister loves to call and tell me what a nerd I am because I involve myself in things related to my major even though I don’t have to.

So you just called yourself a nerd, do you see a difference between nerd and geek?
Umm, yeah, I don’t really have a preference, I hear there is some sort of controversy.

You wouldn’t classify yourself as one or the other?
I kind of feel like I would be more of a nerd than a geek, but, umm, either way I feel like I could fit the bill, I go to Mines, hahaha.