Maddie Strickland is majoring in industrial and systems engineering with a concentration in health systems. She was born and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, just ten minutes from Wrightsville Beach. Because of its outstanding engineering program and proximity to home, NC State felt like the perfect fit.<\/p>\n
Strickland works as a server at Cape Fear Seafood in Cary during the school year and babysits when possible. Furthermore, this past summer, she gained valuable experience as a supply chain engineer intern with Corning Incorporated. In that role, she developed a centralized, automated Power BI dashboard for distribution data. As a result, the dashboard streamlined daily metrics and order status checks. Consequently, it saved the company over five hours of work each week. That improvement equaled nearly seven full weeks of paid labor annually.<\/p>\n
Beyond academics and work, Strickland enjoys playing cello with the Raleigh Civic Symphony. Additionally, she has practiced Jiu Jitsu since the age of four. She also loves traveling and plans her first European trip after graduating in May.<\/p>\n
Strickland\u2019s path to ISE began with an early interest in biomedical engineering. During high school, her mother underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer. At that time, Maddie often drove her to treatments. Unfortunately, those appointments lasted longer than necessary because of inefficient processes, extended waits and unkind staff.<\/p>\n
Therefore, those experiences motivated Strickland to pursue a career improving patient care and healthcare systems. Later, she spoke with an NC State faculty member. Through that conversation, she realized ISE was the best fit. The program emphasized optimizing systems and creating meaningful improvements aligned with her goals.<\/p>\n
Since then, she has enjoyed her classes and projects. Moreover, she has embraced the valuable hands-on opportunities offered throughout the program.<\/p>\n
Strickland joined the ISE ambassador team because she is passionate about sharing her experiences. Additionally, she wants to encourage others to explore the many opportunities this department offers.<\/p>\n
Her journey to ISE was not linear. Therefore, she understands that many students may feel unsure about where they belong.<\/p>\n
As an ambassador, Strickland hopes to guide prospective and current students. She aims to show how versatile and impactful this field is. Ultimately, she wants students to see that they can discover their place here.<\/p>\n