Making the trip from his home in Ontario, Canada to Urbana, Illinois for his CEE graduation and reception was a surreal experience for Perry Godse. Despite completing his MSCE at the University of Illinois this fall, his campus visits up until today had been strictly virtual. Now, Godse is seeing his professors, classrooms, CEE labs, and even Boneyard Creek in-person for the first time.

While he may be taking his first steps on campus, his connection to the CEE at Illinois community is already incredibly strong. “It just felt like there was no barrier, and that’s what made it amazing,” Godse said of his CEE at Illinois MS online experience. "I don’t think that you could get that anywhere else.”

Godse reflects with gratitude at the indelible relationships he developed not only with faculty, but with his colleagues and fellow students; how so many in the department went above and beyond to facilitate meaningful interactions both in and out of the (virtual) classroom.

Adjunct lecturer, Charles Greer, made a particularly strong impact on Godse, “He was the best professor I ever had in my life.”

Greer's approach to developing student connections by partnering online students with an in-person graduate student as well as an undergraduate student was beneficial not just for building relationships, but also in facilitating the students' ability to bring different insights and perspectives into professional discussions. It was in these discussions that the bridge from research to practice was formed. “And to be able to do that online, that was fantastic,” Godse added.

Godse found that the relationships forged during the program created an environment where learning flourished, and a depth of research could be easily translated to practical applications, just part of why the MS online program at Illinois is exceptional at cultivating graduates' professional success.

And as for those students Godse was paired with, a student from Louisiana and an MSC student in Urbana, they remain in touch today. "The best thing about Illinois is that you build your friends network,” a professor of Godse’s had told him, and Godse couldn't agree more. He is confident that the relationships he made with professors and students will continue to grow his professional network throughout his career.

LEVERAGING A LEGACY TO BUILD A LIMITLESS FUTURE

Godse comes from his own family legacy of engineering; his grandfather earned a PhD in chemical engineering and his father works in the field of engineering science. Which means he spent a great deal of time exploring and weighing his options for what engineering legacy he would want to be a part of, and build for himself.

As he aimed towards his career goal of adapting his hydraulic engineering skills to the cold weather climate in Canada, Godse knew trajectory was limited with only a bachelors. So he endeavored to find a masters program that could elevate him to the next level professionally, with direct applications to his career path as he completed his coursework. He found that at Illinois.

CEE at Illinois grounds its innovative and diverse research in a legacy that has built the very foundation of civil and environmental engineering, providing students with opportunities to apply what they learn in the classroom to diverse career paths.

“Every problem we went through in class was something I saw every day while working for the City,” Godse shared. He was surprised at how his online coursework immediately informed his design, guiding him to find practical, more efficient solutions at work, and in real-time. “Knowing the advanced science as a basis to the design allows you to properly design so you don’t ever have to go back," he added.

He explained how just sharing the graduate level technical knowledge he was learning in class with his project team enabled him and his team to make adjustments to improve efficacy and cost-effectiveness in the design of their hydraulic structures. As a result, he was able to propose new systems that were more adaptive to different environments, eliminating the need to go back and fix problems that were the result of not having enough research on specific hydraulic challenges for different environments. Problem solving could now be done proactively instead of re-actively with this deeper knowledge base, which helped Godse to gain more trust in his skills. “Having the more advanced understanding before you get into the design process allows you to have more confidence in your design," he affirmed.

And just in the last two months, he took the next step in reaching his career goals, accepting a new position as a cold climate engineer. “I jumped from project coordinator to intermediate engineer, that would have taken 5-8 years to get without a masters," he revealed. Additionally, he shared that his new job wouldn’t have been possible prior to his MS, as all positions at his company have a minimum masters requirement given the complex inter-disciplinary nature of their scope of work.

Godse's new role working with cold region infrastructure requires graduate level knowledge in hydraulics, water resources, and fluid mechanics. The depth and breadth of expertise he was able to gain in these areas at Illinois was a significant reason he selected the university, and why he is so grateful for his experience. 

“A lot of the knowledge in the field that has been commercialized for practice comes from the University of Illinois,” Godse explained. Adding that at Illinois, you have the opportunity be a part of that legacy, to learn knowledge in engineering areas like Geotechnical and Hydraulics from the source, taking classes where civil engineer giants once stood, including renowned educator, researcher, and water resources engineer, Ven Te Chow.

Chow joined CEE at Illinois faculty in 1950 and was the author and editor-in-chief of two well-known books, long considered to be classics, namely Open-Channel Hydraulics (1959), and the Handbook of Applied Hydrology (1965). The Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Lab at the University of Illinois today is an integral part of CEE at Illinois, with its 11,000 sq ft hydraulic research laboratory home to innovative research for the next generation of engineers.

Godse continues to be awed by the fact that to this day he still see’s Chow’s impact, “When I do RFPs at work and people come back with their design they say Chow 1959 at the bottom.” The opportunity to be a part of that legacy is a powerful experience.

“Learning from someone who learned from one of those guys and seeing how passionate they are, and the tidbits they share,” Godse said, is what makes CEE at Illinois so special.

WHY CEE AT ILLINOIS?

While there are so many benefits to an education at Illinois, for Godse, what ultimately made this program experience so distinctive was the people. From the start, the support and communication around application process made Godse feel at ease. And once enrolled in classes, he found CEE faculty like Marcelo Garcia and Art Schmidt took the extra steps like offering Zoom office hours to build relationships with both their in-person and online students. Every person Godse came across seemingly went out of their way to be responsive and eager to assist him and other students in finding the right path to reach their career goals and in engaging with the CEE at Illinois community, whether they were on campus or in Canada.

As his convocation nears, and he is taking advantage of the opportunity to tour campus and talk with faculty and his growing "friends network" about their future plans, he thinks back on the decision he made in choosing his MS online education.

"I feel like I got really lucky by picking Illinois," Godse says proudly. 

And for those in the process of picking a graduate school themselves, Godse has a few pieces of advice.

“First of all, I tell all my friends to apply here,” he laughs.

Adding that for him, "Illinois had the best administration, best set-up online and application process." 

But he encourages students to explore their options and remember that location doesn't have to be a barrier or a limit to achieving your goals; anything is possible anywhere with a strong online program.

“Look at everything you want to learn, what problems you want to solve, what business you want to do, what clients you want to work with. Find the topic you want and go to that place. Look at the research. Look at Urbana.”

He is confident students will find exactly what he did at Illinois; a program that is connective and comprehensive, with research and faculty so rich in diversity, strength and tradition, that it elevates its students to create their own legacy and build a limitless future.