Graduate Profile: Caitlin Leksana
Caitlin Leksana traveled the world while working on her Georgia Tech master's degree in mechanical engineering.
On December 15 Caitlin Leksana of Silver Spring, Maryland, will officially earn her second degree from Georgia Tech. Beyond the credentials of two mechanical engineering degrees, Georgia Tech has given her the opportunity to interact with a diverse study body and travel the world to learn about her peers in other cultures.
Leksana got the travel bug as an underclassman and has visited Indonesia, Bali, Tokyo, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and more.
“Traveling for me is all about perspective,” she said. “Georgia Tech is a melting pot. We have a large international population, and to me that is really valuable. Whether you are in a lab or in a workplace on a team, having people attack a problem from all different directions, it becomes necessary to solve a really difficult problem.”
From the color guard to robotics research to teaching and startup training, each challenge gave Leksana new skills that have only been enhanced by spending time with people from different backgrounds.
“Georgia Tech gives everybody so much capability in terms of knowledge and solutions and creating things,” she said. “We have the Invention Studio where people are down there creating things all of the time. For me, I wanted to know what we could do with all of that stuff that these really intelligent people are creating. I wanted to see where they fit in the world, and that has really pushed me to do all of traveling that I’ve been able to do.”
Leksana starts as an associate consultant in January at the Boston Consulting Group in Atlanta. Fortunately for her, the job requires her to travel up to 90 percent of the time.