Passing the Torch: Second-Generation Rowan Grad, Top-Tier Engineering Student Alexa Aulicino’s Favorite College Memory

Alexa stands in front of the Rowan arch.

When we first met Alexa Aulicino, the year was 2017, and the first-year Mechanical Engineering major from Burlington County walked us through her day for this feature profile

Four years later, the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society president and Medallion award winner is poised to begin her career across the country. 

Alexa wears her graduation gown with spring flowers in the foreground.

The move makes sense for Alexa, whose favorite Rowan memory saw her travelling more than 7,000 miles away. 

As a sophomore in 2019, Alexa enrolled in a pilot course called Engineering in a Global Context, where she says students learned what it means to be “globally competent engineers.” The class culminated in a two-week study abroad tour of China, visiting Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. 

The students visited Inductotherm Group China, a branch of the company founded by Rowan University’s namesake, the late Henry Rowan. They toured its factory, where Alexa recalls they were warmly greeted by employees and presented with tiny, hand-painted Inductotherm cups. 

Alexa stands in front of the Rowan arch.

“Then the rest of the trip, we got to visit different universities and engineering programs and see the robotics, their technology, their buildings, and it was really cool,” Alexa explains.

“It definitely puts in perspective how big the world is. And it makes me grateful for things, to live here. And then it also makes me curious, like, what else is out there?”

Alexa smiles in her graduation gown.

Alexa will soon find out. She’s headed out west to work for Roccor, a Colorado-based aerospace company. 

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