Group Bonding

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Group Experience Advice

Group Bonding

By: Ryan Wilson

As a member of the Spring ’07 PSNS group, I have chosen to do my case study on group bonding. Speaking for myself, I became a member of the PSNS group with personally knowing one other member of the 4 from previous classes. I was familiar with the other members’ names, but nothing more. After becoming acquainted with the PSNS project and the initial design constraints, we scheduled a site tour and project meeting with the shipyard to cover the scope of the project in detail.

A few weeks later, our group would embark on a five and a half hour drive to Bremerton, WA. As someone who doesn’t enjoy long car rides, I wasn’t thrilled about spending that amount of time in a state passenger van, much less with guys I wasn’t very familiar with. I have to be honest when I say that I had some initial feelings of discomfort regarding how the ride would unfold. Little did I know, it became one of the greatest road trips I’ve ever been apart of as well as one of the most comedic events of my engineering experience at WSU.

The long car ride revealed the true personalities and sense of humor of all the PSNS group members. The duration, the conversations never reached a lull as each one led into the next. The conversation between five college men was as entertaining as one could imagine and was especially memorable because of the rarity of this college experience. Between stops at multiple gas stations for bathroom breaks, refreshments and snacks, the group was able to establish a sense of camaraderie and closeness that will carry through the rest of college and into later life.

My advice to anyone who has resolutions about being in a group or participating in the group activities is to let the events unfold as they do and don’t be afraid to be yourself.