I am grateful to MESA for providing me a path to this career. MESA gave me the connections, relationships, funding, and resources to be able to successfully graduate and earn my degree. The opportunity of being able to visit the university campus during MESA competitions, gave me the confidence to step on a then familiar campus once I enrolled as a freshman at the University of Arizona. These experiences made me feel comfortable attending the university from day one. MESA taught me how fun it is to be an engineer and the positive impact that our ideas can have on the world. I developed real world skills from my participation in MESA; such as working on a team, coming up with a concept, budgeting, and executing it. I have so many fond memories of this program.

 

After being involved with MESA throughout middle school and high school, I knew I wanted to pursue an education in architecture or engineering. I enrolled in the Architecture College in the University of Arizona. I found architecture to be too art focused and I wanted to focus more on science and math. I turned to Civil Engineering and eventually graduated and earned my B.S. in Civil Engineering. While I was in college, I worked at Psomas Inc. as an intern and this is when I realized a career in transportation was my calling. Transportation is a field that absolutely everyone benefits from. Whether using public transit, driving on roads, or using utilities (water, electricity, internet, etc.) transportation improves communities. I have worked on local streets in Tucson and the Tucson International Airport. I love working on local projects because I get to see first-hand the improvements we bring to our community.