Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2018
Academic Enhancements
Launching My Engineering Career
As a child of immigrant parents and a first-generation college student, I never would have imagined that I’d be graduating from Santa Clara University as a mechanical engineering major and designing and launching a rocket!
My interest in things that fly started at a young age when my parents began taking my brothers and me to the airport to watch planes take off and land. This fascination with airplanes grew into an enthusiasm for rockets and aeronautical engineering.
When I found out that mechanical engineering was similar to aeronautical engineering but offered more job opportunities, I decided to major in mechanical engineering at Santa Clara. But my passion for rockets continued, and I founded the Aerospace and Rocketry Club here thanks to your support through the Santa Clara Fund.
Club members and I were really interested in designing and building a rocket, and we decided to take this on as our senior project. After garnering department approval, we quickly began completing the rocket’s design. Then we had to find a safe location from which to launch it, as you can’t simply launch a rocket in a park.
We found several rocketry clubs in California where we could launch our rocket: one in Helm, one in Snow Ranch, and another in Los Angeles. We chose the Snow Ranch location and are collaborating with the Livermore Unit National Association of Rocketry (LUNAR), the organization in charge of the launch site. Our team is test-launching in April and we plan to conduct the final launch with the final control system design in May.
Clubs such as the Aerospace and Rocketry Club, along with the LEAD Scholars program and the research opportunities in which I’ve participated at Santa Clara have really reinforced everything I’ve learned in my classes. Support for many of these activities comes from the Santa Clara Fund, and for that I have you to thank.
Before we started college, my dad told my brothers and me, “If you need help then ask, but always remember to give back.” He compared receiving assistance to creating a chain. “You’re just one link in the chain,” he told us. “When you’re done using the help, reach out to someone else who needs help and create the next link.”
Thank you for your support through the Santa Clara Fund, which has been the link that helped me benefit from so many educational opportunities outside the classroom. I look forward to launching our rocket and my engineering career, and then becoming the next link in the Santa Clara chain.
Read about other Santa Clara students who were beneficiaries of your gift to the Santa Clara Fund.