Student Leader Spotlight
in Virginia. In 1994 Luis graduated with honors from the Air Force Security Academy. He then studied Air Base Ground Defense at Ft. Dix in New Jersey.
Michelle Green
From there, Luis served in a variety of positions in law enforcement, security, and anti-terrorism, where he held the title of Physical Security Engineer. He focused on how structures and facilities need to be built to withstand a terrorist attack and determined the types of walls and windows needed for containing a threat at a military base. He was also responsible for developing building layouts. As he gained more experience in this highly specialized engineering focus, he transitioned to developing army base protocol for terrorist threats and becoming the program manager for crime awareness initiatives on base.
Sofi a Kyle
After he left the army, Luis became an international security and logistics manager at Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, where he was responsible for developing and coordinating the safety and security of employees worldwide. His job required him to not only consider security against active threats but to also monitor any epidemics in countries that Mitsubishi employees were visiting.
Isaac Torres
These three HE Magazine student leaders continue to inspire. Michelle Green earned both B.S. and M.S degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). She now works as a Flight Controls Engineer at Sikorsky. Sofi a Kyle is a Graduate Transportation Engineer at Arup, an engineering firm. Sofia also graduated from RPI with a master's in transportation, after earning a bachelor's in civil engineering from RPI. Isaac Torres graduated from University of Texas-El Paso with a GPA of 4.0. He's doing a Materials Science Ph.D. at Northwestern University-- the first in his family to graduate from college and the first in both of his extended families to pursue a Ph.D.
Currently, he is working as an engineer at Massey Services, a full-service home services company specializing in pest control, landscaping, and air conditioning. He awaits his fi nal assignment for Homeland Security in customs and expects to be starting this new opportunity by the end of the year. The job off er at Massey actually came from a fellow Horatio Alger Association Scholar. “[The association] has given me lots of opportunity and been a positive infl uence,” he says. Luis continues to give back, returning every year since 2005 as a volunteer to support the association.
Alger grew up poor in rural New England, eventually working his way through Harvard University and becoming a well-known author at the end of the 19th century. The organization strives to provide opportunities for students that otherwise might not have been able to aff ord college. Not only does the organization award $25,000 but it also serves as a network for past scholars to continue as mentors.
36 HISPANIC ENGINEER & Information Technology | SPRING 2018
The words of his mother have been guiding principles for Luis his entire life: “If you’re not going to give it your all, don’t do it.” Her philosophy propelled him to succeed in school growing up, driving him to become a Horatio Alger Fellow and to being promoted up the ranks to Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force. Luis was taught to “conform to his own expectations” instead of falling prey to the drugs and gangs prevalent in their San Juan neighborhood. When he won the scholarship, multiple local news stations asked Luis to come in for interviews. His community was proud that someone from their neighborhood was driven to succeed against all odds.
He refl ects on his mother’s upbringing as it relates to his own experience: “There is a special type of power that women who grow up in those environments develop that’s diffi cult to put into words…nothing intimidates you…strong as iron inside. You know what it is to struggle. You got the scars to struggle.”
Applicants and fellows of the Horatio Alger Association Scholarship can relate.
Anthony Jimenez
A CEO Leader in STEM by ?????????????
In April 2016, Anthony Jimenez was named to STEMconnector’s list of “100 CEO Leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math,” which featured CEOs who off er their unique perspective on the issues facing America’s STEM workforce.
www.hispanicengineer.com
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