LINKS

The year 2006 started looking very good.  My mother came from Cuba on February of that year, so that was by far the highlight of that year.  I was away from her for almost five years. Yep, five year, this is the same as 1825 days, or 43800 hours, or 157680000 seconds.  It was a long time without her.  It was over fifteen billions long and painful seconds. On the other hand, I was a little of bit sad because I was going away from her again.  I was going to MTU on May of that year.  Some how I mess up the number on my calculations and I didn’t measure the time I was going to spend with my mother before I moved away.

However, I was very excited that I was finally going to attend Michigan Tech.  My girlfriend Idaliza transferred to Michigan Tech on January of 2006, so I missed her a lot.  It was really exciting to see her again and spend lots of time with her at MTU. I arrived during the summer of 2006.  It was warm outside and I wanted to spend a lot of time with my girlfriend.  We went everywhere that summer.  The Upper Peninsula is full of extraordinary places and my girlfriend is an outdoor person, so I had the opportunity to try many things that I had never done.  We went to five different waterfalls.  We went camping for a whole weekend.  We, along with a bunch of friends, rented canoes and traveled fifteen miles.  The canoe trip was like an episode of survivor.  Only two canoes made the whole fifteen miles, it was very long and we were really tired.  It was very intense and almost impossible for us to do, bit it was great time.

I also had the opportunity to do two activities that I sincerely love.  First of all, I joined the Hispanic group along with others fiends to make a soft ball team.  I love baseball, but it is not an option in MTU, but softball is pretty close.  It was very interesting because we played every Thursday.  We were pretty bad at the beginning, but we ended up making a run to the playoffs.  I also had the opportunity to play in a volleyball tournament in a private court close to the Portage Lake.  It was very relaxing, because I used to get out of work and then go to play volleyball.  And sometimes jump in the lake to refresh my body after several minutes under the high temperatures.

It was smooth transition from a community college to a 4-year university.  The rent is very cheap, so a fair job will pay it.  A student can pay as low as a hundred dollars per month if they like living with a thousand people in one house. I had the opportunity to ask for a job to the professor I worked with during the previous summer.  I also took one class during that summer and work a part time job with the Electrical Engineering Department.

I received a lot of help from a person that had impact my live in many ways.  Her name is Madeline Mercado-Voelker.  She is the Advisor of the NOSOTROS/SHPE Organization and the Director of the MICUP program.  She is also a great friend of mine and the person that I trust the most in the Upper Peninsula, after my girlfriend of course.  I actually had great time fishing with her husband.  He is an incredible person to hang out with and he taught me a lot about fishing.  I actually caught a big fish with his help.

Madeline is a very smart person that loves helping students.  She is one of the reasons I had done so many things in Michigan Tech in so little time.  She can be seen as the person that knows everything.
During my first semester, I decided to join different organizations to get a better feel of the whole university experience.  I was part of Engineers without Borders, NOSOTSOS, ExSEL, Career center Advisory Board, Alpha Society, and Integrated Microsystems Enterprise.  It was a little bit stressful, but I had the opportunity to work on great things. 

During the middle of October, NOSOTROS organized our annually Gala Latina.  It is a great event that takes place during the Hispanic-Celebration Week.  We had dancer coming from out-of-state to teach salsa; we also had presentations from many Latin countries representatives and we had the Gala on the last day of the week.  The Gala was wonderful everyone was dressed very elegant and we had Hispanic band making us moves at the sound of the “Tambores” (drums). The highlight of the semester was during Career Fair.  I went to talk to Mrs. Mercado-Voelker about Career Fair, because I didn’t have a clue of what to do to make the recruiter look at me.  She carried me throughout the whole preparation process and did some mock interview to sharpen up my skill.  That was very helpful, because I had the honor to receive five offers from top companies around the world.  And now I take my time to give others advice and presentations on how to impress a recruiter. 

The problem wasn’t getting the offer, but selecting my best fit.  I talked to many people on campus to hear their opinions on the different companies.  I chose to intern with Caterpillar, because I like the way they do business and the way the treat their workers.  I also liked the project in which I was going to work.  I owe all that to my advisor because she was the one that help me be aggressive to achieve my goals. I have being impressed with Caterpillar so far.  They are always in contact with me, even thought I haven’t started working.  They sent me gift cards. And greeting cards to keep in touch.  They also flew me to their headquarters to visit and get a better feel for it.  They took me to eat to very nice restaurants and gave my great tour through the whole facility.  I was also amazed when I learned that I was selected top 35 prospect of Caterpillar.