LINKS

I wanted to be the president of something as soon I got here.  I wanted to have the experience of organizations and leadership.  But it was the summer and the elections were over.  There weren’t a lot of activities either, because it was the summer and the people were gone.  I approached my advisor and friend, Madeline Mercado and I told her I wanted to be an active member, and a future leader of the NOSOTROS/SHPE organization.  I wanted the experience of Michigan to be special and more that just a NOSTROS/SHPE, so I nominated myself to be a candidate and I was elected as the new Internal Representative of the organization.  It was all glory after that.  I got more involved in other organizations and events.  I became well known among the organizations and I started to get invitation to join other organization like Blue Key Honors Society and PAVLIS.  I also got promoted to manager of the hardware group of Integrated Microsystems Enterprise.  I was very proud of myself for being the only Hispanic in that organization, so I have participated in many volunteer activities.  Volunteer activities have been a blessing for me because I feel very good by helping the elderly with their activities, even thought I do this during my only day off: Saturday.

I was also selected to attend the inaugural SHPE/GEM GRE/GRAD LAB, in Denver Colorado.  This is basically a special program that takes place during the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Conference.  That was one of the biggest things I had ever done.  I attended many seminars during the program.  They were related to Graduate School. They reach all the benefits of Graduate School, and they also bring tops research professor from different part of the country to speak about life after getting a Bachelor’s.  I had the opportunity to speak with all those people, as well as representative from the White House that attended the program.  It was very helpful because I collected their business cards to keep in touch with them in case I needed help.

I attended a great seminar that focused on taking the GRE exam, which is basically like the ACT, but for Graduate School.  I have heard it was extremely difficult and I confirmed it there when I took a practice exam.  The questions covered the basic materials, but there were a lot of tricks.  After the practice exam, I attended a five hour session concentrating on hints to get good scores, where I learn the scoring process and the basic tricks, which helped me get a better understanding of the exam.

I have not only participated in official activities, but I had being part of the famous Winter Carnival and International Night.  Winter Carnival was a fabulous experience that I will never forget.  I participated on one of the coldest One-Nighters in the history of the Winter Carnival.  It was my first time so I didn’t wear a lot of layers.  I spent about four hours helping my organization accomplish their goal of building an Aztec head.  I finally gave up at about 2 am.  I couldn’t move my arms anymore.  I guess the statue wasn’t that bad because we ended up in 8th place.

International Night was a great event.  It is basically an event organized by the International Club.  It takes place every year at the Rosza Center, where groups from different parts of the world show off their ethnic dances and interesting cultures.  I represented the NOSOTROS Organization dancing meringue and salsa, along with three more couples.  We had late practices of two hours a day for about a month.  We were very confident before the show; until we found out that three was more than five hundred people in the crowd.  It was my first time doing something this big, so I was extremely nervous.  We were all nervous.  Our nervousness increased by the seconds.  We did about three small practices backstage and then we went out to the crowd to show the invitees the show we were practicing for weeks.  It was very intensive and nerve-racking because a wrong turn would’ve erased all those painful hours of practice.  We didn’t think about that at the time; we were all showing our skill and flavor that we got from our roots.  It was very rewarding to have the whole crowd go crazy at the end of the show.  People were very impressed with us.