HARLINGEN — The building blocks of life.
Such a term usually refers to matters of genetics and DNA, but it speaks equally well to the trajectory of Sophia Gonzales, 18, who plans to study engineering at Texas A&M University – College Station.
“I usually have like a building mind set,” said Sophia, a senior at UTRGV Harlingen Collegiate High School.
“I have always had that since I was little,” she said. “When I came to high school my sophomore year I joined the robotics club, so that’s actually what got me into all the building aspects. That’s what got me learning new technologies and learning how to program and make a robot and basically building whatever I want.”
While Sophia has had an interest in the building of things, she didn’t jump into her engineering studies right away. In fact, she didn’t really discover her interest in engineering until the following year. By that time the engineering pathway was already filled, she said.
But, she didn’t let that get in her way. She continued her business pathway while exploring robotics, perhaps giving her a sort of “double-major” at the high school level.
“I missed a little bit but I didn’t miss too much,” she said. “I still learned the basics of engineering.”
Specifically, she wants to study mechanical engineering, but at A&M she will have to first be in the general engineering track.
She’d like to pursue the mathematics of engineering, ironic considering she faced difficulties in that subject earlier in life.
“During middle school I didn’t really understand math,” she said. “I had a tutor who helped me so in my eighth grade year I got way better at math and I actually understood the concepts of the way of solving problems. I’m really a big problem solver.”
The result of that tutoring is a top math student who usually has a high A average in her math classes. She hopes to take that and her love of geometry into a big corporate workplace, that after speaking with other engineers about their career choices.
One in particular spoke of his participation in a billion-dollar project.
