I am an engineering student at the City College of New York. I was born in Villavicencio, Colombia but moved throughout different cities like Armenia, Pereira, and Cali before moving to the U.S at the age of five. During my brief period growing up in Colombia I had already faced major challenges, such as dengue fever, chemical poisoning and the 1999 Armenia earthquake. Moving the states along with my mother and brother was another challenge, but one that changed my life for the better. I was fortunate enough to have a mother that only allowed us to speak Spanish at home, and through that I was able to preserve my native tongue, a skill that has proven to be incredibly useful living in NYC.

Since I was a young I knew that I always wanted to be an engineer. My father was a telecommunications engineer in Colombia. His goal was to move our family to the U.S and continue his career in the states. Due to a variety of circumstances this dream was not able to come into fruition and my father was forced to stay behind. Although I did not have my father here, he was able to instill a love for math and physics within me during the summers we would go back to visit. Now that I am graduating, I’m glad to say that our shared dream is now possible and that I know that I can one day achieve my goal of becoming a chip designer.

Electrical Engineering

This is the career that I have chosen to study because it is broad and encompasses a lot of the things that I enjoyed learning in school when I was younger. I usually excelled in math and science while struggling in English classes. What I like about those topics is that a lot of those principles that I learned in the classroom have served me well in learning other things. Even jobs such as working in a restaurant were made easier using principles of engineering such as pipelining and parallel processing. Though my education has been very non-linear and unorthodox, I’m still grateful that I know what I know and that I can apply what is theoretical to challenges that come my way.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

I love doing physical activity that is dynamic and different every time. I chose to do this over going to a conventional gym because I find that to be too boring. Doing the same thing over and over again to me can be kind of mind numbing so I prefer to work out in such a way that changes every time. I think one day I aim to compete; not because I think I’ll go pro or anything, but I want to feel what it’s like to work through different stages of a tournament, face strong opponents, and have a team behind me cheering me on.

Music

This has played a huge impact in my life. When I was young, I found my first guitar in a dumpster Christmas morning covered by a thin sheet of snow. I brought it inside, cleaned it up, fixed it up, and still play it to this day. From this I began to learn how to play other instruments such as the piano, bass, and trumpet. While I don’t play a lot of those instruments anymore, I still try to make music through software such as Ableton. Music has always been an outlet in my life when I felt that I had nothing else. Only music can make me soar through the highest clouds and come crashing down in the depth of my emotional being.

Biking

In high school, the administration had taken away my school MetroCard. My first bike in the U.S. was one that I bought off my friend James — that’s where my journey began. My bike became an extension of myself. I started to ride my fixed geared bike and race all throughout NYC. Seriously, if you value your health, I wouldn’t advise trying to keep up. There is nowhere I can’t make it. I’ve gone as far as the lands of Flushing and returned unscathed from City Island. My bikes have served me well and have helped keep be healthy (when I’m not falling off) and kept money in my pocket from not having to pay for the train. You cannot tell the story of Luis and neglect to mention his trusty steed.