National Engineers' Week: MAE Major Valerie Quiroz Shares Her Story

As part of the UC Davis College of Engineering recognition of 2019 National Engineers' Week, several engineering faculty, alumni and students shared their personal stories about who introduced them to engineering. Here are some thoughts from MAE's Valerie Quiroz, who is a mechanical-engineering major, a biomedical-engineering minor and a staff member at the UC Davis TEAM Prototyping Lab:

"It’s hard to say who got me interested in engineering because I honestly didn’t know what engineering was until I got into college. If I had to answer that question, I would have to say all of my high-school math and science teachers pushed me toward the direction of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). All I knew when I was applying to college is that I wanted to create new things and help people in the process. I guess what I’m trying to say is that not one single person led me to engineering. It was a lot of small pushes by different people combined with a little bit of 'I want to save the world' mentality that got me here. My time at UC Davis has really given me something to be passionate about. What more could I want from a career than to be creative, build and apply my skills in math and science for the greater good? Ultimately, I am glad that engineering found its way to me."